This post is about my recent experience swapping out the old air springs on my ride. Short story: after a several days they seem to be operating great.
'06 Denali 5.3L SWB 145k km (90k miles)
Symptoms: occasionally the rear of the vehicle would be on the bump stops (full deflation) after sitting overnight. Sometimes it would hold fine for 2 days without moving. The problem appeared to be exacerbated by cooler weather but this was hard to pinpoint. It was noted also that, once in a while the compressor would run more frequently during travel (at stop lights). The compressor was always working well. The inconsistent losses of air made me second guess if it was the air bags or the compressor check valves. The problem began to slowly get more frequent.
I sprayed the air bags liberally with soapy water and could not detect any air leaks increasing my doubts that the bags were the problem. However, the more posts I read on the net about the variable nature of the problem, that bags do wear out after a while (mine being 10+ years old), and the apparent weather checking on the bottom of the bags lead me to replace the bags regardless if they were the problem or not as they were likely due or nearly so and I wanted to decrease risk of problems due to towing a 24' travel trailer. This would also give me chance to inspect the bags.
I order the bags by going to Arnott website. Living in Canada I was happy to
see "Canadian customers can place orders online or may call 1-800-251-8993". (http://arnottcanada.com/default.aspx) This was in the end misleading as this number routed to me to the order desk in Florida.
The order desk gentleman took my order and assured me that my order would ship from Canada. In confirming the parts I wanted he read out the part number. I corrected him with the part number that is listed on their site. He was nearly indignant and corrected me. Apparently the published part numbers on their website have no correlation to the part number you order. Anyway, got that straightened out. The gentleman had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned a GMTNation discount. He had never heard of GMTNation and had no idea what GMT was and seem dubious about my explanation that it was GM's platform designation. I found the post here from Arnott I provided the GMSAVE10 discount. This finally applied the discount without issue and the order was completed. I inquired if they sold air lines and they do not.
The Canadian warehouse is only an hour from my house so the shipping was only $20! The currency exchange was brutal but that isn't Arnott's fault. Add in the outrageous taxes and the total to my door was $338 for a pair of bags. (Far better than the $1200 dealer quote).
I ordered noon on Tuesday and the bags were on my front step when I got home from work on Wednesday. Nice.
As predicted in other threads the air bags were reasonably easy to remove short of the stubborn line fitting. That is reasonably well documented in other places. I will reiterate to not overtighten air fittings. Other threads had indicated that there was a loud popping noise when air up the new bags. I didn't experience this. I did ensure that the new bags were properly seated at the top and lowered the vehicle carefully and seated them on the bottom and did not lower the truck all the way down. The air compressor ran for quite a while, at least a minute, maybe a minute and half, and the truck came up. Since then it has been fine, the compressor now only runs after the truck has been off a while and doesn't run very long. I’m cautiously optimistic that the new bags have solved the problems.
One thing: the Arnott bags have a removable brass air fitting - don't remove this as it will allow a small ferrule to come out of position. You need only insert the line and do a tug test to ensure it is in properly. If you are reading this and already have removed this fitting, the ferrule has one side that is tapered (conical) and this side faces the removed fitting. Do not over tighten the fitting upon reassembly.
Hope that provides a small insight into what to expect.
'06 Denali 5.3L SWB 145k km (90k miles)
Symptoms: occasionally the rear of the vehicle would be on the bump stops (full deflation) after sitting overnight. Sometimes it would hold fine for 2 days without moving. The problem appeared to be exacerbated by cooler weather but this was hard to pinpoint. It was noted also that, once in a while the compressor would run more frequently during travel (at stop lights). The compressor was always working well. The inconsistent losses of air made me second guess if it was the air bags or the compressor check valves. The problem began to slowly get more frequent.
I sprayed the air bags liberally with soapy water and could not detect any air leaks increasing my doubts that the bags were the problem. However, the more posts I read on the net about the variable nature of the problem, that bags do wear out after a while (mine being 10+ years old), and the apparent weather checking on the bottom of the bags lead me to replace the bags regardless if they were the problem or not as they were likely due or nearly so and I wanted to decrease risk of problems due to towing a 24' travel trailer. This would also give me chance to inspect the bags.
I order the bags by going to Arnott website. Living in Canada I was happy to
see "Canadian customers can place orders online or may call 1-800-251-8993". (http://arnottcanada.com/default.aspx) This was in the end misleading as this number routed to me to the order desk in Florida.
The order desk gentleman took my order and assured me that my order would ship from Canada. In confirming the parts I wanted he read out the part number. I corrected him with the part number that is listed on their site. He was nearly indignant and corrected me. Apparently the published part numbers on their website have no correlation to the part number you order. Anyway, got that straightened out. The gentleman had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned a GMTNation discount. He had never heard of GMTNation and had no idea what GMT was and seem dubious about my explanation that it was GM's platform designation. I found the post here from Arnott I provided the GMSAVE10 discount. This finally applied the discount without issue and the order was completed. I inquired if they sold air lines and they do not.
The Canadian warehouse is only an hour from my house so the shipping was only $20! The currency exchange was brutal but that isn't Arnott's fault. Add in the outrageous taxes and the total to my door was $338 for a pair of bags. (Far better than the $1200 dealer quote).
I ordered noon on Tuesday and the bags were on my front step when I got home from work on Wednesday. Nice.
As predicted in other threads the air bags were reasonably easy to remove short of the stubborn line fitting. That is reasonably well documented in other places. I will reiterate to not overtighten air fittings. Other threads had indicated that there was a loud popping noise when air up the new bags. I didn't experience this. I did ensure that the new bags were properly seated at the top and lowered the vehicle carefully and seated them on the bottom and did not lower the truck all the way down. The air compressor ran for quite a while, at least a minute, maybe a minute and half, and the truck came up. Since then it has been fine, the compressor now only runs after the truck has been off a while and doesn't run very long. I’m cautiously optimistic that the new bags have solved the problems.
One thing: the Arnott bags have a removable brass air fitting - don't remove this as it will allow a small ferrule to come out of position. You need only insert the line and do a tug test to ensure it is in properly. If you are reading this and already have removed this fitting, the ferrule has one side that is tapered (conical) and this side faces the removed fitting. Do not over tighten the fitting upon reassembly.
Hope that provides a small insight into what to expect.