[gunemalli]

Hi Folks,

I'm in quite a dilemma to choose what as i have to replace all my air springs. I read through forums as to see if some one else had asked but didn't find ( i'm sure someone else had asked earlier).

I'm one of the unlucky ones with my air bags i must say. The fronts are doing 70k kms and rears were replaced somewhere around 65k kms mark.
The previous owner hadn't looked after the baby much as he was not the one who did the driving, his dumb 'driver' did. All he knew was how to drive it and nothing more.

Also the air springs had a beating several months ago, that i had to drive home over 20kms on bump stops @12 midnight, returning home from a flight. sheesh.

Anyways, to the topic now. Which is better? Gen II or the OEM's? I wish i could go for Gen II but the budget prohibits me to do so.

Gen II would cost me around 280GBP for a full set and the OEM's around 250GBP w/o shipping.

Regards,
Gayan

 

[Spencer]

Gayan, I think this is the topic you were looking for below.....

http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26578&hilit=arnott

 

[RRToadHall]

I chose to stick with Dunlop over GenII with my replacements. GenII seem to have a few issues here and there where I have never heard of a Dunlop having a catastrophic failure . You really don't gain anything with GenII over Dunlop either.

 

[kmagnuss]

I went with gen 2 simply because they were cheaper...plus I liked the metal crimp ring. As far as ride, I couldn't tell a bit of difference, even though they are advertised as "the smoothest riding shocks available". Like toad said, some have had some problems with them blowing out for now apparent reason. Not a huge problem if you're close to home and know how to pull out a cotter pin (lifetime warranty IIRC)...but a huge problem if you're anti greasy fingernails.

 

[gunemalli]

@Spencer:
Thanks for the link. I think i got the overall picture. It was an interesting to read. It seems the GenII is faulty product which arnott designed it in a hurry to get it in stores. So i have made up my mind to go with the OEM's.

The main reasons being,
1. Gen III is out of my budget.
2. OEMs & Gen II have no significant difference
3. I found OEM's are cheaper than Gen II (Hence the more weight on OEM's)
4. Here in LKA the 95% of roads not well maintained and are not carpeted (smooth), some even have pot holes which you can swim in

I won't be doing any kind of off roading as many of you on this board. It's a luxury i can't afford. Here in LKA Range Rovers are considered as the most luxurious vehicles & VIP's own it, so would like to keep my rangie that way. (I'm no VIP tho he he heee)

 

[Rewmer]

I am going to say I have found my ride to be harsher with GEN IIs over the originals.

 

[Scotty]

Gunemalli, I thought you might want to see a recent letter I sent to Lisa Arnott.

Hey Lisa thank you for your response, I was able to get a hold of the owner of Land Rover Specialist. They are still in buisness, however, the owner said that he does not purchase the boots from Arnott. Further more he only keeps his records for three months. His warranty is only 90 days! Which leads me to the question: If Arnott warranty's their product for life but only to the purchaser, and the purchaser/dealer only warranty's the product and service for 90 days, then wouldn't it be safe to say the bags only have a 90 day warranty? it's pretty clear that regardless of Arnotts warranty, the installer/service provider has the ability to over ride your product warranty. That can't be good for return buisness. I'll tell ya Lisa, I'm taking a survey: Arnott or Dunlop. So far the results are leaning in Arnotts favor for 100% longevity, but failing in customer service and quality control. Most folks say that the Dunlops don't last as long, but their quality appears to be better then Arnotts. Here's the deal, most of my friends have Arnott bags, so regardless of how you handle my issue, I will purchase your product. Why? because I have several friends who sell your product and love it, so who am I to argue the point.. Lisa, I thought you might appreciate hearing from some of your customers, so I copy and pasted some of the responses for you .
( "Although Arnott sent the replacement no questions asked, the sales guy I talked to on the phone was less than friendly")
("I had arnotts on the rear for a month. BOTH blew out at the crimp ring within 5 miles of each other on a main road blocking traffic for over a hour")
(" I went with OEM (dunlop) and never had a problem")
("also had a bit of a fitment issue when installing mine, especially with the hose inlet appearing to be a little low. But, once installed, I'm not having much issues")
("Me neither, go OEM")
(" This is an interesting post; have read a lot of posts where people have had problems with Arnott springs. Is this just because people comment on 3rd party suppliers, is it because more people on the forum fit Arnott's than Dunlops or do they have more quality control problems?")
("Certainly from what I have seen on here Dunlop seem to have better Quality control")
("How easy is it to change just the rubber and save cash? ")
( "I supplied Arnott air springs for maybe 3 years in France. All my customers swapped to Arnott because of Dunlop quality problems.")
( "Arnott is the way to go ")

So there you have it. Lisa, I work for a company with a 178k employees, customer service is our number one goal. I always appreceiate hearing from the customer and use their feed back as a gauge to our own sucess.

Good Luck and Thank You

Scott...

 

[gunemalli]

Scott,

This is really interesting,

So were you able to get an answer to it?

So far i was only able to deduce that Gen II are bad compared to OEM's whereas the Gen III's excel compared to OEM's.

As i said in my previous post, Gen III cost me twice the price of OEM's and/or Gen II and has a harsher ride. I want to have a softer smoother ride @ normal height cos 95% of the roads here in LKA are like off roads

 

[Scotty]

I did not get the support I was hoping for from Arnott. However when talking to Dennis at Rover Renovations about my concerns, with Arnott, he simply said " I have a top I can send you at no charge" not only did he send it, he put new o-rings in it!! So the bottom line is, it's not the part as much as it's who you get it from!

Scotty

p.s. A week later my buddy at Westcoast Rovers gave me a set of Dunlops, and I am very happy with them. I will be sending the top back to Dennis...

 

[vinniman]

Gunemalli.

As I've also lives in the Third World or other Developing countries including working with fellow Sri Lankan Engineers, the OEM items would be the obvious choice going forward with your query, just make sure you get two complete sets so when one fails ?

For obvious reasons the mechanical coil spring route could be seen as the solution since I know the type of potholes you mean !

Let us know what you need & let's see if we can all help you out to keep your P38 Range Rover 'on the roads' in Sri Lanka dude.

Cheerio,


Vinniman
'88 Highline
Perth, W.A.

 

[gunemalli]

Hi Vincent,

Sorry for not replying to your email. Was quite bz at the time.

The current set of bags are not that bad. There are some cracks here & there. But they hold up well. Think they'll be able to do another 10-20k kms so i can keep them as my backup.

All 4 corners drops to bumps overnight on my rangie, even with EAS delay timer relay pulled out. She was fine before i did the L322 modification. Think something must've happened in the 1.5 months in the workshop. You know people, they don't care about things as we do. And as i said, the previous owner is a a$$. knew nothing of the systems.

Thanks for your inputs folks.

 

[996TURBO]

I am going to say I have found my ride to be harsher with GEN IIs over the originals.

Please compare new OEM with new GEN IIs. Even new OEMs are harsher than worn ones full of comfort holes

 

[996TURBO]

I chose to stick with Dunlop over GenII with my replacements. GenII seem to have a few issues here and there where I have never heard of a Dunlop having a catastrophic failure . You really don't gain anything with GenII over Dunlop either.

Does 2 years lifespan for a set of 2006 Dunlops is a catastrophic failure?

 

[gunemalli]

Does 2 years lifespan for a set of 2006 Dunlops is a catastrophic failure?

My dunlops lasted 11+ years i must say.


And to be honest, i'm very happy with how Arnott deals with their customers. I have asked several questions about Pricing for Gen II from their ebay store. All the replies i get are very vague & don't care type replies. Just a few words & that's it.

Again 2 years on Dunlop is much better than 5miles/10mins of Gen II's don't you agree?

 

[996TURBO]

Does 2 years lifespan for a set of 2006 Dunlops is a catastrophic failure?

My dunlops lasted 11+ years i must say.


And to be honest, i'm very happy with how Arnott deals with their customers. I have asked several questions about Pricing for Gen II from their ebay store. All the replies i get are very vague & don't care type replies. Just a few words & that's it.

Again 2 years on Dunlop is much better than 5miles/10mins of Gen II's don't you agree?

Yes from my stats, the 1995 Dunlops are a very good year because i've seen some lasting 14 years and 280.000 km.
But i also saw 2001 ones lasting 8 years only and 120.000 km
Do you understand drop of quality at Dunlop's

 

[gunemalli]

Yes i can see the math. If you look at mine and then again think about the math, you'll get completely bonkers.

11+ years and only done 65000 kms before the rears needed replacing. Now at 70,000km one of the front's have a bad crack. Now how does that fit in to the proposed formula?

So it's not the miles/years that matters most. It's the driver/owner. If s/he cared enough & did regular maintenance properly i think you can hit the 120k mark easily. Again as i see on many LR/RR sites and even on rr.net says the bags lifetime is around 80-120k.

 

[kanatejr]

Hi guys,

Finally it's time for my '96 for the springs changed too. After following all the guidelines on here (EAS timer out + F44 out + overnight & compressor runs for 10 mins with door open), I concluded that the compressor is weakening but one of the bags is definitely blown(?, only drops one corner over night). I think my dad swapped all the bags around, and possibly with some from wrecks in the mechanics shop.

So it is time for a complete overhaul. Now the issue is, OEM or Gen II. We have been leaning towards Gen II but after reading this thread + I have been trying to contact with Arnott for quotes on shipping but have yet to receive a reply. Should I wait it out + send them more mails or should I just go Dunlop OEM? Gen III has been ruled out as it is expensive and we do 99.99% on road.

Very much like everywhere else, RR parts here in Thailand are more expensive than gold and very limited number of mechanics who understand it (or those who don't steal your parts when parked in the workshop). I was thinking of importing direct, I have checked with Island 4x4 for the Dunlop OEM and shipping charges are GBP75 and that's a bit steep; I have yet to check with the US (Dennis?). Is there a Arnott reseller in UK?

Seems like I have written more than I intended with no direct questions. Apologies if I wasted your 3 mins!

Cheers,

KanateJR

 

[Selby P38]

G'day mate , I would stick with the Dunlop O/E for price.quality.My brother put in Arnotts 15klm ago is not happy with them they are cutting a groove in them in hwy mode,so there you go . Dunlops are better quality fit better and have same spec so why pay more for an aftermarket product :thumb:

 

[luvs2getmuddy]

I can't comment on the Gen II, but I just installed Gen III's in the rear, and WOW, what a ride difference. So much better.

 

[bonnychoo]

Hi guys,

Finally it's time for my '96 for the springs changed too. After following all the guidelines on here (EAS timer out + F44 out + overnight & compressor runs for 10 mins with door open), I concluded that the compressor is weakening but one of the bags is definitely blown(?, only drops one corner over night). I think my dad swapped all the bags around, and possibly with some from wrecks in the mechanics shop.

So it is time for a complete overhaul. Now the issue is, OEM or Gen II. We have been leaning towards Gen II but after reading this thread + I have been trying to contact with Arnott for quotes on shipping but have yet to receive a reply. Should I wait it out + send them more mails or should I just go Dunlop OEM? Gen III has been ruled out as it is expensive and we do 99.99% on road.

Very much like everywhere else, RR parts here in Thailand are more expensive than gold and very limited number of mechanics who understand it (or those who don't steal your parts when parked in the workshop). I was thinking of importing direct, I have checked with Island 4x4 for the Dunlop OEM and shipping charges are GBP75 and that's a bit steep; I have yet to check with the US (Dennis?). Is there a Arnott reseller in UK?

Seems like I have written more than I intended with no direct questions. Apologies if I wasted your 3 mins!

Cheers,

KanateJR

Huh, you don't know when you've had it SO GOOD. Wait till you see how expensive RR parts prices are in Malaysia.