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  #1  
Old 12-11-2013, 03:49 PM
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primeral is on a distinguished road
Suspension confusion

Hi all, I just bought a 2009 X5 35d. One week into its ownership I started having a sagging rear suspension after leaving it parked for a few hours. This morning I got the "Level control system malfunction!" message. Both left and right sides sag, so I'm preparing for news that something more serious than airbags need replacing. I tried searching but my keywords yielded no results, so here are my questions:

1) Do the conversion kits allow me to run the full Eibach 2093.540 kit? This is the one advertised to exclude self-leveling rears. Are there kits that incorporate lowering?

2) Are X5 and X6 suspensions interchangeable? I cross referenced Bilstein dampener part numbers and they are the same, but I wasn't too sure about spring heights and upper shock mounts / perches. I'm entertaining the thought of fully adjustable coilovers such as the K-Sport that's advertised to fit only the X6.

3) The fully adjustable coilovers that I do see (KW and K-Sport) show a coil spring over shock setup. Will I be able to eliminate the rear airbags and use that setup instead?

4) If I do abandon the airbag setup, is it difficult / expensive to eliminate the level control system error messages?

Sorry if this has been gone over before, I just wasn't able to find it. Thank you very much in advance.

Al
2009 X5 35d, Alpine White
2002 M5, Alpine White
2006 M3 SMG coupe, Alpine White
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  #2  
Old 12-11-2013, 08:33 PM
ard ard is offline
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Hey bud. Good choice in motors!

bimmerfest has a bit more action in the E70 forum. Not a whole lot of suspenson mods being discussed, but you'll find a few. I'll be of zero help.

Congrats

A
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  #3  
Old 12-11-2013, 09:00 PM
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primeral is on a distinguished road
Thanks ard, I remember you from the M5board days

I'll check out the other resource. Thanks a million

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Old 12-12-2013, 12:02 PM
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I had the same symptoms and it was just one airbag causing all the problems. After it's been sitting and the rear droops, when you open the door and the car wakes up does the pump activate and raise the rear back up?
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Old 12-12-2013, 12:07 PM
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wsmeyer, thanks for the input. So it tries to pump the bags up and I am guessing the leak may be too great for the system to pump it up to operating level in time. It will time out and give that error. Last night I tried again. I let it get halfway, got the error, pulled the key and tried again. This allowed me to drive the X5 at the intended height. So it appears the pump is still good, but there's a significant leak somewhere.

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Old 12-12-2013, 12:31 PM
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Ours did the same but 9/10 times it would inflate back to proper height. After seeing the condition of the rubber on both sides I decided to swap them anyway as even if it they weren't the problem they soon would be.

My biggest question was why both sides were drooping. Having both springs fail at once sounded like an unlikely coincidence. As it turned out, only one was bad and the sway bar was pulling the other side down. This effect may be greater on cars like mine with Sport Suspension.

All of this became completely obvious when I simply jacked the car up. At this point I already had the new air springs and was going to change both, and I knew this was going to be a lot easier if they were already deflated, so I removed the fuse for the compressor and drove it for about a mile until it was completely dropped in the back.

When I jacked up the back, this is what the bags looked like:





At that point you just turn them about 1/8 turn and they practically fall out.

I too contemplated going to standard springs but I like to keep my car OEM and what finally swayed me was my local auto parts store sold Arnott air springs that come with a lifetime warranty. They were the same price as OEM but with the warranty. As easy as they were to replace if I have to swap them every 5 years I'm cool with that.
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  #7  
Old 12-13-2013, 04:24 PM
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Ran into the same problem as you. I ended up having the dealer replace the rear bags under warranty and changing out the front springs w/ Eibach springs and adjustable links. The X5 does not sags anymore


1) Do the conversion kits allow me to run the full Eibach 2093.540 kit? This is the one advertised to exclude self-leveling rears. Are there kits that incorporate lowering?
-The Eibach for the Sports Suspension comes w/ only 2 front springs and 2 links for the rear.

2) Are X5 and X6 suspensions interchangeable? I cross referenced Bilstein dampener part numbers and they are the same, but I wasn't too sure about spring heights and upper shock mounts / perches. I'm entertaining the thought of fully adjustable coilovers such as the K-Sport that's advertised to fit only the X6.
-Not sure


3) The fully adjustable coilovers that I do see (KW and K-Sport) show a coil spring over shock setup. Will I be able to eliminate the rear airbags and use that setup instead?
-Spoke to a rep from KW quote "KW Coilovers are not compatible with Sports Suspension because of top cap"

4) If I do abandon the airbag setup, is it difficult / expensive to eliminate the level control system error messages?
-Not sure
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