bagging my e46 and have a question

[f4iman80]

All right guys maybe someone will have an easy answer for me.
I'm in the middle of bagging my 2003 e46, will put together a build thread soon, but right now I'm kind of stumped. I bought some aero sport bags to use and was planning on using my factory struts. So as I was about to take apart the front suspension I look up at the strut and there seems to be a giant retainer of some sort on the strut body. I messure it through the spring and its WAY bigger then the sleeve through the aero sports. so my question is what struts are everyone using on their e46's?
If the answer isn't simple I was going to look into some coil over dampeners and slip the bags over them but with that I cant find the dampeners I want by themselves and not in a kit with springs and adjusting sleeves and the whole 9 yards ,,thanks for any help you may be able to give me

and as a teaser i'll post a link to a small video of the rear that's done already

http://s95.photobucket.com/user/jamesagers/media/airouttestrear-1.mp4.html

[Thooooom]

i dont know for certain, but as far as im aware slip over bags are designed for coilover dampers with the threaded strut. obivously you dont have a spring to seat on the platform on the original damper so icant see a way around that. that said i dont know if youre using a different style of slip over bag to the one im familiar with.

[f4iman80]

i dont know for certain, but as far as im aware slip over bags are designed for coilover dampers with the threaded strut. obivously you dont have a spring to seat on the platform on the original damper so icant see a way around that. that said i dont know if youre using a different style of slip over bag to the one im familiar with.

thanks man, yeah that's pretty much what I have come to terms with, I'm going to have to buy some coilover style struts. I'm having trouble finding them outside of a kit though, but I guess if push comes to shove i'll buy the whole kit.

[f4iman80]

well I guess I can start a little thread here.
Here's what i'v done so far,
starting earlier this year I started buying parts for this little project. one three gallon tank, 8 smc valves, and some AVS digital gauges

then some aero sport bags,viair 444 pump, some leader lines an avs 7 switch box

I cut a 24 inch round piece of plywood out laid some carpet on it and mounted the tank and pump and started the install

I ran the airlines for the front through this grommet on the left side of the back seat wall

right beside the main power wire under the rear seat and under the trim

all the way up to under the fuse box to the grommet for the fire wall

into the engine bay

and this is as far as I have made it with the front, i'll come back to this when I get it figured out

[f4iman80]

this is how I tried to mount the gauges first (and yes I know I need a new shifter boot) I suggest not doing this at all. I ended up braking the gauges and they are not covered under warranty when you break them and as it turned out I just didn't like the whole situation around where they were mounted

so I did this
I bought a brand new "euro" center storage compartment and threw out my cup holders

took the sliding top off of it

did some cutting on my old center piece,( I had to buy a new one after the first attempt to mount gauges)

and proceeded to mount the gauges into the compartment


sorry for the bad pic but here it is inside the car

I like this a LOT better then the first attempt at mounting the gauges

[f4iman80]

for the rear bags I just bought the airlift rear bags without the shocks and things. I knew one day I would buy different shocks anyway.



these things are SUPER easy to install.from time I jacked the car up to let it down off the jacks was only 3 hours and would have gotten done sooner if nature didn't call about half way through . in fact it was so easy that I knocked it out without taking many pics at all.
these were all the tools needed other then two wrenches I used to tighten the bag mount sleeve thingy that comes with the bags

I did take the front of the trailing arm loose to make it easy to get the spring out

and then the rear nice and tuckin

[f4iman80]

alright guys I know its been awhile since I have been on here so I thought I would up date,, if anyone wants to know. after weighing my options I decided to go the airlift route, and boy am I glad. the sticker shock is what made me want to go a different way but theres no way around it air lift has some bad ass shit. Save your money up buy the airlift you will be glad you did.
the air lift strut is very well made and much shorter then the factory. I didn't take hardly any pictures because it happened so fast I was done before I knew it. simple strut swap
heres a picture of the difference in the struts

the kit came with a shorter aintsway bar links too which is great because my factorys were starting to make noise anyway and leader lines and the quick connect fittings in the kit are nice not cheap ass fittings. good stuff.
and heres a pic of the new low

the front struts are LOTS stiffer then factory ride. I ended up turning the strut damping adjuster screws all the way soft as it would go to be a softer ride and it still feels stiff. but I need to say air rides a lot different then steel springs too. yes its stiff but some how it absorbs jarring bumps like cracks and pots holes in the road. takes a little to get use to but in the end I believe it will be ok.

[mykez]

Hi. Fantastic build. I have just bought airlift struts for my e46 convertible. Was wondering how to route the air lines inside the car but looks really easy.

Did you have to drill a hole on the strut housing to route lines from engine bag to the bags?