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Air Suspension- repair, replacement, etc


Here is a rear air shock


Here is a front air strut.

Air ride is something common on a lot of luxury cars. These AC/AYs are no exception. I believe all Imperials, and most Nyer/5th Aves got rear air ride, while optionally all AC/AY's could get air ride (which is rear-only air suspension), or an entire air suspension.

These systems are computerized, and electronically speaking are pretty sound. I hear the air compressor can go after a while. The true problem is with what to do when these parts fail and need to be replaced. Like any suspension, parts ware and go bad.

The air struts, shocks, can ware out, get holes, etc. Sometimes the holes can be patched- but when they do finally die- they are pretty expensive. I believe the front struts are like $500 (US) EACH, and the rears may be a bit more.

Naturally, the cost of replacing all of these can be more then the value of an older, rusting, high mileage AC/AY. You could spring for new ones, or visit your local yards and get used ones. You'd want ones with the least amount of miles- but if things are cheap enough, you could grab several including spares so if one of the yard ones are bad, it doesn't matter. Often these cars end up in yards because the A604 is bad anyway, so chances are there is a tad more life left in the air ride parts.

 

Now if none of the above ideas are an option to you, you can also find in a yard a AC/AY without air ride, remove the suspension (struts, shocks, etc) and put them in your car in place of air ride. This would give you a traditional setup (which in the long term is MUCH cheaper to replace parts on....). If you put alot in your car and need additional support which the air ride was giving you, you can always purchase a set of air bags for the rear suspension for around $70 (US) and hook them up to the old air ride air compressor, disconnect the compressor's electronics, and run them through a push button on the dash. Push the button, compressor comes on, fills the air bags, etc.

You could make that setup even better by adding a set of air pressure gauges (one for each bag) so you know how much air is actually in the air bags (too much or too little is bad for the bags).

Alternatively, there is or was a company making rear air shocks for the EEKs (sold at JC Whitney) for abt $80 (for a kit). To the best of my knowledge, no one offers such a kit specifically for the front of an EEK.