Any successful self levelling to coilover conversions?
 

I am new to the forum, I recently purchased a 2008 X5 4.8. So far I am very happy with it, its a great car!

However I am a bit of a snob when it comes to the ride height of my vehicles. I have always lowered my cars, and I would like to do the same to the X5. I know an X5 is an SUV and is not ideal in a lowered state, but I am willing to accept the consequences.

I know there are spring kits for these cars, but I have always been biased to the customization that only coilovers can deliver. After endless days of researching whether a coilover kit can be fit to a self leveling X5, I have still not found anyone that has done this successfully. KW and D2 says it can not be done.

My question is, has anyone ever attempted this? I know with the X5M's some guys have just used the KW shocks on the rear and used the links to adjust the height. Anyone done this on the regular X5's?

Any information is appreciated.

Thanks

I don't know why it couldn't be done. Just change the shocks and springs and recode the car with the adaptive suspension removed from the VO.

If you are just concerned with ride height get the rear shocks and make some adjustable linkage arms for the rear ride height sensors. Heck you could cut a 10mm section out of the center of the stock plastic ones, drill a hole down the center of either side, tap them and then put them back together with a piece of threaded rod and they are now adjustable.

Then sell me your right rear shock cuz the electronics are busted in mine :)

Thats what I am thinking, theoretically it shouldn't be difficult.

However according to D2, "the Spring mounts are different and the springs are a different length. They say you cannot use the OE air springs with the D2 shocks, they are not long enough if to retain stock height. You would need to drop the truck at least 1.5” and with that amount of lowering the OE air spring will bottom out."

So I am wondering if anyone had direct experience on this conversion?

If I find a way to do it, I will definitely sell you my shock! ^^

That makes sense. They aren't saying you can't convert from air bag to spring, just that their shocks are shorter and implying the air bags have less useable travel and they will bottom out at the ride height necessary for the shorter shocks.

H&R makes two spring kits that lower the front 1.2" or 2" but both kits lower the rear 1". This would coincide with what they are telling you.

Right, thanks for clarifying.

But wondering if there is a way to get the aftermarket springs to fit and work with adjustable perches? It seems the control arms would need custom perches/mounts to get the springs to mount correctly?

Considering you can buy air bag to spring conversion kits I. Don't see why not Rear Air Suspension Conversion Kit | BMW X5 2007-2012

Never is....

What will you do when the car is tripping errors related to the gutted ride height sensors/pumps/etc?

Yeah you definitely have to recode the car and remove the self-leveling feature. Difficult is subjective but I would deem that the easiest part of the job.

Have you poked around RealOEM? I'm pretty sure the main suspension parts are the same and the air-bag / springs assemblies are interchangeable.

I have seen those kits, but according to KW and D2, their spring mounts dont adapt to our suspension mounts for some reason. These conversion kits must have custom mounts that are designed for our suspension.
I own an AutoLogic, so I can easily code out the errors
I have, and I can't find a detailed section showing all of the suspension components with self leveling vs. without

It seems weird that no one has personally attempted this? I would like to give it a try, but it is a costly purchase of coilovers that may not work..

judging by these diagrams, you will need part number 7, and 14
RealOEM.com - Online BMW Parts Catalog

RealOEM.com - Online BMW Parts Catalog

the lower mount of the springs (13 and 12) are replaced by the KW height adjuster
KW reuse the OEM top mount on the rear

Interesting, you may be on to something. Ill check this out further, thanks!

Has this been published anywhere? Would be useful to add here eventually.

I just wanted to update this thread. I spoke with D2 about using the mounts from the non self leveling suspension. They told me there is way more involved than just swapping some stock parts. They said they had a customer attempt this, and they still had to spend hours doing custom fabrication to make it work.

I still don't understand why the non self leveling parts cant be used to make it work, but if anyone out there has attempted this, please chime in.

Hey guys. To update the post, we ended up going with the D2 X5 coilovers. D2 states that these coilovers will not work with the self leveling rear, but our shop in Calgary "Haute AG" decided to put them to the test. Despite numerous claims from D2 that this setup would not work, we did lots of investigating and we found that there is no reason these should not be a direct swap, so we gave them a try.

Our inclinations were correct, this setup is a direct swap for the E70 X5 with the self levelling rear. The only extra part we needed was the OEM rear upper spring perch. Part #33536857006 about $40CDN. Further more, I have still not seen an error code pop up for deleting the rear air springs. (we left the compressor and lines in the vehicle, just disconnected the air springs).

The suspension is 36 way adjustable and pre-load is independently adjustable as well.

I actually prefer the ride over stock, it is less bouncy and more direct. And the look is amazing!

FRONT SUSPENSION:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps05nvsqux.jpg
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...psyq79hftz.jpg

REAR SUSPENSION:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...pswvptizbt.jpg
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4cmcghzr.jpg
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...pssmublrzd.jpg

RESULT:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...pseq69jnr3.jpg
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...pskv7njstl.jpg

jesus that is low,
with my KWs i kept hitting bump stops or the fender liner on the front when i was that low.
it must be crazy stiff!

I did a coilover modification to my E61 with self leveling rear suspension. I decided I wanted to keep the self leveling rear so we replaced the front to the coilover and coded the rear to get the height we wanted for the rear to be. The dampers were made by JRZ suspension in Netherlands. I can truly say, I am very pleased with the modification. The car continues to level the rear no matter what I have in there and the dampers made it corner like crazy.

It does hit the fender liners a bit on the front, but only on large dips, doesn't bother me.

Can those coils be raised to factory height. By the pictures, it doesn't look like there is too much UP adjustment remaining.

Yes for sure. There is tons of adjustability. The pictures of the suspension were during install, before we dialed in the height.

Thanks for posting. Im sure this will help others that want to replace the air systems...


36 way?!?

In dampers, the term "way" is reserved for which aspect of the damper travel can be adjusted...not the 'number of settings'. I assume these are one way? So either compression or rebound has adjustment, or they adjust together?

A 'two way' system will have a compression circuit- with an adjustment- and a rebound circuit, also with adjustment. Often with remote canisters. 3 way and 4 way systems add the ability to control based on rebound or compression velocity (so a 4 ways is compression and rebound adjustments, with the ability to adjust each on the basis if damper speed)

Not sure. D2 calls it "36 way damper and rebound adjustable" But yes, I assume this refers to the amount of "click" settings on the shock

I checked their website and it is only available for the fronts and no listing for the rears. It is a single way adjustable with 36 adjustment clicks for rebound. No compression adjustment.

That's the lowest E70 I've seen, looks awesome. What's the drive like?

I've just changed to H&R springs and the overall ride is so much more compliant than the std msport springs.

If someone is interested to sell me his rear self-leveling setup I am interested to buy it. I also have a set of rear springs available, but they are cheap anyway.