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Hi all,
First of all I have been an avid reader of stanceworks for a long time just decided to register and start a thread. Share my experience of installing air ride in the beamer.
before I throw in a bunch of pics and what not, I just want to quickly break down my thinking when I was looking at air ride.
- need to keep it as a daily driver
- first air ride install
- My Goal is to have the ride slightly firmer then the e39 M5
- I need a kit that can with stand -30 Celsius
- I need to avoid obstacles and pot holes, alberta roads are horrible.
- I like to be low just cause and who wouldn't like to have their car on the floor for fun.
I went to SEMA 2012 and spent quite a bit of time with the AirLift and AccuAir reps trying to figure out which system was better for me. AccuAir is based on height measurement and AirLift is a pressure based system.
In the end I chose AirLift due to the simple fact that there is less to go wrong and troubleshoot if there are problems, the controller also shows you which line is "leaking" if it is.
Few things about the car:
- 2003 and Silver, fully loaded except M package
- approaching 100,000km
- Dinan strut bars front and back
- Dinan sway bars front and back
- Dinan CAI, throttle body, cat back exhaust
- Dinan ECU chip
- Koni Coils, which are coming out
So on to the fun stuff....I'll try to take as many pics as I can over the course of the install.
Here is the AirLift Kit with the AutoPilot V2 Controller...
How the car sits today...
a night after drifting in some fresh snow
Engine bay shot
Last night I began tearing out the backseats and trim to be able to access the rear coilovers and also gutted the trunk/spare wheel well to provide somewhere to mount everything. My whole thinking behind this install is that I would preferably like everything to be hidden so it looks stock and the trunk remains usable. I finally got the kit last night so I did some layout mock ups and also made sure I had all the fittings...which I do not so the heavy duty check valve will have to wait.
Heads up to all e39 owners...when removed 60/40 seats from the back, you will see this black metal cap (center bottom of pic) with a bolt through it, remove that bolt and metal piece once the sides bolts on the outer ends of the seats are removed and the whole back seat pops right out.
The rear reading light pops right out with a flat head screw driver, 10mm socket to remove these two bolts and then there are two clips holding the top in so just had to pry carefully to remove that c pillar. The reason for removing all this is that the coils mount right under the speakers...
The next step was to remove the rear parcel shelf, note to e39 owners with the slide up privacy screen in the back. The whole screen comes out with the shelf, there are three bolts on the trunk roof that hold it down though. The power connector is off the passenger side. I also gutted the trunk...took everything i could out of there for the time being.
Car is a little stacked up with parts lol, all good fun and the fun part begins today after I finish the day job...
If you have any questions or want pics taken of certain points of the install just let me know and ill try to do my best.
First of all I have been an avid reader of stanceworks for a long time just decided to register and start a thread. Share my experience of installing air ride in the beamer.
before I throw in a bunch of pics and what not, I just want to quickly break down my thinking when I was looking at air ride.
- need to keep it as a daily driver
- first air ride install
- My Goal is to have the ride slightly firmer then the e39 M5
- I need a kit that can with stand -30 Celsius
- I need to avoid obstacles and pot holes, alberta roads are horrible.
- I like to be low just cause and who wouldn't like to have their car on the floor for fun.
I went to SEMA 2012 and spent quite a bit of time with the AirLift and AccuAir reps trying to figure out which system was better for me. AccuAir is based on height measurement and AirLift is a pressure based system.
In the end I chose AirLift due to the simple fact that there is less to go wrong and troubleshoot if there are problems, the controller also shows you which line is "leaking" if it is.
Few things about the car:
- 2003 and Silver, fully loaded except M package
- approaching 100,000km
- Dinan strut bars front and back
- Dinan sway bars front and back
- Dinan CAI, throttle body, cat back exhaust
- Dinan ECU chip
- Koni Coils, which are coming out
So on to the fun stuff....I'll try to take as many pics as I can over the course of the install.
Here is the AirLift Kit with the AutoPilot V2 Controller...
How the car sits today...
a night after drifting in some fresh snow
Engine bay shot
Last night I began tearing out the backseats and trim to be able to access the rear coilovers and also gutted the trunk/spare wheel well to provide somewhere to mount everything. My whole thinking behind this install is that I would preferably like everything to be hidden so it looks stock and the trunk remains usable. I finally got the kit last night so I did some layout mock ups and also made sure I had all the fittings...which I do not so the heavy duty check valve will have to wait.
Heads up to all e39 owners...when removed 60/40 seats from the back, you will see this black metal cap (center bottom of pic) with a bolt through it, remove that bolt and metal piece once the sides bolts on the outer ends of the seats are removed and the whole back seat pops right out.
The rear reading light pops right out with a flat head screw driver, 10mm socket to remove these two bolts and then there are two clips holding the top in so just had to pry carefully to remove that c pillar. The reason for removing all this is that the coils mount right under the speakers...
The next step was to remove the rear parcel shelf, note to e39 owners with the slide up privacy screen in the back. The whole screen comes out with the shelf, there are three bolts on the trunk roof that hold it down though. The power connector is off the passenger side. I also gutted the trunk...took everything i could out of there for the time being.
Car is a little stacked up with parts lol, all good fun and the fun part begins today after I finish the day job...
If you have any questions or want pics taken of certain points of the install just let me know and ill try to do my best.
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