That's really my main point.
These are high mileage cars, so there are no guarantees with air ride. It fails without warning. And when it does, it's very inconvenient and unnecessary.
Air Ride To Springs Strut Conversion
- Thread starter $500_Mark_VIII
- Start date
That's really my main point.
These are high mileage cars, so there are no guarantees with air ride. It fails without warning. And when it does, it's very inconvenient and unnecessary.
CobraStar_LS8
Dedicated LVC Member
wouldn't you wanna learn the whole air ride system when it starts to fail left and right???...It's your car and you should know it like the back of your hands...When something goes on my Marks I'll rather be the one who knows everything about a Mark VIII in the end than being the one who says "I don't know what's wrong, oh well, let's ditch the system"
99% of the air ride failures to NOT happen without warning.
more than 50% of the issue are caused by "procrastination".
in 400K miles I never had my air ride "suddenly fail" without giving me a fair amount of warning.
People just "hit the reset" on the check air ride message and keep driving until the system completly DIES.
That is not the fault of the system, by design it works really well.
a large majority of these cars made it to over 100K miles on the original air ride.ANY car is gonna need shocks/struts at or about that mileage interval..
A properly mantained "not ignored" system will last til 200K
I did it TWICE on my car, I got 200K out of the originals and 200K out of the replacements.
At Eddies prices that is 731 dollars for 200K miles of service.
Consider how much fuel you pump into a car to get to 200K and tell me 730 dollars isn't a good price for replacing the bags/struts.
400K =20,000 gallons of fuel at 3.00 a gallon
SO, 60K in fuel and you cant afford the 300.00 price difference between air ride and "springs"..
*shruggs*
7 dollar quarts of oil X 133 oil changes 5500 dollars worth of oil changes
8 sets of tire at 650.00 per set 5200 dollars in tires.
Yet.. 700 in suspension parts is "too expensive".
Kstills
Dedicated LVC Member
I understand your point.
However, struts that are weak and need replacing will generally still keep the car up in the air, allowing it to be driven. While it's not an optimal (nor safe) way to operate the vehicle, you are not stranded.
If the air ride dies (blowout, line break etc) then you are slammed and screwed.
I think that is what worries most folks, not the cost. My boys Mustang rides like crap, most likely because it's on struts that have 115k miles on them. But it can still be driven.
A lot of folks want to get in the car and drive, regardless of how smooth the ride might be.
But again, I get your point.
96hotrodlincoln
Dedicated LVC Member
Rant, Rant, Rant!