Arnott rear air spring issues and Fix

[BayouHambo]

After 8 years I finally had to replace my rear air springs on my 2015 Limited ED. Both air springs developed pinhole age cracks ( tested with soapy water). I chose Arnott part A-3016 for the rear and also decided to change out the front ones too due to age, Did this July of 2022 with Ram dealer, me supplying parts. September of 2023, 14 months later, while returning from a camping trip pulling my 5600 # camper, my right rear Arnott air bag blew about 50 miles from home! Orielly’s supplied the replacement air bag under warranty, but I had to pay dealer labor and nitrogen charge. Two weeks later the other air bag blew while pulling the camper!! But this time I was 200 miles from home. I pulled the compressor fuse so not to overheat the compressor and crippled back home at 50 mph. Orielly‘s replaced the left one under warranty and I incurred the dealer labor and nitrogen charge yet again. Orielly’s attempted to get Arnott to pay for the labor, but Arnott refused, warranting just the part. 8 years on Mopar air springs, no problem pulling my 2020 camper for a couple years on a Mopar. Fast forward to this past April, 2024, I headed out on another camping trip and blew the second right rear air bag not 20 miles from the house, ( 7 months on these air bags and we know they should handle the load that Mopar handled.). I immediately called my Local Orielly‘s from the road and crippled directly back to the Store. I found the mgr just getting off the phone with an engineer at Arnott. That Oriell’s man went to bat for me! After his explaining to Arnott all that has transpired since July of 2022, the engineer told him to replace both air springs with a second generation model 4008 Air spring, not to go back with the A-3016 that the computer pulls up. The Arnott engineer said that it is rare to come out with a second generation air bag, but they did. Now I know they don’t just spend all that money on redesign and fabrication IF there was not a problem. SO, if you need to replace your air springs with Arnott, request the second generation, part # 4008, not what shows up on the computer. I’ve got the new ones installed and am heading onto the maiden camper voyage for Memorial Day. As for Orielly’s, they got my loyalty. That manager explained all we went through to his regional management and request some financial assistance for me and they covered the labor cost for both air springs. We sent both of the model A-3016 air springs back to Arnott for evaluation, remember only one of them failed, but it failed at the rubber to end AP joint just like the previous four failures. This is my first post on the forum and I hope it helps someone. Sorry for the lengthy thesis.

 

[John Jensen]

Welcome to the forum.
it's always nice to hear about a good ending. It says a lot about Orieilys and their manager.

 

[BTdriver]

2nd: Welcome to the forum and thanks for the positive report. The people at Oreilly have given me similar experiences as well.

 

[Mesatoneman]

Hello BayouHambo and welcome. If you don’t mind me asking, What did a dealer charge you for a nitro recharge ? I recently started noticing my rear driver side sagging after parking and sitting for awhile unless I park it in off road 1. I tow a camper but haven’t since noticing the sagging. Sounds like I shouldn’t tow till repaired. Thanks

 

[dfsagafgfdgfd]

After 8 years I finally had to replace my rear air springs on my 2015 Limited ED. Both air springs developed pinhole age cracks ( tested with soapy water). I chose Arnott part A-3016 for the rear and also decided to change out the front ones too due to age, Did this July of 2022 with Ram dealer, me supplying parts. September of 2023, 14 months later, while returning from a camping trip pulling my 5600 # camper, my right rear Arnott air bag blew about 50 miles from home! Orielly’s supplied the replacement air bag under warranty, but I had to pay dealer labor and nitrogen charge. Two weeks later the other air bag blew while pulling the camper!! But this time I was 200 miles from home. I pulled the compressor fuse so not to overheat the compressor and crippled back home at 50 mph. Orielly‘s replaced the left one under warranty and I incurred the dealer labor and nitrogen charge yet again. Orielly’s attempted to get Arnott to pay for the labor, but Arnott refused, warranting just the part. 8 years on Mopar air springs, no problem pulling my 2020 camper for a couple years on a Mopar. Fast forward to this past April, 2024, I headed out on another camping trip and blew the second right rear air bag not 20 miles from the house, ( 7 months on these air bags and we know they should handle the load that Mopar handled.). I immediately called my Local Orielly‘s from the road and crippled directly back to the Store. I found the mgr just getting off the phone with an engineer at Arnott. That Oriell’s man went to bat for me! After his explaining to Arnott all that has transpired since July of 2022, the engineer told him to replace both air springs with a second generation model 4008 Air spring, not to go back with the A-3016 that the computer pulls up. The Arnott engineer said that it is rare to come out with a second generation air bag, but they did. Now I know they don’t just spend all that money on redesign and fabrication IF there was not a problem. SO, if you need to replace your air springs with Arnott, request the second generation, part # 4008, not what shows up on the computer. I’ve got the new ones installed and am heading onto the maiden camper voyage for Memorial Day. As for Orielly’s, they got my loyalty. That manager explained all we went through to his regional management and request some financial assistance for me and they covered the labor cost for both air springs. We sent both of the model A-3016 air springs back to Arnott for evaluation, remember only one of them failed, but it failed at the rubber to end AP joint just like the previous four failures. This is my first post on the forum and I hope it helps someone. Sorry for the lengthy thesis.

Ive had a similar story and just had the version 2 fail and had to share. I happy to see it isnt just me. This is the 4th failure of the Arnott rear airbag in as many years!

Over the last 3 years Ive had the first version arnott airbag fail 3 different times while towing. After developing a slow leak in the stock rear airbags, I chose to replace them with Arnott as they seemed like a decent mid-level option After about a year, I was towing my <5000lb camper about 100 miles from home and one popped at higway speeds. I thought it was a tire at first. The plastic housing on the top failed and it blew up. I couldn't get a warrenty replacement because I had bought it on Amazon and they said it wasnt a certified reseller. Since the other was was still good, I bought a replacement and installed it. The next year towing a trailer with shingles to the land fill, it blew up as I was pulling on to the on ramp of the interstate. Similar failure - the plastic housing "seam" failed.

I dont recall if arnott sent me a new one or what, but it was replaced. The next year, towing our <5000 lb camper 1200 miles from home, one blew up again. Arnott wanted me to send them the broken one before sending me a new one, but that wouldn't work. So I ordered a cheap ($100) one on amazon amd had it sent to the campground we were staying it. I replaced in there. After a month or more of back and forth with arnott they sent me a new version. But I couldn't just replace one side, so I had to buy the other side. The new ones seemed to have a much more substantial plastic caps with no more "seams". I had both replaced and save the cheap one for a backuo since it drove 2000 miles without any issues. Both sides on the rear were replaced and we probably towed another 2000 miles with the same trailer.
I had my rear axel replaced about 6 months later for an unrelated issue amd towed a couple more times without issue.
The last week, 1400 miles into out 3500 mile trip (towing the same camper), while accelerating from a stop sign, an airbag popped! The bottom cap was on the road amd the other side came out off of the pedestal it sits on, but remained inflated. We limped to the campground expecting the remaining one to pop due to its positioning out of place. I had to order two more and removed both and rode on thr bump stops, towing, for another 300 miles. The failure this time was different; the collar that holds the airbag to the platic housing failed- I dont know where it went, so Im not sure how it failed. On the other side, that didnt fail, I noticed the collar appears to no longer be tight to the plastic housing and is sliding down.

I am trying to figure out what is going on, but we are riding in normal mode, so the pressur isn't as high as it would be in OFFROAD 1 OR OFFROAD 2, our trailing is well within the weight rating of the truck - it is a single axel RV.

I am now an expert at installing these, but it has been so inconevinient. Im considering going to springs, but have $1000 of new airbags installed. The fronts are OEM and fine at 130,000 miles.

I conclude that in every case, the build quality just cant withstand the needed pressures and something fails. The airbags themselves seem to be strongs, but the attachment mechanics now seems to be the weak point.

Just design them to bear 2x the maximum weight/pressures the truck is approved to handle and they should be fine.