Hello Bentley fans,

I recently swaped some cars for a 2004 Bentley Continental Mansory GT63 and boy do I wish I did my homework. Upon getting a check engine light it was determined that the engine and transmission needed to be R & R to replace a bad lamda sensor and the vacuum lines in order to get the car California smogged. Custom vacuum lines were installed with 4 new lamda sensors and a new starter. The car now passes smog.
I am noticing a vibration while accelerating mostly while going up hills as well as the front suspension is dropping down over night (more on the right side then left and slightly on the right rear. I am having the car diagnosed on Monday and I am unsure if these problems were there before we addressed the check engine light issue. I have been reading your forums and suspect it is the front airbags and upper control arms and have the following questions. Any addition feedback or further information would be appreciated. The car has 45,000 miles on it
1. If the front airbags need to be replaced could I use the Aerosus bags that run about $670 each and the old struts? If so, is it a lot of labor to assemble the struts and bags together?
2. Could something the mechanic did while the motor and trans was being R & R'd be causing the vibration?

Best,
Jim

 

When looking for air suspension parts for my Range Rover Sport, I saw a ton of recommendations for RMT. Seems like they're a reputable company in the Rover world, and their prices seem really good (many prices are for pairs).

Check out the prices here:

https://rebuildmastertech.com/bentley/bentley-air-suspension-parts/continental-gt-gtc-2003-2012-3w/

 

I put RMT rebuilt struts on the front of my Phaeton this year (same suspension basically). After return of core charge, I think they were like $450/strut net. I hear good and bad things about RMT but everything is OK so far, and buying remanuf struts (as opposed to some manufs new struts -like Aerosus for example) preserves the adjustable suspension feature. The 'new' struts usually do not have the adjustable feature, so you lose that.

 

Samhain, are you saying that RMT maintains all functionality but companies like Aerosus don’t?

 

Depends on the product. Any company offering refurbed OEM struts will preserve the adjustable suspension feature, since they use the OEM strut. The companies offering *new* struts typically do not have the same valving as the OEM and thus lose the adjustable suspension feature. However, there was some posting a while back about a new product from Aerosus which does preserve the adjustable suspension feature.

I went with RMT refurbed and they seem just fine. My OEM ones lasted 171k miles.

 

I posted a while back after phones calls and emails with arnott and Aerosus, it was Aerosus that stated that their new units do 100% retain all OEM features, such as the adjustable ride valving.
It was arnott's new design that did not retain the adjustable valve but instead has a fixed valve, arnott did that to cut cost and pass the savings on to the consumer.....

 

Anyone have some answers to my specific situation?

Hello Bentley fans,

I recently swaped some cars for a 2004 Bentley Continental Mansory GT63 and boy do I wish I did my homework. Upon getting a check engine light it was determined that the engine and transmission needed to be R & R to replace a bad lamda sensor and the vacuum lines in order to get the car California smogged. Custom vacuum lines were installed with 4 new lamda sensors and a new starter. The car now passes smog.
I am noticing a vibration while accelerating mostly while going up hills as well as the front suspension is dropping down over night (more on the right side then left and slightly on the right rear. I am having the car diagnosed on Monday and I am unsure if these problems were there before we addressed the check engine light issue. I have been reading your forums and suspect it is the front airbags and upper control arms and have the following questions. Any addition feedback or further information would be appreciated. The car has 45,000 miles on it
1. If the front airbags need to be replaced could I use the Aerosus bags that run about $670 each and the old struts? If so, is it a lot of labor to assemble the struts and bags together?
2. Could something the mechanic did while the motor and trans was being R & R'd be causing the vibration?

Best,
Jim

 

Wow...so Aerosus is just doing the kits now. When I bought mines from them they sold the whole strut/bag together. I guess parts are becoming scare.

 

Hi @Johnny Hotspur GT

Any idea on how much work it is to install new airs bags on my existing struts?

 

See Louis's thread from AW.


.

 

Also, note that Louis did not have a leaking bag, but instead leaking O-rings on the strut itself as seen in the video, others on AW have replaced just the o-rings with success.

JJJ

 

So a leaking O ring will also cause the suspension to droop?

 

Yes, a leaking O-ring will allow the vehicle to drop.
Did you watch the video ?
Here are some screenshots showing the top O-ring leaking (bubbles), if you spray the bottom of the strut and get bubbles, it is the lower O-ring.


JJJ

...

 

Johnny,
Just watched the whole video regarding the airbags. Very helpful. Thank you.

 

Johnny just ordered the 2 airbags from Aerosus. Here is what the order looked like. My mechanic is going to charge me 8 hours for the job. I figure if I am going to pull and breakdown the struts I might as well do the airbags. Anybody happen to have a part number on the upper and lower O Rings?Bentley Continental GT / GTC / Flying Spur Residual Pressure Holding Valve Front Sku: 163589-2



Bentley Continental GT / GTC / GT3-R / Flying Spur / Supersports Front Suspension Air Spring (Left or Right) Sku: 169002 for 2

Subtotal

$1,167.00

Shipping & Handling

$0.00

Tax

$0.00

Discount

-$112.00

Grand Total (Incl.Tax)

$1,055.00

Thank you!