Does the air suspension on 955s have a finite service life? I had one air spring fail under CPO warranty at 60K miles, and the invoice charge was around $2K. My 955 is 13 years old with 95K miles and I wince a little for the air springs when its 10 F and I ease over the first speed bump in the morning.

 

Don't worry about it .... The one thing you worry about will be the one thing that never breaks ... If you a concerned with this search around and just buy a extra set from a wreck.

 

So far the air suspension on my 05 Cayenne Turbo has been bullet proof. I have heard similar experiences from other owners too. I think some of the problems people have with an air spring failure come from the cheap plastic dust covers. The dust covers for my air struts were shredded after 7 years and allowed for a bunch of dirt and rocks to sit in the chamber where the air bladder is. This is my opinion, but I think over time as the bladder expands and contracts while rubbing against these foreign objects it can cause premature failure of the air spring. Do you remember if the dust boot/cover to the air spring was torn?

 

Air suspension on my 05 Cayenne Turbo has also been bulletproof. I have to lower all the way each time I drive into my garage due to low car on lift overhead so I am frequently using the pump.
The thing is I have the aluminum running boards that continue about a foot under each side as rock sliders so I have never even seen the pump-it's protected under there so that might be protecting it as well.

Air springs have been ok so far. Has anyone replaced with aftermarkets or a VW version?

 

For longevity of the compressor, make sure the hose from the airbox is connected so it takes in filtered air and not a bunch of junk from the engine compartment. For anyone running an aftermarket air intake, be sure to add a filter for this line. Note the K&N Filter installed at the top of the photo through the block-off plate that's part of this HHR intake setup.

 

My understanding is that the air springs themselves are quite robust.

The release valves on them can and do fail occasionally. Not whole lot, but sometimes.

The one weak link is the compressor. It has a tendency to fail eventually.

The solution from the stealership is to replace the whole unit. Not cheap.

However, the compressor itself isn't what fails. It's the seals. And there is a kit out there that contains all the seals needed to rebuild it. It costs far, far, faaaaar less than a complete replacement (go figure).

 

Knock wood: The air struts themselves seem pretty reliable (unlike Mercedes, for example, where I didn't get 40k miles on a set or rear air bags on my wife's car). Agree that it's usually the pump that gives issues. New o-ring and dessicant kits to rebuild the pump are available for less than $40. Or replacement aftermarket pumps are available for less than $500 -- not cheap, but not dealer price. The Cayenne shares the same basic air suspension as the Touareg and Q7, so aftermarket parts are available and not terribly unreasonable by European car standards.

Google "Arnott air suspension" for quality replacement parts. No affiliation other than as a customer (for the Mercedes).

 

To clarify, there are no compressor issues.

 

You can expect the upper bushing to tear and leak air. I had that in both my fronts and because there is no repair service in the city had to go with the whole strut assembly replacement.
This one, sitting on top of the air strut: