# Bee Em Vee Build



## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

E92 335i the build has begun. If all goes according to plan, it will make its debut at the air affair. The set up is:
Accuair Manifold
2 400c compressors
5 gallon tank
3/8 line
2 Viair Dual needle gauges
7 switch box
HPS premium struts

Huge thanks to [email protected] for getting me the struts. Awesome customer service from him, answered all my questions and got me everything very quickly. I ordered everything Friday last week, he had one of his guys stay at work longer to assemble everything and get it out to me so i can have it for h2o.Big thanks to Andrew @ Open Road for the air management, [email protected] for the fittings, Minor Threat for doing the management install and to Santi, Espo, Tek, Prosto, and the rest of the air forum for answering all my newb questions. 

Compressors









Manifold









HPS struts









Planning out the gauges and switchbox









Making a template to make make brushed aluminum plates to make everything flush with the console









Gauges in place


















Wiring everything together









Moving the wiring into the trunk









Starting the floor 




























Wrapped the box in leather to match the interior, tank is colormatched









mounted in the trunk









Running the airlines









Found a perfect spot to run the rear lines









Rear lines ready


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## joecastro420 (May 17, 2007)

Looks like a nice build so far..I like your idea for the controllers.. :beer:
Cant wait to see the finished product! :thumbup:


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## Bnana (Aug 30, 2007)

hurry hurry!!!


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## fasttt600 (Apr 12, 2007)

looks great so far. Keep it up!!


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## jimothy cricket (Jul 9, 2008)

looking niice!!


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## Wyman (Nov 15, 2001)

cant wait to see it man:thumbup:


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## BklynMKV (Mar 24, 2008)

proper


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## corrado_sean2 (Nov 14, 2005)

im pretty sure if i was bagging my personal 335i i would try and make the trunk look a lot cleaner then that. not to mention not rattle can the tank. if its not rattle canned im sorry, it looks like it. sorry if im coming off a lil harsh, i just think it could be a lot nicer for that nice of a vehicle.


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

lets get it functioning already, run that switched on power wire so this week we can get this thing done


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

HUGE thanks to Kevin @ AAC for getting me all the fittings last minute so i can do the install over the weekend, awesome customer service and super quick shipping. 

Cleaned up some of the wiring today, everything is ready to go, bags will be going on tomorow. If any of you locals want to come by tomorow and help out, hit me up


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## d.tek (Nov 28, 2004)

dooooo workkkkk then call me


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

we're doing work today, this thing should be complete today


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## tomespo (Jul 21, 2008)

Any pics of it on the floor yet?


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

got some work done but ran into some issues.. 

ran the lines inside and out the drain plugs right before the wheel wheels 





































taking the strut out 










old H&R sports for comparison 










bag on and inflated 



















wheel on and aired out 










this is where the problem began, the bag is way too short, even filled with air, the car is still tucking. I need a longer bag or something kind of bracket to make the car sit higher. Im going to try a few things tomorow but if that doesnt work, i need a new bag ASAP!


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## corrado_sean2 (Nov 14, 2005)

prolly need a heavier duty bag not a taller one.


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

the bag shrinks when it fills, I was thinking brackets would help, or mkv rear bags


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## tomespo (Jul 21, 2008)

I'd make some sort of spacer for the bottom.


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

he tried it, made a 3in bracket the car only went up an inch or so, I'm thinking air lift mkv rears would work, the rear is almost identical to a mkv


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

these bags are just way too short, they do not give me any raise, here they are compared to a H&R lowering spring 










another issue, the bore on the bottom of the bag is too small, it does not fit into the cup on the car 



















so then i made these 3 inch top mounts thinking this should give the car 3 inches of raise, it ended up raising the car a but just to get the rear quarter off the tire 



















to me it seems these bags are for another car, they should probably be longer


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## tomespo (Jul 21, 2008)

Damn man that sucks. If you think mk5 rears would work talk to [email protected] I had my airlift rears super quick


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

try a cup on the bottom first then consider the airlift rears


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

i called HPS this morning and sent them pictures and they confirmed that these bags should be taller. The ones they sent me were based on one of their 335s they used, but appartantly there is a difference between US and Euro spec rear suspension. They are going to make me a set of adapter mounts for the top and bottom to make the overall height taller to give me more raise, as well as to get the bag to sit more securely in the A arm cup. They said they will make these and send them out asap with the quickest delivery time to try to get them here before h2o, but even that will probably be too late before i leave on thursday.


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## corrado_sean2 (Nov 14, 2005)

have em shipped to ocean city. drive there on the spring.


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

that would be an option, but where to do the install?


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## Retromini (Nov 7, 2004)

BMPolska said:


> that would be an option, but where to do the install?


 I'm sure you could do it just about anywhere. I imagine the number of toolboxes, jacks, and wrench turners is plentiful this weekend in OC.:laugh: Get some friends and some empty parking sports. I bet you could have them installed real quick if you already have the lines and stuff run.


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## d.tek (Nov 28, 2004)

Retromini said:


> I'm sure you could do it just about anywhere. I imagine the number of toolboxes, jacks, and wrench turners is plentiful this weekend in OC.:laugh: Get some friends and some empty parking sports. I bet you could have them installed real quick if you already have the lines and stuff run.


 yeah, i mean, if you just made sure that everything else was done, it wouldn't take long... 

just gotta hope they arrive while you're down there and not after you leave lol


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## ForVWLife (Nov 12, 2004)

BMPolska said:


> that would be an option, but where to do the install?


 i have jack and stand ready if you need.....i will supervise :beer:opcorn:


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

i'm bringing all my toos nick


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## Mr.Tan (Jun 9, 2004)

should be DOPE once you get all the little setbacks out of the way and everything working, i can't come back in here its gonna make me wanna do air on mine.


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

the front bumper is about an 1/8th in off the ground, the fronts went in with ease, the rears are a problem


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

just finished making the bottom mounts, and i cut the top down a lil bit to have the top and bottom mounts pretty much te same size, hopefully this will work. i talked it over with HPS and heard what their solution was and had pops make the mounts here at work. If this doesnt work then there is no hope.


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

looks like a pipe bomb now, I really hope this works out man, we were up till 2 in the morning doing this ****


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

hopefully it doesnt blow up like a pipe bomb haha


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## tonyb2580 (Jun 22, 2006)

damn this looks good... would love to see this done.. especially on this kind of car... hopefully all your issues are being worked out:thumbup:


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

update: 

the top and bottom mounts worked. The bag now sits correctly and doesnt wiggle around, and when i air it up it allows me get about a 1 finger gap in the rear. It isnt much but at least now the car is driveable and is about the height i was on my springs. The only bad part is, to get to this ride height, im going to have to be around 115psi for daily driving.Thats a lil bit scary to me.


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## Retromini (Nov 7, 2004)

BMPolska said:


> im going to have to be around 115psi for daily driving.Thats a lil bit scary to me.


 So don't roll around 'spring high' :laugh:


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## Minor_Threat (May 12, 2009)

thats alot of pressure, I drive at 79 in the rear


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

at 80 psi im still rubbing


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## downlowcustomz (Oct 9, 2009)

so make a bigger bracket..... if you want to keep your ride height and lower your pressure when up you make the assembly taller reducing the amount of pressure you need to get to said height but by doing this you will lose drop, but i have a feeling your not fully compressing that bag.... ask hps to send you specs for the bag..... put your car on stands, fully compress your suspension.....measure the space between your control arm and wherever the bag mounts.... now you take the compressed height of that bag that hps will give you and subtract it from the number you just measured and that will be the total height your bracket has to be so you divide that by 2 and thats what your top and bottom bracket need to be.....


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

heres the finished product after the top and bottom mounts


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## Rat4Life (Oct 14, 2004)

i hope hps redesigned their clamps on those bags,remember few years back they were popping off even when not installed on the car. 
also i suggest buying pair of these making mounts for them and taking them with you to h20 in case hps did not biffed up their bag clamps. 
http://www.airassisted.com/AirBags-...76-Firestone-Rolling-Sleeve/product_info.html 
doesn't look like there is enough room for any bigger bag ,between control arm and rear axle.


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## rjones1214 (Apr 24, 2009)

This is the first air thread I've read where someone was complaining about being too low haha 
but at least you have the ability to make the spacers yourself, good solution.


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

downlowcustomz said:


> so make a bigger bracket..... if you want to keep your ride height and lower your pressure when up you make the assembly taller reducing the amount of pressure you need to get to said height but by doing this you will lose drop, but i have a feeling your not fully compressing that bag.... ask hps to send you specs for the bag..... put your car on stands, fully compress your suspension.....measure the space between your control arm and wherever the bag mounts.... now you take the compressed height of that bag that hps will give you and subtract it from the number you just measured and that will be the total height your bracket has to be so you divide that by 2 and thats what your top and bottom bracket need to be.....


 this essentially what i did, jacked up the car, put the bag in and saw how mch extra room i have, then made these mounting brackets to fill the extra gap. I still find it hard to believe that the firestone rear bags make the mk4s gets like 4 inches of wheel gap when inflated and mine barely give me a finger gap. To me something is not right. I plugged in the line for the bag and just held it in hand, after inflating, the middle would start to bellow out and the bag would actually decrease in height. I think they just may need to be stronger bags to withhold the weight? 




Rat4Life said:


> i hope hps redesigned their clamps on those bags,remember few years back they were popping off even when not installed on the car.
> also i suggest buying pair of these making mounts for them and taking them with you to h20 in case hps did not biffed up their bag clamps.
> http://www.airassisted.com/AirBags-...76-Firestone-Rolling-Sleeve/product_info.html
> doesn't look like there is enough room for any bigger bag ,between control arm and rear axle.


 i wont have time to order these and get new brackets made.however they may have to be an option. I think the HPS bags are just not meant for this car and even the mounts arent helping much.They may not be able to hold the weight of the car and thats why they are compressing soo much and not being able to lift the car. I am bringing my stock springs with me to h2o if anything were to happen 






rjones1214 said:


> This is the first air thread I've read where someone was complaining about being too low haha
> but at least you have the ability to make the spacers yourself, good solution.


 when aired out i am not complaining about being too low at all, i have the bumpers on the ground with no modifications done at all, its just i got the bags for the purpose of raising the car to be able to get into driveways, go over speed bumps etc...if i can barely get a finger gap, thats not really useful to me


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## .:Hinrichs:. (Apr 26, 2010)

BMPolska said:


> i wont have time to order these and get new brackets made.however they may have to be an option. I think the HPS bags are just not meant for this car and even the mounts arent helping much.They may not be able to hold the weight of the car and thats why they are compressing soo much and not being able to lift the car. I am bringing my stock springs with me to h2o if anything were to happen
> 
> 
> when aired out i am not complaining about being too low at all, i have the bumpers on the ground with no modifications done at all, its just i got the bags for the purpose of raising the car to be able to get into driveways, go over speed bumps etc...if i can barely get a finger gap, thats not really useful to me


 Deff a good idea to take your springs with you, especially with how much air you need to get the car up high enough, sucks your having that issue all together tho, just out of curiosity does bagyard make a rear setup for your car? just maybe even to see what they are running compared to other setups, i would have never thought the spring was that long, but my E46 is kinda tiny in the back


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

the front struts for an e92 kit are actually a modded e46 strut so my guess is maybe they sent a e46 rear as well and thats why it is so short. The mounts i made are going to be a temporary fix just to get me to h2o, but when i get back i def want to look into a different rear set up. But i wouldnt be surprised at all if the rears were meant for e46. Since my tire sit just inside the fender, i think i should be able to get away with 100psi which makes me feel a lil better. My spacers for the front arrive today so i will finally get to drive the car and see how everything feels,I want to drive it a bit before i make the journey to MD this weekend.


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

another thing i though the problem might be is the stock shocks in the rear? maybe they have expand to the highest and that stops the bag front raising the car more, i mean at 120 psi , u would think the car would go up higher than a finger gap, especially when i have 1.5 inch mounts on top and bottom, and i realy have to bend the bag up to get it in there? ideas?


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## .:Hinrichs:. (Apr 26, 2010)

ill measure my stock spring for my e46 when i get home just to maybe give you an idea if thats what the bags were for, did you change anything in the rear other than just the springs?


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## d.tek (Nov 28, 2004)

if the stock strut doesn't have anymore travel then that could be the issue as well, i'd get a set of bilsteins anyways since they ride better


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

.:Hinrichs:. said:


> ill measure my stock spring for my e46 when i get home just to maybe give you an idea if thats what the bags were for, did you change anything in the rear other than just the springs?


 Thanks, that would help a lot :beer: .I just replaced the spring with the bag, nothing else was changed 




d.tek said:


> if the stock strut doesn't have anymore travel then that could be the issue as well, i'd get a set of bilsteins anyways since they ride better


 Its the stock shock so i would assume it would be long enough, the car sat higher with springs on so it obviously has the potential to go higher. Idk what else it could be


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## d.tek (Nov 28, 2004)

duh, good point lol. 

well then i guess it would have to be bag travel or something because that doesn't make sense, is the bag significantly shorter than the stock spring?


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

about 1.5 inches shorter i would guess, i have a pic on the first page showing the bag next to the H&R spring which is already 1.5 lower than stock


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## Retromini (Nov 7, 2004)

It's probably just a combination of the bag being too short and the load rating. Sleeves are not good at holding up heavy weight. I have a somewhat lightweight MINI and my rear sleeves can barely support the little car if I have it loaded with additional weight. Even at 80 psi, I tuck wheel if I have my trunk packed tight for a road trip or something.


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

im just hoping to get through the weekend, when i get back im gonna have to get a new set up


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## msuzuki126 (Jun 15, 2007)

might be a bad idea, but maybe try disconnecting the strut and see how high it goes? I guess the strut can kind of be ruled out though because of stock suspension height


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## [email protected] (Aug 22, 2006)

Rat4Life said:


> i hope hps redesigned their clamps on those bags,remember few years back they were popping off even when not installed on the car.
> also i suggest buying pair of these making mounts for them and taking them with you to h20 in case hps did not biffed up their bag clamps.


 this is because the crimp rings are aluminum and not stainless. not tooting any horns here but I've never seen a bagyard made crimp ring blow off/pop (they're stainless with zinc coating). as recently discussed in the air lift 'rear bag popped' thread, the problem with a lot of the generic sleeve bags is the plastic inner piston. 

polska, hit me up at h2o and we can talk about some rear bags for your BMW :thumbup:


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## .:Hinrichs:. (Apr 26, 2010)

just measured my stock springs and they are 9 1/2" long


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

air ride is coming off, took the rears out today, fronts come out tomorow. I took off one of the front wheels to put my spacers on to clear the bags, 15mm and i was still rubbing.Then i realized my strut was lose, turns out i need a new spindle. I still have things to do tomorow before i leave so i wont get a chance to fix any of these issues so the air will have to wait til after h2o. My goal was to have it done for air affair, but at this point i lost motivation to even do the bags anymore.


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## msuzuki126 (Jun 15, 2007)

keep pushing man. It's easy to lose motivation for all the little things that can go wrong with air ride, but the end results will pay off and you'll be psyched


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

if i have to wait til after h2o, then winter is coming up and i wont really feel like installing it all again. But at the same time, i dont want 2500$ worth of parts laying around the living room all winter


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## Ben from RI (Jun 5, 2009)

Can't wait to see in finished product:thumbup:


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## BMPolska (Feb 19, 2003)

I tried getting the spindle tighter to hold the strut in place better so i could possibly make the trip down to Ocean City but it just wants working, as soon as i started driving, the strut would start wiggling around and it was sitting to low and i started rubbing tire on the inside. For now H&R suspnsion went back on for h2o. The build will resume after the weekend, and now i will take my time to make everything fit and function perfectly instead of just rushing it and hoping it all works.


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## Retromini (Nov 7, 2004)

Better safe than sorry...especially with airride. I've done plenty of last minute airride projects and they're almost always some kind of headache.

See you down there:beer:


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