The front left air spring on my 2011 5.0 S/C seems to have developed a minor leak this weekend (immediately before it's MOT...), and over the course of a few hours gracefully lowers itself onto the bump stops.

Thankfully it's so slow though that it still passed it's MOT today with flying colours and no advisories .

Given the vehicle has only done ~75k miles, what's the general consensus on replacing just the airbag (on both front struts), or is the wisdom to buy 2 complete new front strut assemblies? One local LR specialist I managed to get hold of on Saturday morning after finding this said they would just replace the whole strut rather than try to replace the air bag, as they reckon the latter just tends to give problems again fairly quickly.

Thanks,

Paul

I had to replace the air spring on my former 2004 4.4. Si I did the Airbags only deal but even after 3times dismantling and installing new seals it still kept leaking air. Finally I desided to change the entire strut. After this "adventure" I found in several forums that in most cases changing only the airbag isn't working the way it should.
Conclusion; I was trying to take the cheaper way and ended up on the expensive side.

I’d do complete struts, both sides. The right hand side airbag isn’t gonna be far behind it leaking I would imagine.

I have seen on here that folks sometimes have issues when just the bag is swapped.

That’s what I did on the TD6 I had, and never touched them again....

 2011 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8

Previous cars :
2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6
1999 Discovery Td5 ES
1995 BMW M5 3.8 6 speed
1992 Range Rover 3.9 Efi Vogue
1992 BMW M5 3.8
1988 BMW 735i SE
1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4 2.9i
1981 Ford Fiesta Supersport

Good news you passed Paul

. Cheers, Greg
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2011 Vogue SE 4.4 with lots of toys in Stornaway

Many thanks for the feedback guys - looks like complete struts it is then! I'd prefer to only do it once for the next few years...

Greg - yes, a successful MOT weekend for both of us . The sudden sinking air suspension did keep me up a bit last night though. I was really happy when the very helpful inspector couldn't give me a single thing that needed any attention - given the sudden air spring issue that developed the previous day I was having nightmares about everything failing on the test!

Paul it's our Range Rovers keeping us on our toes.
And letting us know who's in charge!

. Cheers, Greg
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2011 Vogue SE 4.4 with lots of toys in Stornaway

Yes, mine's obviously upset that in 2 years of ownership all it's needed beyond standard servicing is some front brake disks/pads, and now it's decided to show me who's boss...

Oh well, this looks like an easy enough job if the knuckle bolts come off, so will hopefully do this weekend if I can get the parts in time. Failing that, given I will need it the following weekend for a trip, I might have to get the garage to fit them.

I did the bags only, dead easy, no issues. What I was told was to use good replacement airbags (island 4x4) and I made sure the 'o' ring areas were clean and suitably lubed. Airbags stay up completely, even during 9 days of none use over Christmas. If the rest of the struts are OK just do the bags or sell the used struts on here for someone else to replace the bags. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

Thanks AJ - yours was one of the successful cases I'd read about on here, and one I was hoping to repeat.

But in the end after the feedback on here and various discussions I just ordered a pair of complete front struts from Island 4x4 (and replacement knuckle to strut bolts/nuts in case the threads get damaged when removing them) for the ultimate peace of mind. If they last another 8 years then it's a reasonable cost!

I'll definitely hang on to the old CVD struts, which other than one tiny pinhole leak on the left strut seem to work perfectly, in case anyone here does want them, or if I need to use in the future along with replacement air bags.

Sam at Island 4x4 was super helpful checking all the parts against my VIN to ensure they are definitely correct, and they are already dispatched late this afternoon, so hopefully fitting this weekend...

Having only ordered/paid yesterday afternoon, the big box of parts arrived at 10:00 this morning in Poole!

Superb service from Island 4x4, less than 24 hours from initial enquiry to delivery.

Now I suppose I just have to get on and fit them, hopefully this weekend.

Ah a fellow 5.0 owner - we seem to be a smallish club.

Good luck with the strut/aribag swap - hope it's all straightforward!

The most awkward part is holding the strut in a position whilst you connect the air pipe, really need an extra pair of hands. BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

WB - yes, given the ULEZ a 5.0 S/C is perfect for London . I'm expecting more converts soon! Although admittedly, the fuel mileage around town is dreadful - if I didn't mostly do mixed motorway journeys I'm not sure I could face seeing the mpg readout on the dash... Good 5.0's are so hard to find, especially given so few were sold originally compared to diesels.

AJ - super, thanks for that, will definitely get someone to help lifting/holding everything then. Did you change the fitting on the air pipe as some videos suggest, or just screwed straight back into the strut?

Yes hopefully they'll start going up in value!

Okay, so both front struts successfully (I think...) replaced today with new units from Island 4x4. It was clear why the front left one had developed it's slow leak last week, with a small tear in the bottom of the bag, and fairly aged looking rubber in general! Both front struts looked to be the original LR parts from 2011.

The first one took probably 2 hours working slowly to try and make sure I didn't do anything wrong, having never even had the front wheels off yet on this vehicle! But having learnt what to do, the second one the only took an hour, and everything seems to have gone smoothly. Judging by some of the articles on here and YouTube videos I was fairly lucky, as everything came out relatively easily, no need to use scaffolding pole extensions on the breaker bar, angles grinders or anything else. I did replace all the strut to knuckle bolts and nuts with new items also ordered from Island 4x4, and made sure they were torqued to spec.

In general, the write ups and videos were very helpful. I found it useful to have a second person on hand to help lift in the new strut whilst I connected the air line and then secure the top nuts whilst I held below. And as per some of the YouTube videos, I used a second jack on the opposite side to adjust the angle a bit to make getting the anti roll bar/sway bar in/out easily.

They don't tell you, but new struts don't come with a brake hose clip, and both the old ones broke when trying to get them off, so I'll have to try and order some new ones and put them in next week.

It survived it's first 30 min test drive this evening fine, so will hopefully get us back from Dorset to London tomorrow afternoon. After it's had a good clean...

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