Help! Air lines keep blowing off of air springs

[raftel]

I'm getting close to my wit's end. The brass fittings with the plastic ring that provide air to the air springs keep popping off. They held on and held air over the weekend, but as soon as I put the front end of the car back on the ground to torque the control arm bushings, they popped. Each time the compressor kicks in and boosts the car back up to ride height, they pop off and drop the car.
air spring 1.jpgair spring 2.jpgair spring 3.jpg

[StephenVA]

Great conversation tonight by phone so Good luck and post your results! Snotty where were U?

[rlordjr]

I'm a thinking they weren't secure? Maybe they needed that second click

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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Great conversation tonight by phone so Good luck and post your results! Snotty where were U?

Hi guys. just saw this. But i also just looked at my phone for the first time today after having dinner...., or ws that lunch? Maybe breakfast.
Anyway, I've never worked on the E39's air ride system, I had a 528 wagon with SLS years ago, but i never had any problems with it. raftel did text me those same pics, and I said maybe some Vaseline might help seat the lines deeper? Aren't there locking clips involved? I don't know.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...r-info-for-SLS

The black captive plastic pinch lock in the brass junction is

NOT

available separately. If you break it you need to buy a complete new reservoir and replace. PM or email me if this happens to you.

Robert. inspect those captive pinch lock clips. Hopefully those knuckleheads didn't force the junctions off the airbag and screwed them up. See if you can get them to move with a pick. try not to distort the plastic as much as possible. Blast some compressed air at the junction housings, maybe some dirt is jammed in there keeping them from springing back to position properly.. They should be spring loaded, for some reason. they're not springing back into place, locking the junctions onto the airbags.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Here's a link to an eBay seller based out of the UK, he's got 10 available.

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/NEW-Pipe-Loc...4AAOSwgKRdn43f

[raftel]

The clips are intact, and I've removed them and put them back on several times, they just don't stay locked in place. I've put a call in to Arnott for tech support, I'm waiting for a call back to see what they say.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

How is the channel in the airbag compared to the clip? The edges are square? Not rounded off?

[raftel]

I spoke to Arnott, and they really didn't have anything except suggesting I turn the clips over, so I called FCP where I ordered the bags.

They are shipping me some clips gratis today, and will also be shipping me BMW original bags - gratis. They seem to think that Arnott may have had a bad production run, so I'm getting original bags. They mentioned that bad runs have happened on occasion, but I really hope that's not the case. New bags should arrive Thursday.

Incredible customer service, but I'm still not convinced user error is not at play here, so I will keep fussing with this until the new bags arrive.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Wow! That is awesome! And I was actually thinking about that last night, about what if Arnott had a bad run, happens to the best of them. Awesome of FCP to ship out the higher dollar BMW units, and clips, which were supposed to be unobtainium.

[raftel]

So FCP contacted me to say that they misspoke about the clips, and they are indeed only available as part of the reservoir. Oh well. I did finally get the passenger side to click in with the original BMW clips, but the driver side is still resisting my efforts. Now, I'm saying it's clipped in, but I have not pressurized the system again, so we'll see.

I've attached some photos of the original BMW clip and the clips arnott provides with its bags. You can see the bevel in the arnott clip, but the BMW clip does not have one.

clip1.jpgclip2.jpgclip3.jpg

[CPHES]

Tell this to the other dude looking for cheap airbags. At least this one goes nowhere before failing.

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Tell this to the other dude looking for cheap airbags. At least this one goes nowhere before failing.

Does the bmw clip fit on the Arnott bag?

[raftel]

So far, the BMW clip is the only one that fits the Arnott bags at all when installed in the air fitting. I did get both the Arnott and BMW clips to lock on to the airbag if it was just the clip itself without the fitting, but I can't seem to push the fitting deeply enough into the airbag to get it to seat. It's as if the Arnott bags are machined just a touch too long or something.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Stupid question, you are squeezing the clip with a pair of long nose pliers, correct? When you squeeze those two corner tabs, it opens up the clip, allowing you to push the air junction all the way in, then the clips lock it all in once they are in the connections channel. To remove the junction, you squeeze them again.

- - - Updated - - -

Have you measured the two air ports to see if there is a difference?

[raftel]

I thought that was only necessary when removing the lines. All the same, I went back and tried it that way. It made no difference. I'm thinking of just safety wiring the line onto the airbag. I figure, given a maximum pressure of 100psi, there could at most be about 20 lbs of force at play. Ugh.

[CPHES]

There is more than 20 lbs of pressure. I popped one connector off, and I thought the same thing. Not so. I don’t know the working pressure, but it keeps a 2 ton car level at speed.

[Mike WW]

I'm going to SWAG this out. Let say it's rated at 3,000 pounds before it bottoms out. How big is the contact point upper and lower, 25 square inches? Doing the math it suggests 60 PSI under max steady load. Spike on bumps? I dunno, 80? 100? Very ballpark figures.

[CPHES]

RTFM - read the.... you get the rest. Look at page 19 of the pdf linked - http://www.e38.org/selflevel.pdf

The operating pressure is between 11.4 bar and 13.5 bar ( 1 bar = 14 psi ) - you do the math. Don’t assume that you know how this works. You will get hurt, or hurt others if you don’t do it right.

Again - don’t buy cheap suspension parts. I’d put in a used OE bag over a new non OE bag.

[Mike WW]

I said it was a SWAG.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I said it was a SWAG.

Indeed you did, I did think it would've been a bit more though. I didn't think it would be at 160 to 189 pounds per square inch!

[msvphoto]

I'm not sure I would call Arnott "cheap parts" because they at least try to be a solid US manufacturer of air suspension parts for many different makes and models and have always worked with customers on development and quality issues in my experience. Prior to owning our 540iT I had an Audi allroad. Audi allroads ate bags like drifters eat tires. Especially fun when they suddenly explode. I became quite familiar with Arnott and their lifetime warranty because they did have development and reliability issues with their allroad bags, but also worked with Audi forum members on product improvement. That said, they were doing continuous product development and offered top level customer service for exchanges. The last generation I used were decent. On the allroad the factory front bags sucked too, mostly because of the adjustable ride height on a bag that is also a front strut for steering the car. The good side is I could swap a front bag in around 30-45 minutes easily.

So, when my 540iT needed bags I went with Arnott. The clip was a joke. I experienced the same would not fit issues as the OP has and could not make it work. Thankfully I did not break the OEM clips and they worked fine on the Arnott bags. So far so good, they are working well. Arnott is the only aftermarket bag I would go with and the factory bags seemed prohibitively expensive. Rear bags on the allroad can last over 200k miles (mine did) so I took the chance on Arnott based on my alllroad experiences. This was a couple of years now.

I wonder if someone with cad and 3d printing talent could replicate the BMW clips???? Has anyone contacted Arnott to tell them their clips don't fit? (Guilty as charged, I should have when I changed my bags.) They do listen to customers and offer continuous development so there may be some hope there also.

It should also be noted that at FCP right side BMW factory bags for non-sport suspensions are back-ordered so for those of with non-sport that need a bag right away Arnott may be the best choice. I am guessing if FCP are back-ordered other US suppliers probably are as well.

[raftel]

It seems that the E53 X5 uses the same clip to secure the air springs. Luckily, my local pick and pull has several. Since suppliers of these clips are in Europe and will take weeks to get here, I think that is my next step.

[CPHES]

Arnott has mixed reviews. I think in the early days they were better. They do have a booming business in parts for GM and Ford Air suspension. you have to admit that the e39 Touring is a Niche market. The parts they sell as complete bolt in struts with bags seem to be ok, but there were issues with some of the products they made for earlier GMC Z55 Autoride trucks. ( Yes, I have one of those too ). From what I saw, I would not buy, but YMMV - and what is above does not speak well for them. I would not trust that for another 50k miles. I'd be worried about that connection blowing with every hard turn with a load in back. I took out the original bag in 2012 ( 202k ). The only issue I've had is the pump failing - also around the 200k mark. Yes, if you can get an OE clip to work on the Arnott bag, then try it out. Please take measurements from the Arnott bag. - Do you have OE bags to compare to now ( not sure what FCP did to make you whole ).

[raftel]

No original bags to compare to, previous owner removed them and put coil overs in. I'll be scouring junkyards in coming days for OE clips to try. Not sure what FCP can do to help, BMW bags are in short supply so all they could do was offer another Arnott bag.

[msvphoto]

No original bags to compare to, previous owner removed them and put coil overs in. I'll be scouring junkyards in coming days for OE clips to try. Not sure what FCP can do to help, BMW bags are in short supply so all they could do was offer another Arnott bag.

That makes it difficult to use the OE clips. The X5 clips from the junkyard sound like a great idea (I'll have to remember to harvest some myself whenever life returns to normal enough to go to Pick N Pull).

You might also try calling Arnott directly and tell them their clips didn't fit/lock and see what they say. I probably should have back when I replaced mine a couple years back if for no other reason than to let them know.