I'm not made of money but since installing two new Motorcraft air shocks up front and my compressor only being 3 years old or less, I'm not having a minutes trouble at all and I have an extra set or rears in the trunk tub because they can be swapped out in 10 min, if needed.
I bought mine because it had air ride. All three of them had it. The 95 is the only one to really give me a problem and it was the passengers side leaking down over night. It had cracks on the bottom after 15 or more years. That's a good chunk of time and worth it to me to go ahead and pay the $723 that I did to replace both front air shocks. Now I should see another 15 + years of worry free air ride, maybe more because I am taking care of these air shocks. Keeping them conditioned and clean, not just letting them absorb outside elements and expecting them to never dry rot. It is rubber you know?
Now, those of you that have swapped from air to coils and saying the ride is better, I'm assuming your front air shocks weren't new... Most likely they were old and worn. Of course something new is going to feel better, even if it is a coil swap. There are some on here that have some nice coil swaps that are pieced together from quality parts and when the day comes that my air ride is actually giving me so much trouble, on a daily basis, I'll give up and swap but I don't see that day coming for years and that's if I still own the car at that time.
If you neglect your air ride, expect a shiddy experience with it. If you keep your parts up to par, (new), it should run just fine for you. This is a pic of my front right air bag that I removed and it took 15 years for it to finally start leaking. The drivers side I had looked like it was only 5 years or less old but I sold that one to (The Big Red One) on here for shipping only and put a new one in mine so that I know both are new. I could have just swapped one side and been fine but to me, it was worth it to know both fronts were new.
Do you see where the rubber has collected over the years against the plastic part of the shock? That's what has to be prevented. All you have to do is keep it clean and maintain your new front air shocks. I bet there is not one person on here that can actually say they have tried maintaining their front air shocks every three months to keep them conditioned and clean. Now, I will say, if I bought a Mark with all bad air ride, shocks, springs, compressor, I would go ahead and and install a good coil conversion but if the air ride is good and one part is bad, I'll fix that part and not just remove it all and swap over to coils.
I don't have to but I'll do what it takes to make them last another 15 years or longer. I have extra relays and height sensors and other parts stashed away just in case something goes wrong.
