Rear suspension air bag replacement
 

My passenger side rear air suspension has been leaking overnight the past couple of weeks intermittently, so I figured I had a slow leak. It would pump back up to normal height within 20 seconds or so, however today I just heard loud hissing and it wouldn't go back up. It could potentially be a connection/hose, but since I've just rolled over 100k I'm guessing there is a good likelihood it's the whole bag that should be replaced. I've seen the part listed for around $180 and want to do the repair myself.

Is there a DIY procedure listed anywhere? I've searched quite a bit and seen several similar posts, but I've never seen a write up on how to actually remove and replace the bag or any photos of anyone doing it. I've done lots of conventional/non-air suspension work on several cars but never on an air-ride equipped vehicle. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Well after work today I walked up to see BOTH sides of the rear suspension were sitting on the bumpstops :( I drove the 6 miles home trying to avoid even pebbles on the ground it's so bouncy! I am thinking it must be some sort of an air line to cause both to deflate. I'm at a loss and unfortunately I don't have the time tonight to take a look at it, so I am probably taking it to an indy in the am.

2002 4.4, definitely time for new airbags. buy a pair and put them in. unless you want to track any leaks, you can start at the compressor with soapy water and see where it bubbles. good luck

My other car is a P38 Range Rover (air bags at all corners) with 200k miles. I've changed every part of that suspension over at one time... bags, valve block, compressor, orings, etc... Your best bet is to get under there with the car running, a bottle of soapy water, and spray everything down to see where the leak is. If you can't find a leak you'll need to check the compressor to see if it's running and if it's making any pressure. I'm not familiar at all with the E53 system, but those are the two basic ones that go out on the RR's all the time. From there I'd spray down the valve block to see if there's any leaks in there. If so, it's probably just o-rings that need to be replaced and on RR's at least, it's pretty easy to do.

Good luck.

What about swapping the air bags for regular spring coil setup? I understand at least one company (KW I think) makes a coilover kit for this vehicle?

YES. I highly recommend doing that if you plan to keep the car for a long time. I did this on my (rear only) air suspension. This is my wife's dd, and I didn't want to have to worry about air suspension issues. There was no change in handling or ride comfort. The peace of mind of not having to worry about sudden air suspension problems is priceless.

If you want to keep stock ride height then you simply need to order the OEM coil springs made for the 3.0 model. Before you do anything, you should probably contact your local BMW dealer to make sure that they can remove the suspension inactive warning from the cluster. My dealership here in MO failed after having it for 1 week. A dealership in suburban Chicago did it successfully in 1 day.

Here's my post from last summer:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...uspension.html

I do really like this solution for keeping the vehicle long term. I'm currently at a place where I am trying to weigh the benefits of keeping the X5 longer or upgrading to a new car. I've had it for 6+ years and I'd like to get a new ride, however going without a payment and avoiding the process of buying a new car is also nice. If I felt 100% confident I wanted to keep the X for a couple more years I wouldn't hesitate to swap it for conventional springs, but I'm just not sure I'm there yet...It's sitting at the dealer for a diagnostic right now, so if they come back and tell me it's anything more than just an air bag I think I'll go ahead and swap to conventional myself. I'll update the thread with the respone I get from Desert BMW.

PS - the UZJ100 is one of my favorite vehicles of all time and I've been casually looking for a 98-99 LC with the rear diff lock for a while now. A Slee'd/ARB'd/locked 100 with a RTT and overland gear is about as cool as it gets for me. Nice fleet! :thumbup:

I've owned my Land Cruiser for almost 9 years now, and it has been BY FAR the most reliable vehicle that I have ever owned. It is an incredibly smooth ride, and the only SUV I've ever been in that compares is a Range Rover-but everyone knows the cost of keeping one of those! I highly recommend them. I would think that $4 gas would make it a good time to buy a LC.

Yes avoiding the cost of a new car is very nice. I usually feel that the cheapest car to drive is the one you already own!

So I received a call back from the SA and he said the bag on the passenger side is toast. He said the driver side is about to go as well and replacing just the passenger side may put undue pressure on the driver side causing it to fail quickly.

I don't really have the time right now to do this repair myself, so he gave me a quote. He said they would do both bags including labor and tax for $960 (and that includes clearing an air bag light that just came on the other day as well). Doing only one bag will be a little over $700, which doesn't seem like enough of savings to justify skipping it. I guess the question I'm up against is do I see myself keeping the X long enough to warrant dropping the money into it, and the price seems relatively reasonable for a dealership cost. Any thoughts? It seems like the cost to convert over to conventional would pretty much be a wash at this point and wouldn't be an expedient option considering it is my daily driver now.

That seems like a decent price for a dealership. How much of that quote was parts? Just curious.

It would cost you around 1400-1500 to convert to springs, and have a dealership clear the suspension error message. So I guess it really does come down to how long you plan to keep the X5. $600 buys you peace of mind, but you'll need to keep that truck a while to make it worthwhile!

He originally quoted me a very high cost and I asked him for the prices on the bags and he said they were $300 a piece. I told him I had just seen them listed on realoem.com for $188 a piece, so I said I'll just have an indy order them from there and put them on. He said he was going to "talk to the parts dept. to see if there was any wiggle room on the price", and shockingly the new quote was $400+ less than the original :rofl:. It's annoying to have to negotiate, but in the end it's not a terrible price and I do feel confident they're going to do a good job. I went ahead and authorized them to do it and they gave me a nice loaner for the weekend. I still haven't picked up my X5 yet, so I'll update if anything goes sideways!

Finally picked it up this morning. Total damage was $960 and that was for both rear air bags and all the labor to get them in. They also cleared an airbag light that for some reason had come on recently and fixed a couple of other small things. The SA didn't realize I had the sliding load floor which he said ended up taking them more time then he estimated too. So all in all having the repair done right with factory parts by the dealer and getting a nice loaner for 4 days I feel the price is pretty fair. FWIW, he said that both bags were essentially disintegrating when they removed them. The dry climate and heat here in Vegas obviously exacerbated the issue, but just a heads up for everyone with ~100k on the air suspension.

Air suspension repair is not too bad.
 

Just replaced my rear air suspension bags. Thanks to several threads I was able to prepare and do the repair with realitivity ease. In total time spent to do, was about two hours. First air bag to longer, due to not have done one before. Second about 30 minutes. Three clips and they are out.


Save myself hundreds of dollars!