Air ride for an 91?!?!

[MattSWE]

Hey guys, here recently I have been throwing around the idea of putting an air ride suspension setup on my vehicle. I have researched the project as far as air management kits go, and strut bags, but still have some questions. Does anyone know where to get some strut bags that will work, or would custom fabbed ones be the only option. I know there is a kit here

http://www.airbagit-store.com/produc...sp%3Fid%3D2122

but considering I can get a $600 management kit w/o bags from suicidedoors.com, there must be other bag options for my camry. It's definetely not worth $2K for bags.

how much lower would I actually be able to go other than the intrax I have now?
any ideas.

[nogard]

I don't know if you would be able to go much lower than the intrax. You should take a look some time at the amount of suspension there is for travel, when the car is sitting on the springs. Suprisingly there isn't that much, only a few inches. You could make the car a lot lower when it was parked, if the airbags deflate that low. But you most likely would be riding on the bump stops if you tried to drive it like that.

My parents Lincoln MK VII had factory air bags, the leveling computer went to hell. At the time it was my sisters car so I rewired the airbag solenoids and compressor to some switches on the dash. Then the car could be manually lowered/raised. It could be slammed to the bump stops. I would drive more than 25 mph, it is hard on the car, and very bouncy, you are just riding on the cushion of the sidewall of the tires. It was cool to do this when crusing on the downtown avenue. But other than that it wasn't practical. There was no good way to align it, because as the high changes so does the geometry of the suspenion. And it was hard to know how high or low the car was, when you wanted to get it back to normal ride height for daily driving.

Just a though but if you wanted to really slam a car and keep a lot of suspension travel, you would have to raise the upper suspension mounting points on the car, not something your average DYI would be able to do.

I also heard that most suspesions work best when the control arms are straight out (perpendicular) to the ground. This also helps at track width to your car and improve handling.

[white90dx]

Originally Posted by nogard

I don't know if you would be able to go much lower than the intrax. You should take a look some time at the amount of suspension there is for travel, when the car is sitting on the springs. Suprisingly there isn't that much, only a few inches. You could make the car a lot lower when it was parked, if the airbags deflate that low. But you most likely would be riding on the bump stops if you tried to drive it like that.

My car already bottoms out on the wheel wells with the Intrax springs (not just by hitting the bump stops, by hitting the tire on the top of the wheel well in the front).

Unless the car is used exclusively for low-speed cruising, airbags are a horrible suspension to have.

I can't imagine that there are any options except custom for the Camry.

-Charlie

[nogard]

Originally Posted by white90dx

My car already bottoms out on the wheel wells with the Intrax springs (not just by hitting the bump stops, by hitting the tire on the top of the wheel well in the front).

Unless the car is used exclusively for low-speed cruising, airbags are a horrible suspension to have.

I can't imagine that there are any options except custom for the Camry.

-Charlie

I forgot my tires also hit the plastic wheel well liner. They did more when I didn't have any caster spacing washers. But now that I added three to each side the passenger side is the only one that hits. It isn't that bad, only a few of the rough rail road tracks, and big dips do it.

[MattSWE]

I did stumble across these coilovers

http://www.airbagit-store.com/produc...t.asp&ID=98038

on the site it lists that they are vehicle specific 88-96 CMARY coilvers

are these junk just like every other brand of coilovers? If I can just get rid of ANY wheel gap, ill be happy. What could I do to make the ride quality better along these?

thx

[Tommy]

wow...how many times are you going to ask about those shitty coilover sleeves??

[Ancientwolf13]

You will most likely have to go with a custom setup being that the body design and clearence are an issue if you use the setup from another vehicle. I can't really tell you who exactly can do it for you since I've never made custom setups.

Also this will be a high maintainence suspension just to let you know. you will have to check all the seals for the hoses and the compressor once a month for leaks and also the air lines themselves from bulges and cracks. The fittings also need to be checked to make sure they haven't loosened from rattling and the air pressure. Air leaks alot faster than fluid.

I have seen alot of problems with air ride systems from people who just throw it on and don't maintain it. They end up blowing hoses and then were stuck because the car was too low on that one side to drive it home or too the shop. Also remember air ride is just a cruising system and not a performance system. You might even lose handling. Just be aware of what you want before you throw yourself into this one.

[Tommy]

Originally Posted by MattSWE

I did stumble across these coilovers

http://www.airbagit-store.com/produc...t.asp&ID=98038

on the site it lists that they are vehicle specific 88-96 CMARY coilvers

are these junk just like every other brand of coilovers? If I can just get rid of ANY wheel gap, ill be happy. What could I do to make the ride quality better along these?

thx

Once again....those arent coil overs, they are shitty cheapo sleeves. If you want real coil overs, go spend a few grand and have some custom made, or do what we've told you in every thread youve posted with a similar topic and get some gen4/5 coil overs and mod them to fit.

you will not find coil overs for less than $7-800. If you are buying any sort of complete suspension for less than $400, you will know its crap.

[MattSWE]

point taken,

although I have been reading on some other forums and noticing that people use KYB struts along with the cheapo sleeves. Intrax still leaves me with some wheel gap which is like an 1" ot 1 1/2". If I get flamed for even thinking about using kyb's along with sleeves to just get rid of all wheel gap, then thats fine. that right there is a $500 investment for struts and sleeves.

oh well Tommy, say what you like, i do appreciate your advise though.

this is my last post about suspension ok.

[Tommy]

get a heavier car. you can get those sleaves if you want, but dont fool yourself into thinking that paying $200 for them vs $60 makes them any better than the ones on ebay.

you can run them all you want, just dont complain when you hit a bump in the road and the car freaks out. Ive ridden in a car with them before, they were terrible, every move was completely unpredictable, car bouncing up and down with the slightest dip in the road.