Real cost of air ride suspension

[blackers10]

Hey all,
I am weighing up going air ride or coilovers on my mk4 gti and am trying to work out what the real cost of an air ride system is given all the extra options all the companies list and what is cheap rubbish vs reliable for daily use.

I am handy with the tools (no welding tho) so have no problem ripping apart suspension to fit new stuff.

what companies do you guys suggest looking at for complete systems and how much should it look to cost and maintain it?

Cheers
Brenden

[team_v]

unless your car came with air suspension from the factory it is going to be prohibitively expensive to legally run an air suspension setup

[dylan8]

Depends what you get, there is too many options. Can do it for as little as 1k, or a decent setup can be 8k+
Mine would have cost 6000$+, that's pre install, pre engineering.
But that's nicer high end struts, high end bags, high end management

[blackers10]

from my research the part that is required for engineering is,
not being able to adjust ride height during operation of the vehicle and
not being able to go below 100mm ride height (altho factory bump stop travel is probably below that anyway?)

the full electronic levelling kits are $$$$
but a basic switch operated kit are reasonably cheap unless there are a ton of hidden costs I am missing which is half of my original question

[dylan8]

Basic kits can't be engineered. Pressure sensing kits can't also be engineered if your engineer knows what's up.

There are other rules regarding engineering regarding being able to turn full lock when a bag blows and things like that

[aaron001au]

they will ride a lot nicer and a lot smoother then coil overs ever will but if you in qld it is 100% illegal to have air suspension unless its factory fitted like some mercs are or as a load assist kit in a ute or 4wd , having worked in a air suspension shop for over 2 years and having friend with bagged cars/ utes , i have seen and herd it all from police when it comes to air ride

as my friend was told at the start of the year by department of transport , even if it has engo papers from another state they mean noting when you come in to qld and they have every right to take and possibly crush you car under aniti-hooning laws. when you enter another state you have to go by there road rule's

at the end of the day it all come down to if you wanna run the risk or not , but if you don't drive with it crazy low and and drive normal you shouldn't get pulled over and should be fine.

[blackers10]

cheers for the info everyone
glad to get some insight from an insider Aaron

So silly how great you can build something to be safe and reliable and with good components and yet still its deemed illegal by 1 state but OK by 3 others...why have engineers at all if they can't engineer anything eh...

[aaron001au]

are you still looking at putting you golf on air ? , im going to change mine from coil overs to air ride just the rear for now ill do the front later next year...

i got a switch box , compressors, tank and a few smaller things ( air line , gauges , fitting) all ready , im going to order my bags and bolt in rear brackets some time either this week or next , then i just need to get a valve block and and some wiring to power the compressors

im going to also make a false floor in my boot and house ever thing in the spare Tyre well so its all hidden

if you want me to take some pictures as i go im more then happy to but i prob wont be installing it for a few months yet.

[blackers10]

sounds like a great plan mate!
its all fairly straight forward if you piece it together.
at this stage no air ride for me due to the fairly high cost.
I scored some JOMS coilovers for $200 that are working great for the time being.
you should def make a build thread with yours

[aaron001au]

sounds like a great plan mate!
its all fairly straight forward if you piece it together.
at this stage no air ride for me due to the fairly high cost.
I scored some JOMS coilovers for $200 that are working great for the time being.
you should def make a build thread with yours

yer i might do a build thread of how it was to now and ill update it as i go throw the air set up stage too