Air Lift anti-squat airbags

My car is lowered, but not ridiculous on H&R springs. Wheels are not stock, wider offset, but also not ridiculous at 35mm (18x8.5). With a 245/40 tire they rubbed over moderate bumps, and badly with passengers. Rolled the fenders....a lot. Helped, but still rubbed. H&R are just a pretty soft spring, and even with the Bilstein shocks the rubbing was happening, and once I started making more power the car dolphined noticeably as well.

The Air Lift kit was mentioned in another thread, so I took a look. Immediately wanted to give it a try. Took a couple of tries with Amazon because they were backordered, but they finally showed up. Here`s how it went:

First off, kit # 80754 is the ideal one for our cars. It fits very well inside the rear coil springs, dimensionally speaking. (getting them in was another story. I`ll get to that). It comes with two bags, plenty of hose, zip ties, clamps, a T fitting (didn`t use it. I`ll also cover that), and two air valves.

**edit: kind of a "no sh*t" point, but jack the car up and let the wheels hang to let the coil springs expand for install. Ramps aren`t going to cut it**

The bags are not "hard" to install. Take the rubber nipple cover off, squeeze the air out, put the cover back on so it stays deflated. Then shove. For the love of God, shove. My first one went in fairly easily, the second took a good 20 minutes of wiggling, cussing, and more shoving. Once they`re in, pull the nipple covers off and let them expand, then push them to the bottom of the spring. You do this in order to get the plastic bolt protective cover onto the bolt at the top side, inside the spring. It keeps the bolt from chafing the bag. There are two disks/bag seats included with the kit, designed to go inside the spring for the bag to rest on. They don`t fit, I didn`t want to grind them down, so I decided to forego using them. No issues so far.

Once the bags are installed, the rest is easy. Route the hose where you want it, avoiding the exhaust. I routed mine down the control arm, up and over the muffler heat shield, then just drilled out the lower license plate holes and installed the air valves there. I figured it would be better to have independent air pressure control so I didn`t use the T.

They don`t use a lot of pressure. 5psi min, 50psi max. I stopped most tire rubbing with a full tank of gas at about 18psi, with 30 in there I took a whole group of friends on a ride and no rubbing. Squat under acceleration is completely gone. At 40psi it was ultra firm, but no pogo-ing (possibly due to the Bilsteins). A little much for DD, but man did it corner like a champ. Almost considered changing my RSB setting. I let some air out instead. Been driving around at about 25psi and it seems perfect for me. I use/keep a mountain bike compact tire pump in the jack storage spot to air them up with. They`re small volume and a compressor would be overkill. Having the valves at the license plate makes for no hassle access.

Total install time was about 45 minutes. There are other kits that will work, but the 80754 is the best fitting one, given that AirLift doesn`t make a vehicle specific kit for us. For less than $100 I will call this a total win.

 

Good info, definitely something i am going to consider. Do you have any pictures of them installed?

 

Not much to see, really. Air valve location in one, installed bag in the other. You can see the plastic bolt protector in the 2nd pic. It`s just a "knob" of sorts that snaps over the bolt head. You could conceivably not use it but I figured since it was easy enough to get in there I`d use it.

 

i have a set to put in my car already, I'm lowered on COBB springs from 2008. I fear that they have sagged and the car is too low for the bags. This post kind of gives me the motivation to actually attempt the install.

 

This is great; strongly considering adding these to reduce rubbing when entering/leaving my absurdly steep driveways at home and the office.

 

I can officially now second Jef's findings. These bags have solved the problems I was having with my rear suspension bottoming out on steep angled driveways. I've yet to test the car full of people but I'm feeling confident that I'll have no problems there, as well. I have them inflated to 30-35 psi and things are feelin' great! I also copied Jef's license plate location method for the valve stems, for easy inflation and pressure checking.

 

Run these bags as well! Rear end sag on the gen 1 especially with lowering springs always have saggy ass syndrome. Makes for miserable city driving. I run both bags t-off the cross member over the the lip of the bunker with a single valve stem.

 

I considered this for my Pu a while ago and completely forgot about it. I'm lowered on KW V3 coilovers. Would this still benefit me? Makes launching more controllable?

If I was to use them, I assume the height of the car goes unchanged, correct?

 

Depending on how much pressure you put in. It will raise up a little bit. I put both bags at around 30psi and it does lift the rear about half an inch. But it significantly stiffens the rear. I need as much as I can with 8.5" +35 wheels and 245/45 nt05s if I dont air the bags I slightly rub even with a flat roll on the fenders.

 

I have minor issues with rubbing when there are things in the car, so they will obviously help alleviate that. As far as traction goes, considering it helps with squat, would this technically help with front end traction? Do you always keep them aired up, or only if you know you will be doing hard driving/heavy loading?

Sorry for all the questions.

 

If and when I do take the Mazda outside it's usually only to give it the sauce lol. It's a weekend warrior now. I keep them aired any time I drive it with the urban environment and terrible roads my wheels will go through the wheel wells without them. In sure they've saved and prolonged the life of the yellows too.

Spirited road driving, twists and turns about 20 PSI. Track or around town I turn them to bricks.

 

Thank you for the rundown. I will definitely be giving these a try, as $80 on Amazon is a damn good price for something that changes the car the way you guys say.

 

Vince, just make sure the bag diameter will fit your springs....I don't know if the KW coil springs are smaller diameter or not; you might need a different model number than what we used. I always kept mine aired to 30ish psi in the juan, for reference, and it definitely helped alleviate rubbing with larger wheel setups and un-rolled fenders. Didn't seem to adversely impact ride quality or raise the height at all, for me.

 

I wonder if this will work with the speed6

 

I got these waiting to be installed this winter. W00t!

 

I THINK spring diameter is the same... It fits in the same perch as stock obviously... I'll have to find out.

 

The problem with KW's and these air bags is the nipple at the bottom.

The KW rear spring perch is a giant plate, which wont allow the bottom inflator nipple to pass through the bottom. Which is why most of the guys that use these are on lowering springs or have an adjuster at the top instead of the KW design.

 

Maybe I could put the nipple on the top instead? Do the bags need to be orientated a certain way?

 

They shouldn't need to be, just make sure the lines don't bind up anywhere.

 

They look cylindrical, so not much orientation there.

As far as putting the inflator at the top, remember that you have a subframe bolt at the top. So you would need to remove the air bag almost every time to adjust the air pressure.

Not trying to put you off on the idea, I know they would be a benefit to those soft ass KW springs. I just think that you may have to look at different models to make it work.