Making my allroad a someroad I.E. Airlift performance install

[chris86vw]

So this is something I planned prior to even buying my allroad back in 2016. This is not something I'm sure will work but the key part finally arrived today:

https://i.imgur.com/NoRwEWO.jpg

This is the Airlift Performance front and rear setup for the C5.


Goals:
Make these bag works using stock suspension control system
speed up raising and lower of the vehicle (slightly, stock is too slow most aftermarket is faster than i want)
make system more reliable
gain some "performance" over the soft stock suspension


Advantages over stock type parts:
About the same price as replacing shocks and struts with quality parts (and certainly cheaper than OE)
30 way adjustable shocks, even if you don't need that much adjustment they will at least be more performance oriented than stock

Disadvantages over stock:
probably too low
will not offer full range of adjustment stock does.


The goal of making this work with stock controls may not be obtainable but that is the main goal. I like the idea of retaining the stock buttons, not having to bypass or disable things, and just doing something that I can't seem to find evidence anyone has done before. Granted they may have tried, failed and simply not documented it for me to find. If I do fail then the making it faster and more reliable parts likely come automatically by switching to airlift or accuair management. If I succeed then discussing how to make it more reliable may be something that is an option for people retaining stock bags and shocks, I've been collecting parts for that but never got around to implementing and testing.


In preparation when I was doing my manual swap since I had an A6 parts car I already swapped over nearly all the A6 parts I need. I removed the spacers front and rear to get rid of the body lift. I converted to A6 front bearing housings and lower control arms. I also swapped in the A6 driveshaft with the correct center support bearing. I saved the front suspension hats when I sold the coilovers the parts car had to use with the airlift parts. I so far have run without the snub mount installed as the radiator support is different and haven't wanted to deal with swapping that over, it isn't a part of this specific install just documenting it as part required to switch to a6 suspension fully. There is also the rear upper links which allegedly have a different mounting position at the bearing housing which I previously did not swap but will investigate as I move forward.


Before this becomes a wall of text I'll hit submit and break up some of the other details over a few posts [:D]

[jbain2]

Subscribed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SteelyS6]

Subscribed, I want to eventually ditch the Arnott crap on my one allroad. Looking forward to your results.

[chris86vw]

China/crap parts warning:

You will see some cheap knock off parts in this thread..I am not condoning knock offs or recommending these parts. They were acquired because it simply makes more sense to take apart, test, cut into, drill, etc cheap knock off 50 buck parts then risk destroying expensive say 300 buck parts. Some results may obviously vary if a real part was used


Some other parts of the equation and things I plan to test.

LINES

The Airlift setup is meant for 1/4 or 3/8 lines, I can easily adapt from that but that is what they supply fittings for. I'm not sure I will go that big but larger than stock will help with the speed part of this I want to address.. I'm concerned too big though will be too fast and operate outside the parameters that the stock system can tolerate.

to give you an idea on size the stock lines can fit INSIDE of a 1/4" line.

I've actually adapted my single air tank and also the stock pump to 1/4 lines and have been running that way over a year.

(will edit with photos when I find them)


PUMPS

Some initial testing of tearing down a viair 444 clone and the stock pump show that the stock pump actually has a larger bore and stroke. If we ignore rpm then the stock pump can flow more. However it is possible that the 444 operates at a higher rpm and outputs the same or more CFM. I plan to rig up a pressure switch with each pump and the stock tank to see which one fills up faster. I actually think I can try to rig this with a VCDS output test, if that is the case I Can test sooner than later. I plan to run which ever pump has the higher CFM. I felt the stock pump was quieter too but that could have been a factor in comparing a clone. The Jeep shop next to mine has a viair account and a few rings with them so hoping to steal one to test a real pump.

If I find my notes i'll up date with the bore/stroke of each.. but that was a long time ago.

I have been running with the stock pump in the spare tire well. I had planned to go dual pumps in the spare tire well but have had issues with the pump hitting the thermal cut off way too often. It is possible that is due to the amount the pump runs with my cobbled together stock setup or it is possible that it just traps too much heat back there or both. The goal will likely to be returning dual pumps back to the stock location (I need a different swaybar though) for noise and also cooling.


TANKS

sort of common thing people have done even with stock setups but I plan to simply run dual stock tanks, I have had a spare tank around for a while just never got to installed it. I may add on some fittings for on board air/tire filling, we'll see. Nothing special there


VALVE BLOCKS

This is a biggie and will be a key to speeding up the system as well as hopefully making it more reliable.. I'm currently working on making a harness to be able to swap in the aftermarket valve block (again a chinese clone) for the stock one without having to cut anything. The one hurdle is the stock pump contains the release valve, that female connector has no male counterpart [:|]. Seriously its like the one damn connector in the whole car without one.. very frustrating. So I need to order some connectors to use to make that plug and play, will require cutting but make reverting easy.

What I did was purchase a cheap 8 port block. Stock these are meant to operate as a simple 4 corner inlet and exhaust type. What I did was take it apart, drill and tap blocking off the passage from inlet/exhaust and actually making it operate each 8 valve separately. With this I can now mimic the stock 6 valve block plus the 7th valve on the pump.

https://i.imgur.com/2o6zE6j.jpg
this is just rigged for testing.. and not pretty please don't comment on the silly loop that is so big it goes out of frame [:D]

The one and only thing I have not figured out for certain is the built in pressure sensor, where exactly it reads from so will be testing that also in the coming week or so. I've seem some mentions of it reading on the port to the pump, but beyond that have spent no time on it. If I can figure out the pressure range and a compatible sensor that would be the best but haven't looked into that yet.

I have attempted to drill out as well as adding larger fittings to the stock (ok yes cheap chinese ones..) valve block and it does not work well, I broke quite a few and wasted too much money on that. I do have one working currently for the above mentioned 1/4 lines to the tank and pump but they are sketchy. I started to cut up one of the ones I broke on my bandsaw to see the guts but the blade jumped and I got annoyed so never finished.. will revisit at some point.


A compromise for lines and block may be a Q7/cayenne valve block and their slightly larger lines (a few other applications use that as well). While I will not invest directly in this due to cost and time I may attempt to duplicate it as best I can with what I have since that could be a good option for people.




LEVEL CONTROL

This is where it is going to get the trickiest, the airlift bags simply do not have the shock stroke to get the full 4 level control. I accept this and will live without level 4 and understand that level 3 will be for super low speed and offer no down travel to a corner.

I will also likely need to do the reverse of the longer arms people install and have to shorten the arms getting less of a change between each level.

**fake math warning**

If the aftermarket arms move the mounting point out 1" and that means your change from level 2 to level 1 or level 2 to level 3 is now 15mm greater then by that same logic moving that mounting point in 1" would mean that I Can reduce the difference between level 2 and level 1 or level 2 and level 3 by 15mm or in other words only about 10mm change.

In order to allow the car to be able to safely go to level 1 at highway speed or level 3 for obstacles .. by which I mean daily to get into my driveway. I will need to come up with some way to make it so that I get maybe say 15mm of range between positions not the 25mm so drilling and moving the pivot point in slightly should work for this.

Additionally with the new probably way too low height at level 2 the sensors are going to be out of range, solution for this is to make some adjustable rods that mount between the sensor arm and the control arm. This is one of those things I need to try and remember to get some measurements on before I rip all the stock stuff off.






There is a slight chance I cut up my front shocks like user CRISTOPHE did and test that before I move foward, and I may attempt to get the different valve block in with the stock bags since I have been curious if it will work with stock stuff and that will likely help more people. If I don't get the the second part then hopefully testing with the airlift still provides some answers.


I think that is all I have or now. The GF is going to Vietnam for 3 weeks in april so the plan is to work on this while she is gone since I can A steal her car instead of driving the A3 if it is still cold out and B won't get yelled at for not being around (she is great and doesn't actually do that).


I will dig up the photos and measurements I have so far so they are here for reference and if anyone has any questions or even a link to someone trying and failing so I can just give up now.. feel free to post

[m_haiser]

I look forward to the results here! id be more than willing to sacrifice level 4 for some quicker movement up and down, and even stiffer shocks.
don't know that I can offer anything you don't already have/know but I'm here for moral support if nothing else!

[j0wE]

I've installed an airlift performance setup in a D3 A8L and used the stock air suspension before. We used C5 fronts with a 2" custom spacer and custom made the rears. the factory line is I believe 4mm or 1/8 BSPP, we just used a 1/4" NPT female coupler and used a 1/4" PTC fitting on one end and a 1/8 BSPP PTC fitting on the other to join them together. Worked well and wasn't as slow as we thought it would be until the customer bought aftermarket management.

https://i.imgur.com/iZ2s5Tv.png

[chris86vw]

I've installed an airlift performance setup in a D3 A8L and used the stock air suspension before. We used C5 fronts with a 2" custom spacer and custom made the rears. the factory line is I believe 4mm or 1/8 BSPP, we just used a 1/4" NPT female coupler and used a 1/4" PTC fitting on one end and a 1/8 BSPP PTC fitting on the other to join them together. Worked well and wasn't as slow as we thought it would be until the customer bought aftermarket management.



Awesome, thanks for chiming in with that info/experience. Highway mode and lift mode on the D3 A8 has a similar range as the allroad does between level 1 and level 3 (~45mm for A8 and ~50mm for allroad). Do you know if you were able to run in all 3 modes or just never tested going all the way up?

4mm is the line size also used on the C5, I ordered some npt to 4mm PTC fittings from mcmaster that work on the stock lines. This is what I currently have installed in the new valve block shown above as I set it up to attempt to run it on the stock suspension to start testing. link to those https://www.mcmaster.com/5225k711

Here are some shots of the stock line in comparison to 1/4" DOT line commonly used for air suspension installs:

excuse the weird selfies I broke the lens on main phone camera and didn't feel like breaking out my back up phone..


stock (blue) 4mm line next to 1/4 line (black)
https://i.imgur.com/jYX82He.jpg

stock 4mm line INSIDE of 1/4 line.. really shows the difference.
https://i.imgur.com/ril0XjY.jpg

And a 5/64 drill bit inside of the 4mm stock line, so ID works out to about 2mm
https://i.imgur.com/JQ0dVIA.jpg



So if we round up to 2mm ID on the stock line and round down to 4mm on the 1/4" line we get an area for each of:
stock: 3.14mm2 (also it's pi day so this amuses me greatly)
1/4: 12.56mm2

The 1/4 line has 4x the capacity! This is probably too big for the stock system to handle and as mentioned before I really don't want the speed of most aftermarket systems, it is probably the one thing that actually turns me off air suspension systems.


The stock 4mm line is roughly equal to 1/8 line both having about a .078" (2mm) ID, which means we have 2 readily available line sizes between stock and 1/4 to look into, 5/32 with a .092" (2.33mm) which comes out to 4.29mm2 area, and 3/16 with a .117"(2.97mm) ID that works out to a 6.93mm2 area.

So just to list it out

stock 2mm/1/8 has a 3.14mm2 area
5/32 has a 4.39mm2 area
3/16 has 6.93mm2 area
1/4 has 12.56mm2 area

I'm thinking the sweet spot is the 3/16. The 5/32 is only about 30% larger and may not be worth the hassle of converting while the 3/16 is just over double. Hopefully this makes a meaningful difference while not freaking out the stock control system.

[chris86vw]

Alright so one of the biggest hurdles in all of this will be the pressure sensor in the stock valve block.


Here is the factory diagram of the valve block and the pump/exhaust valve:
https://i.imgur.com/WN9RT4H.jpg

9a b c d are the valves for each corner (N148-151)
10 valve to the tank (N311)
11 pressure sensor (G291)
5 exhaust valve (N111)
6 mechanical release valve, blows off pressure after pump shuts down
1 pump (V66)


That single G291 pressure sensor is able to read all 4 corners as well as the tank (stock manuals refer to the tank as accumulator)

Because of this ability to read all 5 pressures and how it appears in that factory diagram of the valve block it seems that the sensor is located somewhere in the path from the 4 corners/tanks valves in the valve block to the pump/exhaust valve. The line that connects the valve block to the pump actually does not have a solenoid so the function would appear to back this up also. Basically it can open say the LF corner for a second, read the pressure and then dump off that pressure via the exhaust valve which is mounted on the pump. Then check the RF corner.. repeat.

I've not been able to determine how often it checks, but a frequent check would explain why the car is constantly adjusting and also constantly needing to refill the tank and the pump runs a lot not so much leaks. The SSP on the AR suspension (243 for anyone wanting to search for it) claims that it checks the tank every 6 minutes and that it checks the corners only before/during/after raising and lowering. I've heard my pump run more frequently than that and also looked at the pressure fluctuating via VCDS on corners and the tank at a rate faster than that. I'd like to maybe try and scope this to see if I can come up with a pattern but I need to pick up a scope, want one anyway but not sure when i'll make that purchase during this install.

If the system works as it seems it does the sensor may also be calibrated to account for the known stock volume of the passages in the valve block and the line size/length from the block to the pump/exhaust valve. If getting this to work fails my guess is this is where it will all come apart. This is also why I partially want to limit line size and may have already gone too big going 1/4 between the pump and the valve block, although I have never had any pressure related faults.


How I plan to incorporate this into the previously shown new valve block is to simply connect a stock 4mm line from the pump port on the stock valve block to a one of the side ports on the new valve block which internally connects to the common channel that each valve sees. You can't see it in the photo but I installed a 4mm PTC fitting on the end under the electrical connector for this. And a 1/4 compression to fitting to run to the pump next to that under the connector as well.



If anyone has any questions please ask, there is a chance it isn't one I thought of myself, or looked it up long ago and am forgetting now.

[makisupa]

Subscribed!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Audizine mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87676)

[Bordom]

Damn. Also subbed.

I'll be converting my Allroad shocks to C6 A6 Koni sport shocks for increased reliability and rebuild-ability. Just waiting on Adapters from Russia.

Plan is dual 444cc Viair compressors into 2 stock tanks, which is similar to your ultimate goal. However, I also like the idea of dual stock compressors.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

[chris86vw]

Plan is dual 444cc Viair compressors into 2 stock tanks, which is similar to your ultimate goal. However, I also like the idea of dual stock compressors.



I was looking up my order to confirm what pump I had and apparently it's a Chinese 480 not the 444. I'll have to go compare specs and also see what I can borrow a 444 since those are common and cheaper than the 480 (for real ones).

When looking that up I realized that the install kit came with a 150psi switch. I'll need to figure out where I put that if I have it and build a little test rig. Curious to test used vs rebuilt stock too so will order a rebuild kit to test used, rebuilt, 480 and whatever other pumps I can get a hold of. Pressure switches are cheap stuff like 10 bucks each so might also grab a 200 and see how they do.

[j0wE]

The pressure switch just goes on the tank, but since you're using stock, you can look for an adaptor piece that goes in line.
Something like this;

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6hcAAOSwUR9cU4QS/s-l300.jpg

[chris86vw]

The pressure switch will just be to do some testing on which pump actually flows the better cfm. I will have no need for an aftermarket pressure switch if I'm retaining stock control system. For the testing I'll just use the afermaky valve block since it's already setup to connect to pump and tank.

[chris86vw]

Ok located the pressure sensor that came with the knock off pump. Only goes to 120psi so initial test won't tell me how they handle flow at high pressure since CFM may drop off sharply but it will be a good initial test. I can always just hard wire it with a switch and a gauge and do it manually even though that will introduce some margin of error.

GF leaves in 10 days so I was told I'm not allowed to spend time at the shop this weekend and will not get to testing that until next week sometime most likely however that does not in anyway delay the install of the rest just part of going forward and getting a better pump setup.

Plan of attack for initial install/testing will be to use everything 100% stock as is and install the airlift parts front and rear using 1/4 npt to 4mm PTC connectors on the supplied braided lines (like mentioned above for the A8). Trying to find ones that I can do this with as few fittings as possible. This will probably immediately put me into dealing with errors of the sensors being out of range so I also plan to have materials ready for making some different links between the control arm and sensor ready to be built. Once I know that this will let me do the adaptation and drives around error free on level 2 I'll worry about moving onto making new levers to allow for different height range between 1-3 and from there the rest of the controls.

[chris86vw]

Finally got started on the airlift part of the install today. Several hours of taking measurements in the rear and have one bag installed [:D]

https://i.imgur.com/uxwwwhe.jpg

So I had called Airlift after receiving the kit and confirmed the travel of the front and rear shocks, the rears are 3.3" and the fronts are 4.7". This seemed like it was not a lot in the rear but sure enough taking apart the rears and measuring, stock travel is only 3.3" so it is just like stock! Hopefully front works out this way too.

Stock range of motion for the air suspension, change in ground clearance, is 25mm from 1-2, 25mm from 2-3 and 16mm from 3-4 according to the specs I have. That adds up to 66mm or 2.6". At first glance that would make it seem like there is only .7" of shock travel outside of the range of adjustment. But since the shocks are mounted much closer to the pivot point (where control arms mount to subframe) the overall travel of the shock is much less than that the hub.

That means not only should these bags still allow for full use of levels 1-4 it will also mean I can use the stock level arms as there is no need to reduce the height change of 25mm from 1-2 and 2-3 to something like 15mm to prevent maxing out the shocks extended or compressed lengths. The link arm between the control arm and the level arm will still likely need to be changed to prevent the level sensor from going out of range, not important at the moment.


Since I had already removed the body lift my suspension basic settings were a little tricky and my car no longer was 402mm at level 2. I would have to take a measurement and add 25mm to it so that the system knew what I was doing. The level control sensors and the control arms mount to the subframe so for the purposes of taking measurements in the rear I just needed to be aware of this 25mm and add it to all measurements to get back to how it would work stock.


With both a stock and airlift complete rear assembly I took measurements of the fully extended shocks from the top of the bolt hole (relevant in a second) to the top of the mounting plate where it meets the body. The stock shock measured 445mm and the airlift rear with the adjustable "coilover" body maxed out measured 385mm. These numbers are important to have but do not along tell us what are min or max height might be.

With the stock shock removed and the rear suspension able to travel up and down without resistance I jacked up the bearing housing to a height of 377mm from hub center to fender (402-25mm body lift missing). With the rear set to a stock height for level 2 I inserted the lower shock bolt into the control arm and measured from the top of the bolt to the bottom of the mounting surface on the body for the upper shock mount. The number was 386, but again I need to factor in the missing body spacers so we have 411mm.

If we take the 445 extended shock measurement and the 411mm of the shock height (factoring in body spacer) installed at level 2, we now have a figure of 34mm that the stock shock is compressed at normal level 2 ride height. This is the figure we want to use to determine how long we can setup our rear shock overall length or unfortunately in the case of these shocks off the shelf the max height we can set the car up for to retain stock like shock travel and retain all levels of adjustment.

Now that we know that the shock at level 2 is compressed 34mm and the airlift rear bag measures 385, we can determine that a compressed length of the airlift shock at level 2 at most can be set to 351mm. So I now jacked the rear hub up until I had that 351mm from the top of the installed shock bolt to the body where the upper shock mount bolts to. Once in place we take a center line of hub to fender measurement and we get 325mm for a hub center to fender measurement.


325mm, assuming the front has more flexibility in the adjustment, is our new 402. This is the highest I can set the car at this time to retain full stock range of travel level 1-4. To better explain if I go to adjust the height in adaptations and I get a measurement fender to hub center of 320mm I would want to enter in 397 so that the car adjusted it up 5mm. 402 is still the number VCDS will base everything on, I just now target 325 instead of 402. If we now take 402-325 we get 77mm or a default height of ~3inches less than stock and this is what that looks like:

https://i.imgur.com/dcBOBTJ.jpg

While not terrible the front is what may be a problem, the picture at the top of the post is just the stock bags deflated and no body spacers. I didn’t write down the measurement since it isn’t critical but I believe that is 310mm fender to hub center. 15mm lower than what the current level 2 would be and 10mm higher than what level 1 would be. Level 2 might be ok and it might but able to turn without too much rubbing and problems as long as I’m not hitting a bump at the same time, but level 1 just might he way too low, the goal is to be able to retain the ability to use level 1 whether it be for highway use or some hard parking. Again assuming the front as it comes from airlift has enough adjustment my current plan is to make a 1”/25mm spacer for the rear upper mount essentially make my base max fender to ground 250mm. For now I am going continue as is and worry about that once I see how the front actually sits.

As noted above the link arm between the lower control arm and the level sensor arm will likely need to be altered in order to make the baseline 325mm fender to hub center put the level control arm in the proper location for a 402mm fender to hub center measurement. Because it sits so close to the pivot point it is not as simple as just taking out 77mm from the length. I’ll need to spend some time measuring this, hopefully get to it this weekend while I have the other rear side apart and can get the parts on the way.


Also the rear airline fitting location is in almost the stock location, wish I had thought more about this since you can just adapt from the 1/4 npt female port on the airlift bag down to 1/8 and run the 4mm push to connect fittings I got. I bought 1/4 npt female to 1/8 npt female adapters to use the steel lines but plan to skip the steel lines in the rear.


I started a youtube channel for my shop a little while back so I filmed a bunch of what I have done so far, but i'm way behind on editing and it will be a while before I get these up. I also have a lot of other measurements I took trying to make sure my range of motion was going to still work out, I can get into that if anyone is interested.

[chris86vw]

Just adapted the stock rear lines and made up my 20mm shorter links for the rear.

Started car up and car adjusted itself to 1.. no problem

let it go up to level 2 no problem.

So right now it seems like my short level links are working so that the car thinks all stock stuff in the front and modified stuff in the rear is all good.


Time to start on front.



Very scientific test of grabbing roof rails and shacking car.. rear suspension is so much stiffer!

[chris86vw]

Front measurements are kicking my butt so here are some pics of the progress...

This is the rear sitting at 345mm fender to hub center. The car was at level 2 when I jacked up to start the front so the extra 20mm over my baseline of 325 is likely from the front being jacked up. It is in jackmode so if they were leaking it should be lower, so this is good news as my rears leaked badly before. not sure if I'm more excited about it being lower, the performance or just not having it leak!!

https://i.imgur.com/OLrU9PD.jpg


This is the new 20mm shorter rear leveling link I made. I didn't want to have to modify anything stock but the lower brackets should be easy enough to find. The ball for the stock link is riveted in so I just ground off the back side and punched it out, new 6mm shaft on the rod end fit right in... Mcmaster indicated that I ordered 100 6x1.0 SS nuts a year ago.. I have no clue where they are so sadly I need to take these apart once I find them. Rod and links are SS with little boots. I can adjust them between about 25mm and 10mm less than stock at the length I cut the threaded rod. I got extra so easy enough to redo if that range doesn't work out, but it should.

https://i.imgur.com/u9moH9A.jpg



For now the rears using stock 4mm line I ended up not using the supplied braided steel line from the airlift kit. I used a 1/4 male npt to 1/8 female npt adapter with a 1/8 npt to 4mm PTC for the rear lines. They are missing one clip location that was mounted on the stock rear shock so I need to come up with something to make sure it doesn't rub/vibrate against the locking collar of the rear coilover. Other than that this was probably the most straightforward part of the install so far.


https://i.imgur.com/3mMdwDx.jpg




So for the rears the shock is nearly vertical so when I Was trying to measure the stock compressed length of the shock at level 2 to determine a starting point for the airlift stuff I just measured and added 25mm back in. Unfortunately due to the angle of body mounting position in relation to the mounting position on the control arm for the front this isn't so simple.

I picked a point center ball joint on the front lower control arm and measured 100mm to the center of the shock mount and 370mm to the mounting point at the subframe.

Since this length is fixed and at a fixed height of 402mm fender to hub center whether the spacers are installed or not can be obtained I can assume that the ball joint is a fixed point. Which means I have a triangle that has a 370mm side, a 370mm side and a 25mm side. If I can determine the angle of this for the point that would be the ball joint then I Can figure out how much the shock mount location on the control arm moved by removing the body lift.


Despite taking a trig class in the last 3ish years I really just don't retain it and so off to the internet.. Plug in 370 370 and 25 into a calculator website and 3.872 degree angle at the ball joint.

So now take that and do 100 100 with that angle between them of 3.872 and I get a missing side of 6.76

What does that tell me? that if I had not removed the body lift my measurement for the shock length would be (rounded) 7mm longer. This is good because my measurements were showing that the stock front shocks unlike the rears at stock level 2 were compressing 57mm vs the rears 34mm. So really it is 50mm. That number still is not great and means level 2 has the car sitting roughly halfway through its travel both stock and airlift. Stock range of motion is roughly 3.7 inches, airlift claimed their bag was 4.7 but I"m measuring 3.7 like stock. Also my 3.7 is on my modified chinese bags with half the bump stop out.



On the rear I determined that the shock moves like 2:3 of that of the outside of the wheel (hub center) So to go 25mm between level 1 and 2 the shock only moved a around 16mm. The fronts travel slightly more with about a 3:4 a 25mm movement at the hub center gets you about 18mm of travel at the shock. So the front shock "runs out" of travel at a faster rate than the rear. Since the stock travel seems to match that of the airlift it shouldn't be an issue. I'm just questioning my actual measurements on compressing the stock and figuring out travel, I might put them in the press and try to do it more controlled.


Also out of the box the front airlift stuff is nearly identical extended length to the stock setup. Assuming that all this works and the system doesn't freak out due to different bag styles or whatever, one could in theory set this up to match a stock height setup it looks like. You would just need to machine some sort of spacer for the rear to go between the body and upper shock mount. I will be sticking with going way too low but that is pretty neat that this could be a way to get a lot of performance out of stock height allroad while retaining full range of motion of the stock level control!!!

[m_haiser]

so one could potentially use the airlift kit, and the rear spacers from the kit NogaroNitwit came up with and have a better handling allroad that's still on air?

[chris86vw]

so one could potentially use the airlift kit, and the rear spacers from the kit NogaroNitwit came up with and have a better handling allroad that's still on air?

Well I'm trying to get a better handling allroad still on air that's slammed [:D] ... ok it might be too slammed for my liking we have to see still.



One could potentially use his rear spacers and stay on air at stockish height, depending on thickness of his spacers. Looking quickly at my notes it looks like 59mm* difference between stock shock length and where I have mine setup in the rear, I'll double check. So if the spacer was anything from 59mm and up to call it 100mm maybe 110-120 you should be able to run at a stock height with the airlift parts. There is 50-75mm worth of threaded body to reduce the height of the rear shock if you got a spacer over 59mm. So if his spacers were 75mm for example you could just lower the coilover part of the rear shock another 15-16mm or so and then the shock would sit in a portion of the stroke equal to stock and retain full range of motion.


*I need to double check how the lack of body spacer factored into that, it might need to be about 84mm to match stock.


I think a 25mm spacer for the rear shocks on a car without the body lift spacers installed would put this car at a great level 2 height, ~2" drop from stock. Basically a hair higher than my picture in post 17. A car with the stock body lift spacers would need about a 50mm to achieve that. Anything retaining stock body lift spacers would likely need at minimum 25mm rear upper shock spacer to run the rear airlift parts.



LR3 I have in for some work today was converted to coils before the current owner had it. I noticed the old lines still installed, sure enough 6mm. Unfortunately they use separate front and rear valve distribution blocks or that could have been a great higher flowing alternative to try.

[chris86vw]

Found his thread they are 2" so ~50mm spacers. They would be a hair short for the purposes of matching stock perfectly but depending on if it was 59 or 84 down from stock rear shock length then it would just have a built in 10mm or 34mm lowering.

[m_haiser]

yeah his spacers if I remember correctly are to run A6 suspension on the AR but I don't remember if he kept/ditched the body spacers or not

[chris86vw]

Done

Sorry no pics yet it was dark and I needed to get back home to let the dogs out.

Front is too low, I mean it looks great but tire catches the the fender on level 1 sitting still.

My theoretical baseline was now 325 not 402. The rear is sitting great at 330 after some tweaks and the front seemed to just want to end up back at 325 after 3 rounds of adaptations. I think about 340 for level 2 will be a good place to not rub on level1. I'll test and take pics if it's not raining tomorrow.


I can't really say how the suspension feels as far as stiffness because I've been driving my a3 so just about anything else feels too soft. About 15 miles on it so far and it feels good, but not sure which way I plan to go with the damping.


Gone between 1 2 and 3 all work fine haven't tried 4 yet

[chris86vw]

Drove it home sat, didn't touch it until this morning. Didn't seem to lose any air in any corner after ~34 hours so that is good.

I drove to my shop no issues, needed to run to the home of one of the people I do some wholesale work for and he lives on a dirt road.. test time!

As I approached hit it up to 3, perfect. Road great on the bumpy pot holed gravel road.

Dropped right back to level 2 for the trip back to my shop, since I don't know how it will be on level 1 at the current height I avoided going over 80mph. I can move it back and forth on level 1 but not sure how much steering input it will take before it rips a flare off at speed. No more BANG on highway expansion cracks that make it sound like all the glass is going to blow out of the car like it did on stock suspension with the body lift out. Still undecided on whether the damping is setup to soft or too hard, can't put my finger on it and not sure I like how it is or not. Seems to handle well though as is on level 2.

Hard parked it back at the shop on level 1 because why not..


Went out a little while ago to go from 1-2-3-4 and it goes up to level 2 much quicker than stock, I filmed a full stock video I'll have to do a video and compare times with the new bags. But then it was struggling to go from 2-3 and by the time it got there the pump was blazing hot and took a while to get to level 4. So once I had it in 4 I snapped some stills and made this gif. The LF corner still seems lower than it should be so I need to do some testing/checking on that. You can kind of tell in the gif that level 1-2 the rear goes up slightly more than the front, and then 2-3 it goes up evenly. Haven't measured but that is what it looks like to me.

Level 4 now is about 1/4 lower than level 1 is stock [cool]

https://i.imgur.com/brgGIQn.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/0LdKnpx.gif

[sayoda]

Looks really good!!!

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

[chris86vw]

Looks really good!!!



Thanks!



Ok little update after living with it a bit:



I "402 modded" the front and rear a little, it should be about 330mm front and 335 rear. The LF front is just always still a hair lower than every other corner, it did this stock though so I might swap level sensors around and see if something changes. Maybe my fender isn't on right, who knows.

Still unsure on what I want to do with the damping, I set them both to halfway (15 clicks) as a starting point. The fronts seem like they could use a few more clicks towards hard and under normal driving I think the rear might need a click or two less. Unfortunately the rear is where I want to start and it requires removal of the shock.

But car loaded up, 2 people, 1 bike on roof and hatch area filled with bike gear/equipment and clothes for a weekend the rear seemed a little soft.

So for damping I think I need to figure out a way to adjust the rear more easily so that I can run it software day to day and firm it up when I have a lot of stuff in the car.



I was worried about level 1 and tire rubbing on the flare causing damage or something catastrophic to happen so I did some local tests on the road my shop is on where I could take long sweeping turns to make sure it wouldn't' rub on a highway and worked my way up to trying some exit ramps. The LF would rub a hair but at this point seems that the fender flare and tire have clearance themselves by shaving off the little lip on the inside in the two spots it rubs. The RF flare has a lot less self clearancing, but it sits a hair higher so makes sense. I started messing around with driving in 2 but then when getting to a parking lot dropping to one to see how bad rubbing was at low speed and more extreme steering angles, some rubs but overall good. Also it looks damn good parked at the new level 1 (~4" lower than stock level 2)


Last friday I drove ~200 miles on back country highways and interstates from my house down to Williamsburg for a race with all the luggage and bike noted above. I was still unsure how the level 1 would react so I kept it at a speed that maintained level 2. The car performed flawlessly, no rubbing on any dips, no banging or popping sounds from the rear with the load. Also 25.5 mpg indicated (didn't hand calculate) with a bike on the roof was one of the best I've seen, no under trays either (actually going to be testing that separately).

Hard parked it on level 1 for the weekend at our rental condo and just drove my parents V90 around.

Monday AM I grabbed it, drove it around parking lot on level 1, because why not, loaded the car...

Then problems...

With all the weight of the gear the rear was throwing pressure faults out of range (I didn't actually check just an educated guess). This seems to be the first big issue with trying to run these bags on stock management. Ok checked it was the pressure one but also a level sensor too reading too low one.. I'll try to get it to have the problem again and dig into it. My pump is questionable so I also want to see if getting a second one in or rebuilding the current one simply gets it filled up faster and makes the pressure issue not a thing.


That meant 200 mile drive home on level 1 with a ton of gear in the back. Handle it like a champ. I got some rubbing on dips in the highway or transitions from a roadway to a bridge surface but mostly just the rear. This is why I think I would want the rear damping a little stiffer when loaded up. Firmer shocks would probably eliminate this. I had the same issue when running GTI springs on my Golf Sportwagen. The exact same springs and wheels as I had on my wagon installed on a GTI didn't rub, so it just came down to shocks being too soft on my wagon.



Unloaded the car last night, didn't bother trying to raise to level 2 so did that this morning on the way to the gym, went right up and sat at level 2 just fine. So this confirms that the raising to level 2 while loaded was simply due to the weight. Good to know incase I am well loaded and need ground clearance at a destination I will have to make sure that I keep it in level 2 on the highway until I resolve this. 70-75 is my new highway cruise speed anyway so this is fine, it shouldn't drop on its own and be an issue.


After the gym I had to run down to Summit Point Motorsports Park. This was my commute for about 5 years so I knew the roads well and have driven then in everything from the GFs sentra to supercharged R8s. Sure I wasn't getting the allroad on the track but honestly the roads to the track are a hoot. Figured great place to do some comparison testing so dropped the car down to level 1 [cool]

CAR IS AMAZING. I'm honestly blown away at how well this car handles with my cheap ass all seasons, A6 H&R bars and the suspension as it is. It just stayed flat through all the turns, I think I was taking some of them quicker than my A3 does on KW3s, good rear bar and sticky tires. Just effortless and no wallowing around floating and rolling like it did on the stock suspension, tires were the limit now not the suspension, got them screaming a few times.. Can't wait to get some good rubber under this now.




Funny thing on the way back from Williamsburg at some point the GF and I kept seeing these black signs with a white toyota emblem and arrows on them. Figured it was some sort of event but didn't think anything of it and forgot. As I approached SPMP this morning I saw one. Yesterday we saw them very far from the track so this was interesting. Then I see a Supra sign.. pull into the building I needed to go to get out and sure enough.. entry gate shows some sort of Supra event. Think it was press only though [:(] Didn't see any Supras on track, main, which is all I can see from the building (and my old office window) seemed to have some sort of private rental going on, I saw a gt3 cup car and a few other things lapping main. Supras must have been on Jefferson or Shenandoah.

https://i.imgur.com/wUCVJma.jpg

[m_haiser]

somewhat off topic, but is there any fitment issues using A6 bars on the AR? I was always under the understanding it wouldn't fit with the compressor in place

[chris86vw]

somewhat off topic, but is there any fitment issues using A6 bars on the AR? I was always under the understanding it wouldn't fit with the compressor in place

I've not actually tried with the compressor in the stock location but it doesn't seem like the A6 bars would fit with the pump in the stock location. Since I planned to try and run dual pumps since day 1 I just moved the stock compressor and valve block to the spare tire well. I am annoyed with the pump so I am going to move it back under the car. I'll test with the A6 bar before I get rid of it, but I tested and can't fit 2 pumps with the existing bar.


I need to just pull these off and sell them but I am missing one of the stock rear mounting brackets/bushings. With the airlift on I am more motivated to swap to the stock bars to see how much of the handling is the airlift stuff vs the bars.

[chris86vw]

Stuff to make a harness to run dual pumps has been ordered should have it by the end of the week. I'll test with my clone Viair pump for now along with the stock one. Then rebuild the stock one and also test worn stock, viair clone and rebuilt stock for flow shortly.


Anyone have a spare level control module they want to let go for free/cheap?

[chris86vw]

Little update

Good news: The knock off pump I have was able to run my allroad suspension flawlessly. I teed it into the stock pump so it was drawing in air/compressing via the new viair clone and it was dumping/venting via the stock pump. There were no issues and even was able to raise and lower the car very quickly compared to stock pump, pressure fault and issues raising the car loaded were gone. I was in Cape May last week with a car load of gear, 2 people, 2 bikes on the roof 1 inside and even stopped at costco on the way home filling car to the brim.. right up from level 1 to level 2 when needed.

My issues with raising the car loaded a few months ago were just the fault of a weak stock pump. I really thought the pressure fault I was getting was due to difference in bag styles and going to be the death of this project but seems to just be the pump.

Basically I have full functionality if not better than stock with a known good pump, and no faults or issues with the airlift stuff once the system can build the right pressure.


Bad news: The knock off pump lasted 3 weeks.. it seized on the way home from work monday, blew the fuse (which is buried under the dash, going to relay it and put one more accessible), and I barely got back to work the next day before being too low to drive. Stock pump is really weak so rebuild kit on the way for that for some testing. 90 day warranty but bought it 2 years ago.. waiting to hear back from the seller if there is anything they can do since it was in use less than 90 days. I doubt it but can't hurt to try.



I wanted to like trying to use the viair/clones but they are larger, and louder. I thought the stock pump in my hatch was loud/annoying until i put the viair clone in. At first I thought it was just a different tone, viair clone deeper vs a tinny high pitched sound from the stock pump. But switching back to stock last night there is a massive db difference between the two. even under the car I bet you'd always hear the viair where you can't really here stock unless you try. The stock pumps have the built in driers for the air so that simplifies things and 2 junkyard ones with rebuild kits is cheaper than a single water resistant real viair. I timed the viair filling the stock tank to a 120 or 150 psi, if the rebuilt stock one comes close or beats it, that will be the deciding factor.

Think I am back to the plan of dual stock pumps under the car. I don't want to run dual tanks until I get properly working dual pumps, single pump will just hit the thermal cut off before it could fill them. Once I know I have dual pumps working I'll move into the dual tanks. Once that is all sorted I will get into the updated valve block and larger lines. Although to be honest it does seem to raise faster with the airlift stuff and a good pump or if the tank is full and I still have concerns larger lines will overshoot when raising and lowering causing more problems than it is worth.




I've adjusted up, via level control adaptations, another half inch or so which means that without making some sort of spacer for the rear I have lost level 4, never really need it but it maxes out the rear before it can get high enough and errors out. 1-2-3 all worked great though and fast.


Plan is to cut out some spacers for the rear out of 1/4" steel and see what I need to get it so that I can drive level 1 with no rubbing at all and still maintain full level 1-4 control.



Oh and finished all the parts for the proper body lift delete.. the rad support was the last part. What a pain in the ass Will find photos and put them up later, not a direct swap.

[Bordom]

Can you explain for how you tied into the stock pump? I'm not entirely sure I follow on how you did it.

If I understand correctly, the stock pump air inlet is hooked into the viair clone outlet? How did you run power/trigger the viair clone to turn on?

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Tapatalk

[chris86vw]

Stock inlet is 2way it draws air in when the compressor calls for it and it also contains the release valve for when the car needs to bleed off pressure from a corner. The outlet is then also 2way it feeds the distribution block that compressed air and also carries the bled off air back to the release valve and back out through the inlet.

The Viair pump is just 1 way can only suck in and pump out, can't be used to release the pressure in the bags.

So the outlet line from the stock compressor to the distribution block I already converted to 1/4", I had drilled and tapped the block and the compressor. I just cut that line and put a Tee fitting into it. Off the Tee I ran a 1/4" line over to the outlet on the viair pump.

For power I had a spare pump harness laying around so I just wired the viair pump directly to the stock pump power, plug and play. The dump/release valve on the stock pump remained wired as stock.

Air inlet for the viair was just their little inlet muffler/filter thing slapped on.

I already disconnected it all but have a disassembled stock pump laying around, as soon as I pull the broken viair clone out of my car Ill do a quick bench photo.

But to raise the car needs air from comp.. turns on comp which is now wired to the viair clone and draws air in via the little inlet it came with, pumps out air via the line to the T fitting which goes to both stock comp (but can't go anywhere) and into distribution block out to tank or corner that needs air.

to lower the car, needs to bleed off air via pump.. Comp motor not involved so viair pump never turned on. distriution block opens whatever corner needs to be bled off that fills the line T'd between the comps, in reverse of the fill situation some pressurized air hits the viair clone, it can't go anywhere but it also goes to the stock comp which has the release valve. Release valve is opened and dumps air back out through that stock little round air inlet.

[Bordom]

That's incredibly simple really. The Viair is mounted in the hatch area right?

I have 2 viair compressors that have been sitting in my basement for 2 years. May as well put them to use in aiding my crippled suspension lol.

Will you also post a wiring guide?

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Tapatalk

[chris86vw]

Right now I have everything in the spare tire well for easy access while testing but it would be pretty easy to add the viair you have in the hatch and run a line down to stock pump to splice.

I'll take some pics and check wiring when I get into the shop today.

[chris86vw]

Dicked around for way too long on some tuning stuff need to do some real work that pays, will get the wiring/plumbing stuff up in the next few days.

[cookiez]

Awesome read.

I've actually been thinking about doing this lately, so to stumble upon this thread and to get it confirmed that my own ideas work!

Awesome work and thank you for all the details!

[chris86vw]

https://i.imgur.com/yKheSuK.jpg


Ok finally ripped the broken compressor out and made a little picture of how they were setup to work together so that stock pump was dumping and viair clone(we'll just call this VC from here out) was supplying the compressed air. Also if I say pump by mistake I mean compressor..I keep saying pump for some reason.

So the failure of the VC compressor was either the piston or rod, half the piston was cracked off and the rod was also snapped. the motor was fine and had the rod not jammed it up fuse would not have blown.


Lets look at the stock pump first and follow air both in and out of the system.

Blue line in bottom left corner of photo is what goes to the inlet filter/muffler thing (my muffler might be clogged I removed and noise didn't change much).

The blue line then goes to a T right around the end of the compressor there and this is actually where fresh uncompressed air enters the compressor. The incoming air is cooling it as it comes in. At the top of the piston is a thin metal reed, as the piston travels down the reed pushes up and lets air into the compressor. When it bottoms out and starts to go up the pressure building in the "combustion chamber" for lack of a better term even though there is no combustion pushes the reed closed so the air is ale o compress.

The air leaves the piston/cylinder area into the area of the black arrow in the upper left corner of the pic. That is the desiccant that removes moisture from the compressed air. A benefit of the stock pumps that the VC or real viair would not have and require you to add a water separator to deal with moisture. On the inlet of the desiccant area I am 99% sure there is some sort of check valve but I"m missing a few parts from my spare pump, maybe mistaken might be on the outlet. The purple arrow is a pressure relieve valve, it has a higher setting on allroads than some other applications that share this pump. If the distribution block closes and the compressor has built up pressure it can bleed off via that purple circle.

I kind of covered it too much with the green line but the red line going to the black tee from the stock pump would be the pressurized air going to the distribution block (with no tee) stock. The from what I can tell this port which does not open/close electronically is just there also houses the pressure sensor. (a key for some stuff way down the road with non stock distribution blocks)

The distribution block can then either direct air to the tank or each corner to raise the car.


To let the car down this basically works in the opposite. Green line from the distribution block (same line when installed) ignoring the Tee then goes back to the same port that it came out of the pump from. The brownish circle is the stock electronically controlled release valve, when it needs to vent air from a corner it opens the corresponding corner on the valve block and also that brown circle valve. That greenline isn't actually straight through like I stupidly drew it but the air then leaves the compressor assembly through that valve and back into the blue inlet hose to be vented through the filter/ muffler.



so for using the stock pump to vent and the VC pump to supply pressurized air you just add the T like you see there. Fresh air is now being drawn in from the yellow air on the VC compressor below the piston just like the stock pump does. Same type of reed system draws the air into the "combustion chamber" and then compressed air is forced out through the red line to the new Tee. Since that brown circle release valve is closed nothing exits through the stock pump, the entire line system just pressurizes and the distribution block sends air to each corner or the tank if needed when the VC is running.

to blow the air off it works exactly like it did above stock. The VC pump is just idle and the pressure being released into its outlet line just deadheads at the check valve that was in the top of the VC.


For wiring as you can see on the stock pump it had some yellow butt connectors from some previous hackjob replacement of the stock pump for this one (its dated 2009). I just pulled the wires out ( I said hack job) and spliced them into the VC wires. I was then able to just wire the VC compressor directly into the stock wiring. Since I have had the fuse issue and it is buried in the dash the plan is to run a relay for each pump going forward that will be powered off a 0 guage and distribution block I already ran into the hatch area, has 4 4gauge out I think? That will just go to a small fuse block and each pump will run off a 30 amp fuse relayed with trigger coming from that stock pump wiring harness.





There is a chance the purple arrow release valve that blows off excess pressure was bleeding/leaking but the pump was not running long and seemed to be building pressure fine so I don't think it was an issue. That is the only problem I Can see with doing it this way, but didn't result in issues for me at this time.



Since I am missing pieces to my second shot compressor, issue with it not releasing pressure probably from me taking it apart.... If anyone has a weak/bad stock pump that is complete for free or a good price that I can just order a rebuild piston for to get running again I'll start testing running dual stock pumps. Otherwise funds are going to fueling before I make more progress on the suspension. Also still looking for a stock level control module if anyone has one to donate/cheap/I pay shipping whatever.


If that made it more confusing let me know or if anyone needs any clarity on that just ask.

[cookiez]

Saw another c5 allroad for sale with full airlift suspension. airlift management, but seemed to have full set of allroad arms and tophats etc.

Any thoughts of which parts that you really should swap to regular a6 parts?

[chris86vw]

Saw another c5 allroad for sale with full airlift suspension. airlift management, but seemed to have full set of allroad arms and tophats etc.

Any thoughts of which parts that you really should swap to regular a6 parts?


I'm not sure how they used allroad tophats, the rear airlift bags come with their own and the fronts I don't believe would physically bolt up.


Arms, do you mean control arms? IF that is the case then the arms need to match the front wheel bearing upright/housing. The rear doesn't need to be touched from what I could tell.

The main reason for the front control arm/bearing housing change is at a normal operating position due to the body lift the tie rod would be at an improper angle. So it is raised at the top to stay in alignment at level 2 and not go way out of wack at level 3 and 4.

Swapping those parts out is really up to you, due to it being about 1" taller the upright and upper control arms will hit an upper limit sooner, so if you wish to be able to dump the car on the ground then you won't go as low. If you wish to run at a significantly lower ride height day to day then using the allroad uprights would put your tie rods at a non optimal angle. For both those reasons swapping to the A6 parts would be recommended.


Going beyond just doing the arms/bearing housings is when things get tricky, there are LOTS of little bits that need to be swapped out if you attempt to remove the body lift. At bare mininum you must swap out the front bearing housings/arms, the spacers themselves obviously, front engine mounts and swap the driveshaft center bearing or use an A6 center bearing. But that means you now can't use the snub mount, your radiator fan won't line up right if you are using the mechanical fan (on engines with them). The bi pipes are not the same length, but work. To get the rest of that working right you need to swap the rad support.. but that isn't straight forward as an A6 rad support does not fit on an allroad without modification. Once you swap the rad support you need an A6 aux fan, PS cooler, and a few other misc bits. Also technically a few coolant hoses are different between the A6 and allroad, but I ran fine on the allroad stuff with the body lift out for over a year.



If your goal is to just replace your existing air suspension with something better than stock type parts, then just throwing in the airlift stuff (with some rear spacers to get the right length of the rear shocks) should work, even on stock management.. well that seems to be working so far.

If your goal is to go lower without compromising your suspension travel and messing up your steering angles then swapping out front control arms and bearing housings would be needed.

If your goal is to go as low as possible then you really need to remove the body lift and do all the related stuff to make it work right. I kind of don't care about going as low as possible I just really don't care about having a lifted wagon and I had a parts car to steal all the stuff from.

[cookiez]

Thank you for the elaborate answer, and yes i meant control arms.

My goal is to go a bit lower and get a better performing suspension, so will probably look into a6 arms and bearing housing in the front :)

[chris86vw]

Ok so little update after pulling off the H&R bars..

With the bars off I felt like I was getting a bit more rubbing and planned to try to start to adjust the damping while I had a baseline of the stock bars back in.

Rears required some disassembly so just did fronts and had noticed less rubbing up front but the imbalance made the rear rub more. Also a little harsher ride but still entirely tolerable, still nicest riding car I have. Put it up on the lift last night to fix a few things (swap RF euro tdi axle back in, fix rear swaybar issue, check on some other things) so figured good time to adjust the rears.

Originally set them up to 15 clicks, so half way. I did the fronts to 23 so did the rears to 23 as well.

Removing the rear was much easier than I was thinking it would be since the top parts are so short compared to stock and other similar setups.

https://i.imgur.com/gU5Pyjf.jpg


Drive in today at level 1 was fantastic, zero rear rubbing on the "jumps" or fast whoops. RF had the most rubbing but I haven't done an alignment, my camber gauge battery terminal got corroded and haven't fixed it. It and the LF rub only when going hard into a turn and it is loaded up. It is also LOW on level 1, if I get this up 5-10mm I bet it would almost never rub.



So onto the little fixes..


I made the line a little long on the passenger rear and it was touching the lower control arm.. just shortened it 2" and all is good:

After:
https://i.imgur.com/3EDxoOc.jpg



This one really surprised me, two fold issue. The stock sway bar end tab is thinner than the H&R, factor in that they are not at all stiff and the amount of flex meant that under certain conditions that end of the bolt was rubbing on the locking collar on the rears. Luckily it was rubbing on the collar as they are replaceable, but not even going to bother getting them anytime soon, they still do their job.

Added a few washers to the bolt since I didn't feel like digging for one of the right grade or dealing with cutting it down, got it far enough away that it shouldn't be an issue.


Damage oops..

https://i.imgur.com/i51A4oS.jpg


I've got the 034 end links, not 100% impressed with the life to be honest, they are done already after less than 2 years. 200 bucks? yeah, not again.



I was hoping my damping adjustment would fix my most annoying daily issue which is the RR (LR too but less often) shock topping out in a few situations. The right turn into an alley next to my house, dropping into my driveway/parking area from the alley right behind my house, and going over speed bumps. The damping adjustment seems to have more of an impact on compression than rebound so didn't do what I hoped.

But the good news is I located someone who has some delrin spacers that are 25mm and he's offered to sell me some rears at a good price. I just need to send payment, price is great I'm just being a cheapass and haven't ordered. Also wanted to test if the damping helped first.


I'll be sorting this clunk and the ride height before I move onto the dual tank/compressor setup. Want to try and perfect the setup as close to stock as possible before I get into the other things.

[j0wE]

Hey Chris, did you extend the airlift shocks at all? I found I had to extend the lower body almost all the way and the "fork" mount another 2 inches almost to barely get to stock level 3 height. Or did you not set them for stock heights at all?

[chris86vw]

Hey Chris, did you extend the airlift shocks at all? I found I had to extend the lower body almost all the way and the "fork" mount another 2 inches almost to barely get to stock level 3 height. Or did you not set them for stock heights at all?

My goal was not to be ale to attain actual stock heights for the given levels of suspension adjustment, only to be able to continue to be ale to adjust between those 4 levels. It is theoretically possible but not without significant spacers for the rear. Not sure about the front to be honest, sounds like no?


I adjusted the rear shocks to the safest point of adjustment as per the manual, which is when you can still see threads through the little viewing window. I did cheat a little and there is about 1 thread worth of open window. From there I worked the math on what height this would allow me to adjust the rear and then applied that to the front. This set my fronts up so that they were adjusted very far below the minimum and I have several inches of adjustment up on those if I recall correctly.


I have since added spacers to the rear as 402ing my fronts up to prevent rubbing on level 2 resulted in the rear shocks having near 0 down travel on level 2 and would "top out" even on sharp right turns on the street (low speed), I'd lift the RR wheel essentially. I took some pics and have been driving on them for 2 weeks so will update with the changes and review shortly, I just want to take some measurements before posting on that.



When I first set up the car I could barely reach level 4 but it would reach it, once I adjusted everything up I could no longer get into level 4 due to the shocks hitting a limit, it would time out and throw a range error when trying to go into level 4. I tried after putting the spacers in to go to level 4 and it still errored out, so I think I need to actually revisit the front as the rear does not seem to be a limitation any longer at its current base height.


I wish I had done some further testing on the stock car to figure out available down travel compared to what I have now, since off road (level 4) up travel is often more critical than down travel it makes sense that in level 4 they may have set it up so that you had like 3" up and 1" down. I might be able to work out that math from my notes..if I can find my notes.



Been distracted the last few weeks finally getting my jeep done.. only been 3 years since I cut off the front suspension...

https://i.imgur.com/3OxMZm8.jpg

Beefed up HP30, regear (to a 3.07.. because cummins), WJ knuckle/big brake swap, plus cross over steering, custom mid length 3 link suspension, and 1.5" front stretch[:D]

Should be done this weekend and then back to messing with the allroad.

[Bordom]

Any updates for the air block?

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Tapatalk

[rah253]

Any updates for the air block?

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Tapatalk

X2

[bwjpc92]

Chris, just happened across this thread... swapping the front core support is a huge pain in the ass and isn't worth it. Custom snub bracket to move the mount up 25mm is way easier but only if you're using an electric fan already. I told you forever ago I'd send you my second one but forgot all about it. It's in the spares pile somewhere lol. Glad to see you got it anyways. Mine is still a work in progress, instead of just deleting the spacers I went solid aluminums from 034 in the front and designed/machined steel inserts in the rear. Should make for a fun "sports car" with a 4:1 diff and rear LSD

[Bordom]

Still waiting for valve block updates.

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Audizine Forum mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87676)

[ChicagosPhantom]

Still waiting for valve block updates.

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Audizine Forum mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87676)I was wondering what happened with Chris recently... He was last active in January this year.

[Bordom]

I was wondering what happened with Chris recently... He was last active in January this year.I noticed that after I posted. Decided to poke around his profile and saw that

Sent from my SM-G9600 using Tapatalk