When a front suspension air spring decides it's had enough.....

[civdiv99]

BMW bag installed by dealer along with new struts about 9 years ago before I bought the car. Struts still have their labels visible with 1/08 mfr date.

Therefore I opted to just do the bags.

Didn't do pics of the bag swap because the install guides on Arnott's site covers it just fine.

[civdiv99]

Here is pic of replacement bag.

I did both fronts.

[electricalserv x5]

how the hell did that happen???

[X53Jay4.8is]

Yeah that looks severe. Must have been an awful pothole.

[civdiv99]

Maybe at some point, but that day it was sitting in the driveway, made a "pop" followed by "whoosh" and to add insult to injury the alarm went off because it dropped. My son was outside and watched it, laughing his ass off of course.

The car is on its 3rd set of front bags now.

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by civdiv99

Maybe at some point, but that day it was sitting in the driveway, made a "pop" followed by "whoosh" and to add insult to injury the alarm went off because it dropped. My son was outside and watched it, laughing his ass off of course.

The car is on its 3rd set of front bags now.

3rd set of front air bags? how long have they lasted before changing out? Is this the first time you are going with the Arnotts?

[civdiv99]

The originals lasted 2002 to 2008. I didn't own it then, but dealer had to replace them because previous owner traded it in with collapsed front end. The tag has the date on it, so I can see these were indeed 2008. That would be set #2. Then 2008 through late 2016, and both failed under my ownership, one gradually, one catastrophically. So the Arnott's are set #3.

It's my understanding this isn't real unusual, but in any case, it was only about $750 for the pair of bags. Repairs on this car run me perhaps $100 to $200 a year (parts only, my labor), so I don't mind the occasional thing like this. Still cheap to keep.

[StephenVA]