Hi everyone,

This is my first post here so please forgive my newbieness.

A few months ago I bought my beautiful 05 Bentley Continental GT. It's a stunning car and I love driving it. It's only covered 54k genuine miles, one owner from new (before me) and the mileage is backed up by a full main dealer service history.
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I now need to replace the front air struts due to a leak in the front right unit. The main dealer quoted over £5000 to replace and I'm not prepared to pay that for the front struts.

My local independent service agent had initially declined to replace the air struts as they felt that it would require software to adjust the levels afterwards.

Having read some of the other posts, I see that Arnotts make a replacement unit. A different independent service agent 200 miles away said that he has replaced them on two different Continental GTs in the past few weeks and used Arnott parts. He said that they were just plug and play replacements and no software interaction was required.

My questions are:

1) Is special software required or are Arnott air struts truly plug and play?

2) Will I be able to adjust ride height / stiffness as before if I use these units?

3) Will I get any warning lights / alarms?

If the Arnotts are plug and play, my local independent service agent said that he will do the job.

On a separate note, I got a 'Service in 2000 miles' message on the instrument panel but am unsure how to determine which item e.g. oil, brakes etc is triggering this message. Is there any way of accessing this menu to find out what is required?

Thanks very much in advance for your advice 🙂

 

I don’t want to pee on your parade but the exterior shine and low odometer reading are pretty meaningless with prospective BGT ownership .
Agree if it was something like a Renault Clio .

Re the air-springs the ride is set / controlled bt the sensors .So I think ( happy to be corrected ) if theses sensors are simply passed on to the new struts then any CPU that controls the suspension will in effect never know ?
I think that’s why some say there’s no need for any computer soft where with new struts .....hence plug n play .....in theory ?

How ever returning to my first paragraph above ....pay particular attention to the suspension bit of this below .....Bentley issues





Heavy cars with a lot of weight up front + age so figure most of this ....Suspension bushes , lower arm and both upper , have short lives compared to “ normal “

Power steering pipes corrode there are three , two fairly easy one may need heat .If that fails a new rack .Track rod ends .Geometry ....absolutely important the difference between correct set up and a little off is huge in terms of steering feed back and overall feel of the car. Alloy radiator in a salted road environment has a life it will corrode and leak .Poly bent is life d for 10 years .Its tensioners too ought to be replaced at the same time ....this is a front end + rad off job .Alternator coolant pipes £2 gasket perishes at about 10 + years onwards ....leaks and kills it - another front end “ off “ job .

Exhaust gas temp sensors - actually it’s the wiring that heat degrades .

Scuttle drains blockage = complete engine ECU destruction.

Aircon drip tray drains blockage = wet relay box under the front passenger foot well and damp key less go relays = burnt out starter motor ( amongst other things ) .New starter motor requires engine out @ £5 k + mostly labour .

Blocked rear boot lid or loose drain tubes = boot fills up with water = knackered suspension air pump = dropped wheels making recovery v difficult.

Various aircon HVAC micro motors control flaps not working = poor temp control.Rear spoiler wires in the umbilical fracturing = rear spoiler packing up .

Front hood latch miss alignment = broken micro switch in the sensors .

Chartwells body shop has a steady steam of repairs to the A pillar when bonets fly up inadvertently.

Inner front disk corrosion as the inner pistons cease and don’t press hard enough = mot hassles.Head light washer inoperable due to coagulation of dissimilar fluids restricting the pipe diameter and insufficient pressure to operate.

A host of check engine lights due to low voltage “ house battery “ and stuff like widows dropping when ECU s run low on volts .

EPB hassle like any other VAG car —- Mostly a water ingress issue.

Seat back locked micro switches fracturing , Front hood closed micro switch failure .

Some historic stuff ( as most will have had it repaired by now ) 3 rd brake light water ingress = fails .Headlining drops glue deteriorated.I guess all older inc 04 /05 will be on @ least the 2nd set of vac pipes .The replacement part is same plastic ......so a 12/14 plater is maturing nicely waiting to start leaking .

Apart from ^^^^^ . They are great .



Keep it undercover and on a trickle charger .



Oh mileage .....irrelevant as the W12 is bomb proof ...it’s the rest of the car so buy on history ....a deep detailed history .To see where you are , get on so to speak - on the perpetual merry go round of replace / repair .



https://differentcarreview.com/2019/...pur-2003-2012/

 

Your local spanner guy needs the VAG soft where ....even replacing the rear pad ( correctly) he’s gonna need to able the back off the pistons .
Otherwise you need to be a competent DIY er or be prepared to have your eyeballs removed @ the Bentley dealer .

 

Congrats on the purchase!!

Do a search on air suspension. There are atleast 4 threads that talks about Arnott. I personally would not use them until they actually said in writing that their air struts retained ALL of the suspension functions. You will get the ride height but not the comfort functions. They use a resistor to “fool” the car to think it’s has this functionality. Do your research. When I did my struts, I used Aerosus. You get all your functions with these. Yes they are more then Arnott but cheaper then the dealer. I have no mechanical skills but can turn a wrench and I did mines myself, with the help from a friend. It’s nothing special about them. Just like any other car now that I have done mines. It’s a few videos by Arnott on our cars that shows you how to do it on YouTube. They only thing they left out was you will need all the clearance possible to take the strut out so you have to disconnect your sway bar links so your lower control arm drops another 3 inches and it will slide right out.

While they are under there and have them out, might as well change the control arms, all of them, so you can have a fresh start with them.

I agree. He must don’t do any cars that uses the VAG software. I wonder how much money he’s turning away because he doesn’t want to spend a few thousand on the shop version of the software.

Since you have the car, you might as well invest in the RossTech software. Atleast you will have it and you can let your mechanic use it to fix your car if need be (rear brakes like Mr. John stated). It’s a solid investment if your going to keep the car awhile. It’s only a few hundred. Well worth it.

 

Thank you John for taking the time to respond and advise, much appreciated.

 

Thank you TeamJones1962, I appreciate your advice also. I have read about the Aerosus units and will revisit in the light of your advice.

 

My independent service agent has previously read and cleared errors and has also replaced the front and rear brake pads. He had a tablet type diagnostic reader with a wireless dongle. The software that he had even had specific Bentley capability. I dont know if this is Rosstech or VAG com but it sounds like he has the necessary software but for some reason is hesitant to do the work.

 

I removed both my front struts a couple of weeks ago in order to be able to replace the upper suspension arms which are bolted to the strut mount.

The struts are effectively plug and play, because the ride height sensor is body-mounted, and from there measures the position of the lower suspension arm, therefore the air suspension ECU simply demands air pressure to the strut until the appropriate ride height is reached. There is no measurement of the strut itself.

However, once the weight is put back on the wheels there will be a warning message on the dash to the effect that there is a suspension problem and the car should be taken to a workshop.

I cleared the fault message using VW’s Offboard Diagnostic Information System which is their current software covering all VW brands.

I got a copy of the software and a bluetooth interface for the OBD socket for a little over £40 delivered, from aliexpress. (A word of caution though: the software is clearly hacked and/or cracked so I would only run it inside a virtual machine, in order to protect the host computer. )

As someone else has mentioned, whilst replacing the struts I would consider getting the upper suspension arms replaced at the same time. You can get OEM i.e. ZF/Lemforder/Alfot parts with the four Audi rings machined off for £75 each from autodoc (there are two arms per side).

When disconnecting the two upper arms from the upright there is the “pinch bolt from hell” to contend with, but I found that using a breaker bar to snap the head off, and then using the nut against a pile of greased washers to pull the stump through, meant that I could get it out in less than five minutes.

The other reason for recommending that you replace the upper arms is that it means that one can be more brutal when separating the ball joints from the upright if one knows that the ball joints will not need to be refitted.

The Anti Roll Bar drop links, if you decide to replace those as well, are unfortunately not common to any Audi product so you’ll have to buy Bentley parts if you decide to replace them. I got a pair from HR Owen for £120.

Overall I would say that the strut change is a pretty simple job, and should take no more than a couple of hours per side, but you or your mechanic will need a copy of Bentley IETIS to get the torque settings and extension angles for all the bolts, and the correct angles for the suspension arms prior to tightening. (To avoid breaking the rules of this forum I shan’t post a link, but a bit of googling should find it for you.)

Finally, my understanding is that the Arnott units do not provide variable damping, and instead contain a resistor to fool the suspension ECU into believing that the solenoid is still fitted inside the damper, so you don’t get fault codes, but equally you don’t get the full capability of the car.

 

Thanks very much Dark Green for the response. I'm very much leaning towards Areosus at the moment. The upper control arms were replaced by the original owner 18 months ago. Is it likely that a qualified mechanic would do the replacement incorrectly in the absence of the official torque / extension angle settings? What would be the consequence of not having / using this information? I have no problem buying the manual but just want to consider the consequence of e.g a mechanic choosing not to read the information.

 

No need to buy the manual unless you just want it. A few of us have it already and wouldn’t mind giving you the specs.

 

Hello Dark Green,
Just so others may fully understand your comment "There is no measurement of the strut itself", as when first reading it may throw some off as it did me until I got to the very end of your post, the height sensors do feed each corners height and levelness along with speed input from other sensors to the suspension CM to tell the struts active dampeners how to react to road conditions, and finally, your "Finally" is spot on !

Johnny

 

Thank you very much for your kind offer TeamJones1962, I would be very grateful. Thank you once again.

 

Thank you Johnny and Dark Green, I'm learning with each response and I am grateful to everyone on this forum for sharing your expertise.

 

Sorry for my lack of clarity earlier. I wasn't for one moment suggesting that the OP should buy it, when there are plenty of free download sites which contain it.

 

As I've posted just now: apologies for my lack of clarity which led you to infer that I was I suggesting that you buy it. Will PM you...

My concern is that an experienced mechanic is possibly more likely to do it up until "that feels about right", whereas a conscientious amateur will follow the instructions to the letter.

Most of the VW suspension bolts are tightened to X Newton metres torque (pounds feet in the colonies) and then through a further Y degrees. For example the upper arm bolts are, from memory, 50Nm and then 90 degrees.

Also, the upper arms have to be set at a precise angle prior to tightening (this is off the car remember). One is 9 degrees and the other is 10 degrees. Doing this ensures that at the correct ride height there is the appropriate lack of preload on the rubber bushes.

When I mentioned this to a chum who is a very capable professional mechanic, his response was "yeah, right, and how many main dealer mechanics do you think bother with that...?"