Bags wont ride smooth at all

[bakerdd]

I've had bags on my grand prix for a little while now and they've never rode smoothly. I think its an older airlift kit and it just bounces all over the place.So i drove up to the autofair in charlotte today and I'm pretty frustrated with my bags. I still havent gotten them to ride very smooth but i always just figured that they werent adjusted correct as far as psi and dampening and stuff. I've tried messing around with it here and there but decided to make it a point to figure it out today seeing as i had a 3 hour drive and plenty of road to try and dial it in. I must have stopped at least 10 or 12 times at gas stations and stuff to adjust things. No matter what i tried it didnt help. Softer and harder dampening, higher and lower psi and just about every mixture i could think of but i didnt make any progress. It was a 3 hour drive of constant bouncing up and down and i really dont know what to do anymore to get the damn thing to ride smooth. So i'm kind of stuck right now :/ Any help would be much appreciated!!

[POMAH]

bag? bag over coil? what's "bouncy"? rear?

[bakerdd]

Just bags, no bag over coils. And i suppose its mostly coming from the rear but the front bounces some too. And by bouncy, i mean like short choppy bouncing that kind of feels like the back is trying to hop around or something. Frequent and strong enough where its hard to read a gps or drink anything

[Svenska94Aero]

Could be you're maxing your shocks? Depending how low you're running, you may need shorter shocks. If you're using your stock ones, they're not made to go low at all, so it could well be you just don't have enough travel left in them, so you're getting a harsh, bouncy ride. Either replace with shorter shocks, or change the height of your shock mounts.

[POMAH]

my thoughts were shocks too

[bakerdd]

The shocks are shorter than stock by a couple of inches. And i dont even ride super low because I get vibration when I accelerate if its too low. I thought maybe the dampening was too stiff so i have the rear on softest and the front 2 clicks past soft out of 6 clicks total. And i usually ride around 55psi front and 35 rear. I feel like theres decent travel left but Im not really sure.

[POMAH]

what about worn control arm bushings, mounts, tie rod/ball joint?

bags won't ride like springs/coils, but they shouldn't be "mushy" or "wobbly" and should feel fairly stiff the lower you go (maybe even more then spring)

[bobbyjones]

i want to see pictures of what your talking about.

[keeton]

i want to see pictures of what your talking about.

This.

But if you're raising the car up to around stock ride height, and your shocks are "a couple inches shorter" than stock...that's a problem.

[bakerdd]

Sorry, when I say shock i need to be more clear. Its a bag strut combo for the front and back. And i'd say the most comfortable ride height i've found is about 2 inches lower than stock but it just doesnt feel right. They arent mushy or wobbly feeling, they actually feel like theyre too stiff. I'd describe the bouncing as if the bags werent dampened at all and were at a high psi. Something like if you jumped on an over full air mattress. Just a stiff firm bounce that isnt controlled. So, ive tried less air pressure, firmer dampening, higher air pressure, all sorts of stuff. I'm starting to wonder if the struts need rebuilding

[bakerdd]

Okay, I took everything off of the car. 3 out of the 4 struts are bad, 1 is completely blown. Is this something that I can rebuild myself? Or can they even be rebuilt? Im out of luck if not

[Oxer]

pic of the struts you're using?

If they are early airlift then they're useless.

Although from what you were describing, the height you were driving your car at must have been topping the shock out aka over extending the shock. That would have also contributed to them blowing out.

Im guessing they were universal struts?

[bakerdd]

I don't think I was topping them, I rode around pretty low. And I'm not sure if they're universal, I think they are old airlift struts. I really haven't been able to find any info on them

[KyleAnderson]

Yes, that's the old Air Lift style strut, back when it was Easy Street. Part number for the kit is 75590:

http://www.airliftcompany.com/content/manuals/ES_MN-621_75590.pdf

I priced out replacement parts for my set about a month ago, and I believe they said the struts weren't available anymore (everything else is though). Call and find out. If you end up deciding to ditch this setup, I would be interested in the bags as spare parts for mine.

[Aitch]

It sounds a little bit like what I experienced with my AirRex kit, especially in the rear. In attempting to find a soft ride (that kit rides really stiff in my opinion), when I set the damping to full (or near full) soft, there would be a lot of really fast up-and-down motion while driving. Definitely at this point the shocks were under-damped and every little bump set the car oscillating up and down. So with your blown shocks this is what you were experiencing.

The downside for me was that when the damping was set appropriately to control the spring rate of the air bags, the setup was too damn rough. I bought air ride for a smoother ride than coils, but with a baby in the backseat we couldn't take it.