I am trying to lower my car. I started to get Sportlines with Koni Yellows but as soon as I saw how low the Type J kit made the car, I think that The Sportlines will be too low to get around the city in. I live in Pittsburgh, PA, not exactly the best roads. With about $4500 into the kit and paint, I do not want to destroy anything.
My concerns are regarding the air ride suspension. This seems much more practical in a driving sense. By raising the car when driving I will not scrap the kit on every bump, parking lot entrance and hill like I would with the Sportlines. But do the bags handle as well on air bags? If I decide to take a turn fast will they hold up and give the performance needed?
How do they hold up on a daily driver? I drive it no more than 2-3 times a week right now (if that). How often do the bags, seals, or compressors wear out and need replaced?
I am looking at a few kits in the classifieds, anyone have any feedback on those kits, sellers, etc?
Thanks in advance for all help.
i have had a j bagged as a dailyfor 4 years now so i would say they hold up good
They are designed to be a performance part originally. However someone got the idea to replace to use it for sitting balls to the ground.
Air Ride Tech does a demo on how air ride can be used to improve handling and give you that stylish stance.
I've been daily driving mine for a few months now. No problems. Except when I am not paying attention and hit a pot hole. That hurts. But eh. My fault for not paying attention. lol.
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I was reading another thread and someone said their air ride was too bouncy. I guess there was too much air in the bags. They were told to ride on 60psi. What is the ride height of 60 psi. I want to be right around stock height for driving around this city. If the car needs to be raised for parkinglot entrances and speedbumps and what not, what are the reccommended psi's for these situations?
air ride is fine for a daily driver. i had air on my car for 3 years and it worked great, even in winter.
as far as ride heights go you will not be able to ride at full stock height. that will require too much psi in the bags and will not be a comfortable ride. i use to ride at 35-40 in the front and 45 in the rear. 45 in the rear was just tucking the top of my tires on my 18s and 35-40 in the front left me with about an inch from the fender to tire.
Just pulling into somewhere raise that sucker all the way up it wont hurt anything, but as soon as you clear the obstacle lower it way way down, and like was said ^ stock height-ish would be about 120-130psi in the bags and thats a no go, I've done that once for about 15 feet and it is harsh as hell.
Aaron Zeitler wrote:I was reading another thread and someone said their air ride was too bouncy. I guess there was too much air in the bags. They were told to ride on 60psi. What is the ride height of 60 psi. I want to be right around stock height for driving around this city. If the car needs to be raised for parkinglot entrances and speedbumps and what not, what are the reccommended psi's for these situations?
ya, he was riding with way too much PSI...but i assume on his setup he doesnt have gauges or doesnt use them since he didnt know what he was riding at.
but you dont need to ride stock height around the city. i lived in pitt not long ago, and most areas you can ride low and be fine. but watch out for the quick incline changes like pulling onto arlington from pretty much any road that connects, or the brick roads like up on mt. washington. i busted my front bumper bouncing thru there, lol.
the main thing is to just be conscious of where you are and what obstacles are around you.
Sort of OT, but I must thank everybody because this thread taught me something today. I didn't realize that with bagged suspension, airbag pressure increased with ride height. I figured that the weight load was static, so inflating or deflating would just be a matter of moving air volume around. You'd need x-amount of pressure to get the car off the ground, and then you were set. More pressure was useful only for faster adjustments.
I guess now I know better. So I that means they behave rather like balloons then? If that's the case, I'm amazed at their durability for repeated stretching.
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I had a blitz front and a bomex rear with the magnaflow dual exhaust setup with stock wheels and suspension and scraped just getting out of parking garages. I had no more than 1 inch of clearance getting in and out of my drive way. Also at the top of my street the exhaust after the cat would drag going over the hill. Little things like this are what concern me. I don't want to be sitting and holding up traffic behind me to adjust the height. I was hoping to find a comfortable and reasonable ride height. If I use sportlines I will have no more than three inches of clearnce all around, If bags are going to tuck the top of 18's I am afraid that might not be enough room for clearance if a bump is hit.
Sorry, I am new to the suspension game. Never wanted to lower a car until the fender gaps on the Cavalier. they fender gaps are probably around three - 3.5 inches in the rear and 2.5-3 in front. I want to eliminate that and still be able to drive the car.
How fast do the bags adjust? I don't want to be holding up traffic for a couple of seconds just to raise and lower the car, can it be done safely while going down the road?
I dont know, I am still torn between sportlines and bags. with right around $7000 in the body, paint and wheels, I don't want to risk destroying this. Anyone in the pittsburgh area have air ride that I could see first hand on how it does? Thanks for dealing with and helping me through this.
well I can go from my normal ride height of 30ish in the front to 80ish to clear stuff in a second or less with the flick of my switch box.
damn. I must ride like higher than all of you. lol.
I ride 45-50 on the front, but 30-40 on the rear
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I just don't know.... Can anyone with they Type J kit with or without the RKSport Dual cat back and air ride show me pics of their ride height (40-60psi) and the height to raise it to for bumps?
^^not sure how soon you're trying to purchase, but i should be in pittsburgh in july at some point. if you havent bought by then id be willing to come by and take you for a ride. show ya how it all works and rides.
i know its a little while off, but otherwise...theres gotta be someone around pitt with bags
Well, You guys did it! I canceled my order of Koni Yellows today (which were also just being shipped out today) and have plans to get an air ride kit from the classifieds. I will be adding a digital controller to it. It may be awhile before it is installed but I will let you know when it is done. Thanks for all your help.
dont get the digital controller. its nothing but problems and its no where near as good as a good old fashion switch box imo
really? A+ performance said that it had presets in it so all you needed to do was push a button and be at the ride height you wanted. It seemed to be easier than a bunch of switches. Also, the kit I am looking at is only four valves, and with the digital controller they said that it would replace those vavles so I could adjust each corner. I also like the clean setup of the digital, unless there is a way to mount the switches other that a big plastic box.
I do remember reading a thread where the guy said that it dumped all of the air out occasionally. He was also frying ECU (i think that is what he said) and I assumed it was a short somewhere causing this.
Anyone else have a bad experiences with the digital controller?
there are alot of people that dont like them. to me their not worth their money. switches arent hard to work at all and you can easily set your ride height w/ switches.
Digital Sucks
someone else also made a post (cant find it though) about switching from the digital to a switch box becase of the ride height thing. if your dead set on a digital setup, id atleast look into dakota digtal gauges. its much better than the easystreey autopilot. if you want a switch box though, get a avs box.
Aaron Zeitler wrote:really? A+ performance said that it had presets in it so all you needed to do was push a button and be at the ride height you wanted. It seemed to be easier than a bunch of switches. Also, the kit I am looking at is only four valves, and with the digital controller they said that it would replace those vavles so I could adjust each corner. I also like the clean setup of the digital, unless there is a way to mount the switches other that a big plastic box.
I do remember reading a thread where the guy said that it dumped all of the air out occasionally. He was also frying ECU (i think that is what he said) and I assumed it was a short somewhere causing this.
Anyone else have a bad experiences with the digital controller?
ya man, it would really suck to have all the air just dump out while you're driving......if that happens, say good bye to your body kit and possibly rims.
i love my old skool switches....so much more fun!!
Yea dude, Switches are the way to go the digital idea is cool becuase of the digital gauges but why not just go with a standard 8 valve set up and have fbss and have 10 switches? It isnt hard to adjust ride height with the switchbox and i personally feel like I have more control having the switchbox in my lap instead of the ugly little digital thing that most people mount somewhere
I ride with 60 in front and back. Just cause the drift sides hang so low. Which sucks.
i love the switches, u can set it up to where one switch raises anad lowers the whole car. its nice. i would never convert over to digital after hearin all the problems that people have had.
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StrippedCav98 (Now Quotable) wrote:there are alot of people that dont like them. to me their not worth their money. switches arent hard to work at all and you can easily set your ride height w/ switches.
Digital Sucks
someone else also made a post (cant find it though) about switching from the digital to a switch box becase of the ride height thing. if your dead set on a digital setup, id atleast look into dakota digtal gauges. its much better than the easystreey autopilot. if you want a switch box though, get a avs box.
That was me
However if you plan not to show off, drag, or play than its not that bad.
Just need to watch the system carefully, and pay attention to small details. It is a breeze to install, and any moron (like me
) can do it.
Just plug the labeled harness's together and connect your power and ground wires.
It has its positives, and of course negatives.
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I love y Switchbox,Have 2- 10 boxes in the ca,1 to be molded in the center console and another "playbox" with a nice 20ft cord.I also Have a custom Digital setup through my carputer but thats an independent project
