yes, only a thin wrench will fit behind the strut. I have a adjustable wrench but its too thick for that space. Pretty expensive they are.
Maybe big needle nose pliers may work.

Mine are 18mm. If you are going to work on your e53 regularly, buy a couple 18s and grind them skinny.

With 4 wheel air, you've got a 50A fuse-link and that line to the compressor doesn't run through the referenced relay. Near the front drivers "side" of the space under the load floor, there's a panel with fusible links. Towards the bottom is red/blue cable (going off memory here), and that runs directly to the compressor module. The relay for that style is in that assembly; you may want to make sure which design you have.

Mine is that design, and my fuse #87 has nothing to do with the self-level suspension.

Yup 18mm. Sorry.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R...2065303412.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-H...2145832522.jpg

And those Purple relays, were traced back to the air ride system on my car. The only reason I know is my electrician was diagnosing my rear hatch problem, and it was one of the purple relays. The other purple is for air ride. The one closest to hatch, is for the softclose of the hatch. So if you pull that, your soft close won't work.

Thanks. Very little space there. Don't want to damage the rubber boot either.

I pulled the relay furthest and closed the hatch and now I cannot open the hatch. I will have to climb from inside to put the relay.

4-whl air susp = fuse and relay are NOT in the fuse block on the passenger side of the auto in the cargo area.

If I wasn't using a friggin' apple device I could post the pics showing you. But I am, so I cannot.

damn nicee

Pull the emergency chord in trunk to open hatch. Then insert relay from the back. Lol.

So civ where is that relay. I must know this for future.

Is this panel behind the OBD port on driver side? pic below.

Gimme until tomorrow morning. I tossed my computer in a dumpster about 6 or 7 years ago and never looked back, but with just this apple iPad thingy my wife bot me, I can't do pics. Anything personal that needs a computer waits until I go to work ( only 2~3 min away, and I have 24/7 access, but I figured this'd wait till tomorrow)

You must have a 2mm thick 18mm open wrench to hold the joint when loosening the screw. I bought the wrench from some bicycle repaire shop. Regarding the fuse, I pulled the no. 72 fuse which is 30A when I was replacing my front air struts.