ArnottDoug

Arnott Air Suspension Products -- the leader in aftermarket air suspension parts and accessories -- is pleased to offer Remanufactured Right Rear and Left Rear Air Struts for the 2002-2009 Audi A8 (D3, TYP 4E) with Normal and Sport Suspension.

The struts feature an Arnott-engineered air spring bladder custom-designed to eliminate the O.E. reservoir. Remanufactured in the USA, each strut is thoroughly tested, cleaned, repainted and then rebuilt with new, heavy-duty crimping rings, new long-lasting O-Rings, new connector valve, new bumpstop, and new dust cover.

The four Arnottﾮ Part Numbers comprising the Right Rear and Left Rear Aftermarket Audi A8 Air Struts -- with Normal and Sport Suspension -- include:

-- AS-2958: Remanufactured Right Rear Air Strut with Normal Suspension

-- AS-2959: Remanufactured Left Rear Air Strut with Normal Suspension

-- AS-2965: Remanufactured Right Rear Air Strut with Sport Suspension

-- AS-2966: Remanufactured Left Rear Air Strut with Sport Suspension

The Remanufactured Air Struts retail for $719.46 each plus a $100 Core Deposit on each. Arnott is so confident in its remanufacturing process that it backs each strut with the company's renowned Limited Lifetime Warranty.

dvs_dave

Do these units retain the OEM dynamic damping control function?

Tstealth32

Interesting that they deleted the reservoir tank. I wonder what kind of impact that has on ride quality, if any. I'm guessing it's to save money.

You can pick up used rear struts on eBay for $80-200. Replace orings yourself for cheap, or buy the rear replacement bag and reservoir for $250 online.

I haven't found just a replacement air/oil strut yet, only the airbag assembly.

ArnottDoug

Arnott designed new struts do not interact with the vehicle's active damping system and in fact include a resister to turn off the suspension dashboard warning light. Arnott's new struts are new from the ground up including a custom valved shock damper designed and tested over a wide range of conditions to provide an excellent ride for this seven plus year old vehicle - even though it bypasses the Active Damping.

It is our experience that the active damping shocks in older vehicles (not just Audi) are one of the main failure points of the core struts. Here is a short video from the editor of ImportCar Magazine who discusses this topic: http://ow.ly/ykfw308cWPn

Arnott designed new struts are a cost-effective alternative to expensive brand new struts from the dealership or remanufactured OE Struts with an unknown number of miles. They still offer auto leveling and the comfort associated with air springs so they are a better solution than switching to coil springs - and you'll love the ride.

Brozee

Can you please elaborate on this bit? I have Arnott's replacement front air struts on my 05 A8. It maintains the MMI control over the air suspension. Are you saying that this would still use that system, however it wouldn't active dampen? I'm assuming if I were to replace the rears with Arnott's replacement that I would still maintain ride control height through the MMI

Automatic level, with an initial ground clearance of 4.7 inches
Dynamic level, with a ground clearance of 3.9 inches
Comfort level, with a constant ground clearance of 4.7 inches
Lift level, with a ground clearance of 5.7 inches

So therefore the system would operate just like OEM stock, besides the behinds the scenes (active dampening) in the rear?

Tstealth32

Exactly, ride height will change as I did before but comfort will not. The rebound rate is set to one setting. So you might as well just keep it in dynamic all the time vs comfort, unless you need the extra clearance.

Giovanni Giovino 6.0+6.0TT

Hello Brozee,

The height of the vehicle has nothing to do with the active dampening of the strut, the strut and the airspring are two separate systems/units mounted together as one, the airsprings give you lift, and the active dampening in the strut gives you control of the ride, firm or comfort.


I am sure you understand this, but the way Doug uses his wording is not clear at all, in fact I find it deceiving, starting from selling their "NEW" strut/air spring unit without telling people that the active dampening was removed, OR the fact that he stated and continuous to state that the "Struts are remanufactured", if you call testing and painting a strut remanufacturing, I can not write my thoughts here, what arnott does is as I have stated before, and so has Doug on an other board when questioned, they disassemble the strut/air spring, they test the strut (how, they do not say, electrically?), next they paint said strut, that is it for the strut, NOW they slide the new airspring onto said strut to complete the strut/airspring package, I am NOT sure everyone understands that they are two separate pieces combined to make the S/AS unit.


NOTE: Doug states this in a reply to me as can be seen below, "Many of our shocks are recharged and all are rebuilt with brand new longer lasting seals, O-rings", He is stating this on a Bentley forum and Bentley uses the same design as Audi, again he confuses the issue by using the word "shocks", well to me the strut is the shock, and we know they do nothing but test and paint the strut, you can not "recharge" an airspring.....


The next item that is really annoying is that back when we as members here talked about how Arnott claimed that our are active struts have a problem, "This new, not remanufactured, assembly replaces the OE strut and often problematic adaptive damping" and after 3 phone calls to get the straight answer on active vs. non-active, and then that this "problematic adaptive damping" was not true for our Audi's, that the technical service adviser was going to have a talk with the marketing dept. to have that removed as this is not the case with D3A8 struts, YET to date Arnott still uses that same exact wording on their site.


I also have a problem with the terminology used by Arnott, "testing and painting" is not rebuilding nor is it remanufacturing, I ask Doug to clarify, and here is what he said.


My statement,


Hello Doug, if this is you in-fact,

Please make it clear to all that when you state "remanufactured", what you mean by that statement, as my understanding is that your company rebuilds the air spring strut assembly by only replacing the failed part, and with your company that would ONLY have to do with the air spring, NOT the strut itself, and in the past you even stated that "we don't know the actual number of miles or the quality of those miles" on the strut of the air spring/strut assemblies you sell, so I believe the statement of "remanufactured" in incorrect, rebuilding is what your company does, as re-building is only replacing what caused the unit to fail , and in your case again you only do the air spring not the strut itself and not remanufacturing of the assembly to bring it to new specs as that is what remanufacturing is.


I bring this up because I myself have had conversations with many whom think that "rebuilt" means the unit as a whole has been gone through and had all wearable parts replaced and that the item is new as it is back to what new specs would be, and that is not the definition of rebuilt that I know, that would be "remanufactured" back to new specs on any and all wearable parts of any item.


Quote from Arnott site,


"Arnott now offers a completely remanufactured OE front right air strut, AS-2580, for the 2003-2012 Bentley Continental GT and the 2006-2012 Bentley Flying Spur. Arnott thoroughly tests, cleans and repaints the OE strut and then rebuilds it in the USA with a new heavy-duty air spring bladder manufactured by Continental ContiTech along with a new air valve and mount, terminal, connector valve and dust cover"


Thank you for your input.


Rebuilt Components
To rebuild is to recondition a part by cleaning, inspecting, and replacing only worn or broken parts.


"Remanufacturing is the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused, repaired and new parts.[1] It requires the repair or replacement of worn out or obsolete components and modules. Parts subject to degradation affecting the performance or the expected life of the whole are replaced. Remanufacturing is a form of a product recovery process that differs from other recovery processes in its completeness: a remanufactured machine should match the same customer expectation as new machines."



Quote:
Originally Posted by ArnottInc
Arnott has both remanufactured fronts and rears for the Bentley as well as Arnott designed new struts for the front. Arnott's new struts include a brand new shock which does not support the active damping but does support the vehicle's auto leveling.


https://www.arnottindustries.com/par...27_pid177.html




__________________
Johnny J J



Doug's comment,


"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Hotspur GT
"Please make it clear to all that when you state "remanufactured", what you mean by that statement, as my understanding is that your company rebuilds the air spring strut assembly by only replacing the failed part, and with your company that would ONLY have to do with the air spring, NOT the strut itself."



Hi,This is Doug (doug.taylor@arnottinc.com).

Within the automotive industry itself there is considerable debate about the differences between the terms "rebuilt" and "remanufactured." Some feel that while there may be no difference, "remanufactured" is a more appropriate term because it portrays the sophistication to which the industry has grown. Others prefer the term "rebuilt" because it more accurately describes the process of restoration of a used part. The bottom line is, the terms can be used interchangeably and mean the same thing.

Our engineers study the many used parts we buy in order to identify the most common failure points. Then we seek to improve upon those weaknesses. Arnott's remanufactured struts include only the original (core) strut/shock, wire protector boot and dust cover. The Core strut/shock is tested on a computerized testing machine. If it doesn't pass - it doesn't get used. We then deep clean it, sand off any rust and repaint it with corrosion resistant paint.

Many of our shocks are recharged and all are rebuilt with brand new longer lasting seals, O-rings, multi-ply ContiTech Air bladder and Voss Air Fitting (which are all improvements over the OE). We also use a new top mount, hose clip, terminal and housing, dust boot, bump stop and installation hardware. We don't know the true miles on the before we got it so all of Arnott’s remanufactured parts come with a limited lifetime warranty and 30-Day return policy if not completely satisfied.

I hope this helps with any confusion. Feel free to contact me or customer support anytime with questions or feedback. 321-868-3016"

TSHong

I've been in the automotive business for over 30 years. As I understand it, with rebuild parts, only worn out or broken parts are replaced while with remanufactured parts, have all internal parts replaced. A Reman alternator should have all internal parts replaced while only the outside casing is reused.

That being said my front Arnott rebuilt struts are performing flawlessly so far.

dvs_dave

So their struts consist of new airbags and their own spec conventional fixed rate damper. To get around suspension error lights, they've wired in a resistor in place of what is the active damping solenoid valve in an OEM spec damper. Ok I suppose if you don't care about one of the fundamental features of the A8's suspension system, the adaptive skyhook damping.

Not sure I agree with their statement that the D3 active dampers are problematic as I don't think I've ever heard of an instance of one failing on this board. Not saying they don't, but it's rare compared to airbag and o-ring failures which are essentially an inevitability.

Tstealth32

Makes sense why they deleted the rear reservoir, probably too hard to refurbish them because they are usually pretty rough looking.

Now we just need to figure out how to open the struts and recharge them. We already know how to replace the airbag ($200) and orings ($20) which are 90% of the problem.