'03 E39 540it msport air spring choice

[schnell944]

Hi! Looks like my '03 540it msport needs at least one air spring. Has anyone used the Arnott A-2738/A-2737 air springs? They are supposed to be a replacement for wagons with or without sport suspension, but I also know that the air springs for the regular suspension have a different part number than wagons with the sport suspension (like my msport). Has anyone used these in an '03 msport or other touring with sport suspension with good results? Thanks!

[Dvbimmerk]

Yes I have them on my ‘02 540iT. It’s a sport suspension car that I converted to Koni yellows all around. They work great.


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[schnell944]

Fantastic. Thanks for the first-hand knowledge.

[Dvbimmerk]

Fantastic. Thanks for the first-hand knowledge.

Update - I put 50 landscape edging stones in it and it leveled out to ride height no problem. No issues on drive home.


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[Mpowered02]

Yup, I have them on my '02 540iT with Sport Suspension. Mine has Koni Yellows all around and is lowered on B&G springs in front (SLS digitally lowered in the rear). "Might" feel a tad bit softer in terms of spring rate compared to the original air springs, but they work fine.

[adm750]

I went with Aerosus. Outside of OEM, those guys (Aerosus), Bilstein I believe, and maybe one other outlier, do claim to make a sport-specific spring for the e39. They are hard to find. The Arnotts get rave reviews (can't go wrong...) but in talking with their engineers, they designed their e39 replacement air springs to behave like a standard air spring and not somewhere in between standard and sport, and it certainly was not designed to be a sport spring. My daily drive was twisty country roads with plenty of crests, dips, camber changes, undulations, and hard braking. I also used it to haul everything...bricks, mulch, fireworks, 4 people and gear for family vacation, etc. and my replacements from Aerosus felt like the originals.

There was quite a range of discussion on this one back a couple years ago when I was choosing air springs on my '03 525 M-sport (mine was a true euro m-sport touring from the factory). We were all going back and forf on this topic (GG, StephenVA, maybe wagonsho, to name a few, and several other key players...). Someone in the group wound up cutting a blown OEM sport air spring apart and apparently the key difference is the big plastic plug inside the spring. If I recall the sport spring had a tapered internal plug vs. a round one for a non-sport application. That shape difference is what we thought may have helped to ramp up the spring rate (??) and is what made it behave like a sport coil spring vs a standard coil spring.

anyways....fwiw.....

tony

[whiteghost1]

I went with the Aerosus sport spring as well, as other than Bilstein they’re the only quality aftermarket mfg that make a sport spring. Been happy with it and it was also cheap too ($126 shipped). I know that the Arnott’s have good reviews from those on the board here, but I’m one of those anal to detail guys that have to keep things close to original as possible, so a “sport” spring was a must in my e39T.