Question for the bagged E30s here

[KyleAnderson]

From what I've come up with searching, it seems most are running a 6" diameter rear bag. Is it possible to squeeze a 6.5" diameter back there with the tight axle clearance. I've measured, and it seems like it should clear by a few millimeters. Looking for some input and comparison with what people are already running.

The bags I want to run are these from Air Lift:

http://www.airliftperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/app_75690.jpg

Thanks for any help

[HPG-Matt]

I wouldnt waste the money on this kit the factory vw nipple is way different than a e30 nipple so you are going to have to do some trimming any way to get it to work you are better off with completely removing the nipple and notching the lower control arm and running a ss5 or an air house 2 this will save you close to $200. and get you lower in the process

[KyleAnderson]

The spring locating nipple is actually very close and will fit nicely in the mounts. Air Lift provided me a print of the mount so I could measure and determine this.

This whole kit is $300 shipped, so by the time I buy good quality bags and mounts, I would only save about $100. The real benefit of them is labor (no welding) and the fact that I wouldn't have to cut up the body of the car. Of course, the nipple on the control arm has to be cut. If I wanted to remove the air ride later on, it would be much easier to go back to stock.

These bags will also get me as low as I need to without pocketing the control arm. These compress to 2.3", and lowest I've seen other bags go is 2"... not a big enough difference for me to worry about. It will still be much lower than my old coilovers, and the main reason for going to air is driveability in the hell that is Detroit.


Anyway, I hope you can see why I want to use these- ease of installation, no modification to the body of the car, and Air Lift is only an hour away if I need anything (my fronts are also Air Lift).

Can anyone with some experience with the E30 rear give some input on the clearance for bag diameter?

[Alex@BagRiders]

The spring locating nipple is actually very close and will fit nicely in the mounts. Air Lift provided me a print of the mount so I could measure and determine this.

This whole kit is $300 shipped, so by the time I buy good quality bags and mounts, I would only save about $100. The real benefit of them is labor (no welding) and the fact that I wouldn't have to cut up the body of the car. Of course, the nipple on the control arm has to be cut. If I wanted to remove the air ride later on, it would be much easier to go back to stock.

These bags will also get me as low as I need to without pocketing the control arm. These compress to 2.3", and lowest I've seen other bags go is 2"... not a big enough difference for me to worry about. It will still be much lower than my old coilovers, and the main reason for going to air is driveability in the hell that is Detroit.


Anyway, I hope you can see why I want to use these- ease of installation, no modification to the body of the car, and Air Lift is only an hour away if I need anything (my fronts are also Air Lift).

Can anyone with some experience with the E30 rear give some input on the clearance for bag diameter?

I completely understand where you're coming from. The Air Lift bags are the same diameter as the Air House 2 bags when deflated (6") and they are 5.5" in diameter at max pressure. We've had plenty of customers use the Air House 2 bags in the rear of e30's before so you should be fine with the Air Lifts.

[KyleAnderson]

I completely understand where you're coming from. The Air Lift bags are the same diameter as the Air House 2 bags when deflated (6") and they are 5.5" in diameter at max pressure. We've had plenty of customers use the Air House 2 bags in the rear of e30's before so you should be fine with the Air Lifts.

Thank you so much, that is exactly what I needed to know. Looking at the pictures of them, I didn't think there was any way they were larger than 6", even though that was the spec given to me.

You'll be getting an order early next year for your help.

[Alex@BagRiders]

Thank you so much, that is exactly what I needed to know. Looking at the pictures of them, I didn't think there was any way they were larger than 6", even though that was the spec given to me.

You'll be getting an order early next year for your help.

Sure thing! Feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any questions in the meantime!

[Average_Jerk]

Thank you so much, that is exactly what I needed to know. Looking at the pictures of them, I didn't think there was any way they were larger than 6", even though that was the spec given to me.

You'll be getting an order early next year for your help.

I had air house 2 in the rear of my e30. no fitment issues at all. just gotta do a little cutting

[HPG-Matt]

Im running air house 2's in my rear as well and there is no brackets needed to install these there is trimming necessary though. I understand not wanting to cut the bottom of the car but I honestly dont think you are going to be happy with the results. You can do the necessary trimming easily yourself to get the bags to work and youre only spending max 130 on air house 2's vs 300 for the airlifts and with the nipple still there plus the added brackets I dont think your gonna be as low as you are anticipating

[Alex@BagRiders]

Im running air house 2's in my rear as well and there is no brackets needed to install these there is trimming necessary though. I understand not wanting to cut the bottom of the car but I honestly dont think you are going to be happy with the results. You can do the necessary trimming easily yourself to get the bags to work and youre only spending max 130 on air house 2's vs 300 for the airlifts and with the nipple still there plus the added brackets I dont think your gonna be as low as you are anticipating

Well here's how I see it. Yes the Air House 2's are definitely a good option as plenty of people are running that setup on their e30's however, you are required to cut off your upper spring perch completely with that method. With the Air House 2's, the best way to go about it is to weld a nut in place of the now removed upper spring perch and thread the bag on to that. The only issue here, which a lot of the Mk4 R32 guys ran into, was welding the nipples back on or making new ones to accept a spring again once they took the air off to sell the car.

The Air Lift Mk5 double bellow rears solve this issue since the top plate of the bag is designed to cradle the upper spring perch without completely removing it. Yes you may have to trim it a bit (I had to trim 15mm off my upper spring perches on my R32 to accept a similar bag from Air Lift) but at least you can still throw the stock spring back in there without any work.

As for the bottoms, you don't need to use the supplied brackets from Air Lift. Since the bag doesn't fold over the top and bottom plates as much as the Air House 2, chances of this bag rubbing are less. Plus, the Air Lift bags come with roll plates, and if you have the room to use them the bottom of the bag won't ever come in contact with the lower control arm.

The trickiest part (with any e30 setup) is securing the bag to the lower control arm. You may have to run to the hardware store for some new bolts because the ones included in the Air Lift rear kit aren't fully threaded and chances are, you will have to trim them (they're pretty long) which would result in you trimming off the threaded portion of the bolt. You'll still have to run the air line through the lower control arm no matter which rear you decide to go with.

[Average_Jerk]

^ when I did mine I had to cut a little from the upper spring perch and used half of the d-cup set to secure it on the section that was remaining. but I definitely had to drill through the LCA and thread a bolt up. Not a big deal, didnt really take much extra thought or time to see what needed to be done and figure it out.

[royalife]

this helped me a bunch, best of luck

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=233644

[Average_Jerk]

this helped me a bunch, best of luck
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=233644

just dont buy anything from Open Road Tuning

[royalife]

yea, well i was saying the installation and modding process

[Alex@BagRiders]

just dont buy anything from Open Road Tuning