Air Suspension
March 2018:
After owning the car for about 6 weeks it was time to bag it! I went with the Air Lift Performance front and rear suspension with Air Lift 3H management.
I got the car safely in the air with heavy duty jack stands and wheels removed. The OEM suspension came out very easily and is a straight forward job. For the Air Lift suspension install, refer to their install manual for good tips along the way. I did not adjust any lower mounts.
I got the front struts in making sure the leader line is pointing behind for maximum wheel clearance. I looped the leader line up to give it some slack for turning. It clipped in perfectly on an empty spot next to the brake line bracket. I ran the air lines and sensor wires together under the car, behind the plastic under body panels.
For the 3H sensor install, I started with the Air Lift BMW F80 sensor brackets. The top bracket worked fine with me making one hole in the subframe and using one existing hole to attach it. The bottom bracket wont clamp on without the shape of the M3 lower control arms. Instead, I used a hose clamp. I drilled one hole in it for the bolt and tightened it down until it held still. This works perfectly and allows me to move the mounting point for more adjustment. Also, less drilling into the car the better.
Sensor linkage length from bolt to bolt is 95mm
Just like the front, the rear suspension went in easy, referencing the Air Lift install guide for tips. I pointed the swivel elbow towards the back to the car for a short path to the bulkheads.
For the 3H sensor install, I started with the Air Lift BMW F80 sensor brackets. I was able to use the top bracket on an empty hole next to the toe bolt. It is held on with a nut and bolt, very tight since it is only attached at one point. I used the same hose clamp method to attach the linkage to the toe arm. The sensor arm is trimmed a little so it doesn't hit the lower control arm shield.
Sensor linkage length from bolt to bolt is 80mm
I installed the Megan Racing Front Upper Control Arms and Rear Upper Control Arms for fine tuning of the rear camber and toe.
Here is ride height. I did not adjust any lower mounts so I can see that my front ride high is a little higher than the Air Lift recommended pressure. I will leave it at this for now and adjust the front lower mount up when I make adjustments for my forged wheels.
The rear pressure is at the top end of the range. I will leave it for now. If it is too stiff while driving I will make bag spacers to raise the bag mount and lower the pressure.
Air Lift recommended front driving pressure is 35-50 PSI
Air Lift recommended rear driving pressure is 90-110 PSI
Here is the reward! Fully aired out.
June 2018:
When I got my BC Forged wheels I made a lot of suspension and 3H sensor adjusts that I cover in the Wheel Fitment area.
December 2018:
I decided to make rear bag spacers to lower my rear driving pressure. The car airs out at 70 PSI and has very little lift at the maximum 150 PSI. These spacers should make rear rear ride softer and increase my maximum height.
I stated with a large washer and drilled it out to match the holes of the Air Lift upper bag plate. Installed in between the bag and upper mount with longer bolts. I made two per side, that way I can take one out if it is raises it too much.
I gained some more rear lift and lowered my right height pressure to 100 PSI.
February 2020:
I got a set of SPL Parts Front Adjustable Lower Control Arms and Tie Rod Ends to add more camber to the front and correct the suspension geometry for riding low.
The front LCAs feature a inner threaded bolt to gain about 5 degrees of negative camber. They both have spherical bearing ends for good articulation. You can see the difference against the stock LCA.
Here is one side with stock arms and the other side with fresh SPL arms. They are very high quality!
A cool apart about adjusting camber from the LCA is that it doesn't change my lip to fender fitment, so no spacers needed! I got the camber I wanted but it castered the wheel way too far forward. The stock caster arm has no adjustment so I then had to buy SPL Adjustable Tension Arms to correct the caster.
Here the stock front tension arm next to the SPL tension arm. It is a lot smaller and has a huge amount of adjustment. Now all installed and looking good! With only a little bit of caster adjustment, it got the wheel centered in the arch.
I originally had my 3H sensors attached the the stock LCAs using a hose clamp. I reattached them to the SPL arms using a L bracket bolted to the threaded hole underneath and shortened the linkage.
All arms adjusted and sitting on the ground! Now the front camber is matched with the rear at negative 5 degrees.
January 2021:
I have never been a fan of camber plates due to the pillowball bearings transmitting too much noise and vibration into the cabin. After hunting around for a while, I could not find an upper mount that has rubber mounts and still adds camber. So I made my own!
I purchased a set of D2 Racing standard mounts and removed the rubber bushing with radial bearing. Then drew up the plate on CAD software and moved the center hole over as much as I could and got them laser cut in aluminum.
I then tapped all the holes and reinstalled the rubber bushing with radial bearing using all new hardware.
I used the Air Lift camber plate as reference to match the camber setting the same as before.
They installed perfectly and they have the max amount of camber for the rubber mount to fit into the strut tower opening.
In order for the plate design to work, I had to remove the OEM strut tower bar mount. So I ended up installing a Autotecknic strut tower bar instead.
February 2022:
I wanted to make my rear height sensors more accurate so I moved them to read off of the shocks. The sensor mounted perfectly to a basic straight bracket and reached an oem nut.
May 2022:
I installed Megan Racing rear toe arms to help with alignments.
September 2022:
Now for my most advanced project I have ever done for my car, design and build my own air suspension! In early 2021 I moved my role at Bag Riders to lead engineer and project manager for our very own Super Low Air Suspension. Throughout 2021 I designed, tested, and installed air suspension kits for 15 cars and of course my car was one of them. Early stages was choosing the best shocks and air springs to use but also designing air spring mounts in Fusion360 cad software to create the best suspension that we can really call our own.
The first part I tackled was creating the brackets for our fully sealed bag design to be used on complete struct applications. The front suspension in my case. These brackets we had CNC cut in aluminum and then crimped our custom branded air spring onto them.
Fast forwarding to later that year, I created the front kit for my car with my air spring mounting design, custom branded USA air springs, and globally sourced threaded dampers and car specific mounting brackets. I topped it off with custom made radial bearings, to improve steering and pillowball mount life, along with other branded parts like anodized lock rings, camber plate logos, and lower mount stickers.
Next step was to make car specific brackets to fit the rear of my F30. We decided to go the extra mile and only make solid aluminum brackets that are the most form fitting for each application I create. We are not interested in basic steel universal fitting brackets like other companies make. Bag Riders name is on this product so I spent the time measuring each car and 3D printing many tests until I ended up with a perfectly fitting bracket for the car. Since I always strive for perfection, I am happy to install this rear kit in my car that fits soooo well. This is the bracket design I ended up with!
Just like re front kit, we paired the bags and brackets with our branded shocks and mounts. Everything fits perfectly and also looks amazing!
After the install I drove the car for hundreds of miles while constantly tweaking front and rear threaded heights, rear bracket heights, and damping settings until the car drove perfectly at an aggressively low height. That way all kits we make will be set to these exact specs so the customer can just install and enjoy a perfectly adjusted suspension that we spent the time perfecting. This is an important part of our testing process and we want to sell an air suspension kit that not only fits your car well but is pre-set to preform well right out of the box!