One corner doesn't lift all the way

[MattRabbit]

This is my e24. I have Airlift Universal bag over struts in the front and Airlift Universal sleeve over struts in the back with Autopilot V2 control. I'm not sure when it started happening because I don't drive the car very much, but when I come up off the ground, the driver rear corner comes up but not all the way. At 65psi, the driver rear is almost 2 inches lower than the passenger side. I have done a sensor calibration and a system calibration, I have switched the lines at the manifold, and jacked it up and down to look for binding. Nothing. The only thing that I can think of now is that maybe I got water in that one bag. I didn't have a water trap on the car until very recently.

I just wanted to see if anybody had another idea before I pull the rear suspension out to check for water (the connection is at the top of the sleeves).

[Alex@BagRiders]

There really shouldn't be any water in your bags. The tank will act as a water trap and will collect the condensation (I don't run a water trap on my car). Have you checked for leaks?

[MattRabbit]

Well the air connection on the tank is near the lowest point, so I think it still may be that. There are no leaks at all, maintains pressure for a week. The control shows the correct pressure. Maybe, before I pull the struts out, I'll try cutting the power completely and try another sensor calibration and system calibration.

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[KyleAnderson]

If you switched the lines at the manifold, and the problem was still the same corner, it's denitely something mechanical on the corner, not the management.

It would be really odd if you somehow did get that much water in only one bag. Pull the strut off and get a good look at it. Could also be another part of the suspension binding keeping the car from lifting.

[MattRabbit]

I put the car on jack stands and with no pressure in the bag, I jacked it up through all of its travel and it didn't bind. It still goes all the way up and down without issue, its just sitting much lower than it should for the pressure that is in it.

[MattRabbit]

Ok, so I took the strut out and I took the bag off. I can see the problem but I'm not sure what to do about it. It looks like part of the bushing inside the top part of the bag moved in or out and is now blocking most of the opening for the air to pass through. So do I try to press it in more? Or is it boned?

[Funbagz]

Ok, so I took the strut out and I took the bag off. I can see the problem but I'm not sure what to do about it. It looks like part of the bushing inside the top part of the bag moved in or out and is now blocking most of the opening for the air to pass through. So do I try to press it in more? Or is it boned]

If it was me, I would try to press it back in and hope for the best. Maybe try and figure out why it moved in the first place. Either way, you may have to get a new bag, so you might as well try to salvage this one. My only concern is that there looks to be some sort of seal in there, and it could leak if you bang on it too hard. But I can't really tell from the pictures.

[MattRabbit]

it actually looks a bit like maybe the bushing was installed backward at the factory. There is a chamfer on the side facing up and would probably help the air flow if it was facing down. I don't really want to mangle it just in case there is a chance it was a manufacturer defect.

[Brian@AirLift]

Matt-

From your pictures, the upper bushing is in fact, installed correctly. If you pulled the other side, it would look the same.

The variation in pressure to height could be caused by a few things:

1. Suspension bushing wind-up. Did you loosen all the bushings in the suspension that pivot and re-torque them at your new ride height? If not, you could be experiencing a great resistance to lifting because one or more bushings are being wound up requiring more air pressure force to maintain that height.

2. Sway bar: a tweaked swaybar would cause one ride height to naturally want to be higher than the other. While not very common, you could remove 1 endlink and see if it helps. I would even remove a front endlink and see if some crossloading is causing the issue.

3. Air line length: If the rear air lines are drastically different lengths (3ft or longer) then you might be inflating one side faster causing the car to rise based on that side thus requiring less pressure in the other bag.

If you have access to corner scales, you can weigh the car at ride height with the current pressures and see if the cross weights (LF-RR vs RF-LR) weights are significantly different. If so, then one of the 3 suggestions are probably your problem. That is unless your car has very unequal corner weights from the factory. In any case, water in the system will not cause your symptoms.

Please let us know if you find the answer! Car looks badass BTW!

[MattRabbit]

Thanks, I'll give those things a try. It must be the bushings. I just replaced the rear subframe bushings and I guess I may have torqued them down with the suspension drooping.

[Wrinckled]

Hi Matt,

Are you still selling bag set up? I'm very interested and not too far away from you.

Please let me know soon, as I will be purchasing a kit from a vendor if not.

Thanks

[MattRabbit]

I actually got this problem figured out months ago. I had torqued down the trailing arms at different heights so one side had much more preload.

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