# Convince me



## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Stay with Airlift XL perfomance tapered sleeve rear bags









OR

Change over to Firestone 7076 rolling sleeve rear bags










Pro's of the Airlift's would be better ride quality at low heights, and the fact that i would only need to replace one of my rear bags because it is leaking slowly (2psi/minute while i drive). 
Cons of the Airlift's would be that they are still made of plastic on the bottoms and tops

Pro's of the Firestones would be better durability/reliability because of aluminum top/bottom cups. Plus they are in stock super cheap 2 door down from my work if one were to blow.
Con's of the Firestones are worse ride quality, and of course i need to drill out my nutserts/install a whole new bag system etc.

Plus i could re-sell the firestone set for a few hundred seeing as i haven't ever used it before and it came with brand new bags...


Anybody have any relevant opinions?


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## OPEN ROAD TUNING (Aug 22, 2006)

I have the Firestones and really like that they require very minimal work to get them installed. However, there are a few areas where I feel they fall short:

- In my Jetta, when cruising alone and with an empty trunk, I need to have 80psi in them to feel comfortable about my ride height (to be fair, my driving height is probably higher than most, but still). My friends that have Golfs/GTIs are able to ride at significantly lower pressures however.

- It takes 30-35psi in the bags just to get the quarters off the tires. I installed a hockey puck spacer on each side and that seemed to help a little, but it still isn't ideal

- Even with Koni adjustable shocks, I feel the ride can still be a little jarring

The Firestone setup has been bulletproof for everyone I know that runs it, but I feel like I may be missing out on a better ride with something else. With that said, I will be switching over to the SS5 bags and IDF brackets later this month.

Mike


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## [email protected] (Feb 19, 2010)

I have 35k miles on my ORIGINAL (never replaced nor repaired) Air Lift Mk4 rear kit.

Over 5k of those miles have been towing a trailer. 


truckcartrailor by BAG RIDERS, on Flickr

I was on Koni adjustable shocks for most of those miles, but recently switched to Bilstein which have a nicer ride quality. 

I've never had the firestones on my car, but I don't have anything bad to say about them.

:thumbup:


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Yeah i have over 30,000kms on my original mk4 airlift rears (with bilstein shocks), and just one is starting to leak. I just picked up a spare bag to replace just that one for a roadtrip next week and i'm going to decide what to do when i get back.

As always more opinons/experiences are welcome


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## [email protected] (Feb 19, 2010)

MechEngg said:


> Yeah i have over 30,000kms on my original mk4 airlift rears (with bilstein shocks), and just one is starting to leak. I just picked up a spare bag to replace just that one for a roadtrip next week and i'm going to decide what to do when i get back.
> 
> As always more opinons/experiences are welcome


Where is it leaking from?


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Not quite sure now, originally thought it was the fitting so i took out the fitting, resealed it but the issue never went away. I'm assuming around one of the bands, on the top or bottom. The bottom band is extremely rusty and not in that great a shape


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## blue bags (Jul 1, 2009)

I think mike nailed it with the cons of the firestones, with that said. I ran them for about 4.5ish years with no issues. If your running 17s, that are flush, or only mild poke, they are great because they will go a bit lower than the airlifts without trimming the bracket, but 99% of the time on MK4s it doesnt matter because people tend to have more aggressive wheel setups so itll hit tire first anyway. 

I changed one bag preventively because it was getting a pretty bad rub mark from the fitting placement. Ive found that i had the best luck with them on other peoples cars with the fitting facing outward towards the wheel with the elbow facing up and the line going behind the liner. 

With the amount of people putting significant miles on both setups, id think its safe to say both will be equally reliable, and the cost of individual bags for both setups is very close to the same, which is cheap.

after numerous experiences with cars ive done installs on, I will say i think the ride quality of the airlift rear setup is better. I was on billstein shocks and my ride height with 17x10.5 with a 215/45 was around 60 PSI with the firestones.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

blue bags said:


> I think mike nailed it with the cons of the firestones, with that said. I ran them for about 4.5ish years with no issues. If your running 17s, that are flush, or only mild poke, they are great because they will go a bit lower than the airlifts without trimming the bracket, but 99% of the time on MK4s it doesnt matter because people tend to have more aggressive wheel setups so itll hit tire first anyway.
> 
> I changed one bag preventively because it was getting a pretty bad rub mark from the fitting placement. Ive found that i had the best luck with them on other peoples cars with the fitting facing outward towards the wheel with the elbow facing up and the line going behind the liner.
> 
> ...


I have 18's and can roll when i'm aired out so....
I'll just grab a few spare airlift or firestone 9000's (replacements) and stick with the tapered sleeve setup.
If anyone wants firestones i have a set for sale


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## Rat4Life (Oct 14, 2004)

another option is to run mk5 double bellow rears, price wise less then firestone, driveability better than airlift sleeve IMO, minor modification to the spring pocket. so far no rubbing issues.
another plus with v2 management hits presets better than with the sleeve bag.
lower mk5 bag bracket should be trimmed little more than airlift recommends for mk5 platform.
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...kr.com/3688/9088984809_461c896443_c.jpg[/img] IMG_6422 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr[/URL]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...kr.com/7300/9091204736_744177328c_c.jpg[/img] IMG_6421 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr[/URL]

IMG_6418 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...kr.com/2889/9091193718_97ce6426b0_c.jpg[/img] IMG_6443 by misha/rat4life, on Flickr[/URL]


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## Twilliams83 (Jan 25, 2011)

:thumbup:


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## Niagara_V_Dub (Sep 25, 2007)

Rat4Life said:


> another option is to run mk5 double bellow rears, price wise less then firestone, driveability better than airlift sleeve IMO, minor modification to the spring pocket. so far no rubbing issues.
> another plus with v2 management hits presets better than with the sleeve bag.
> lower mk5 bag bracket should be trimmed little more than airlift recommends for mk5 platform.


What modifications did you have to do to make these run on MKIV's? All the cons listed is making want to switch my AAC Firestones out.


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## agentmaddock (Apr 12, 2007)

Niagara_V_Dub said:


> What modifications did you have to do to make these run on MKIV's? All the cons listed is making want to switch my AAC Firestones out.


Same here! In for answers.


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## Rat4Life (Oct 14, 2004)

agentmaddock said:


> Same here! In for answers.


/ 


Niagara_V_Dub said:


> What modifications did you have to do to make these run on MKIV's? All the cons listed is making want to switch my AAC Firestones out.


/ 
shoot me a pm with your phone numbers i'll send you pic of rear beam and what has to be trimmed on it to run it./ 
i dont have that pic on my flickr only on my phone./ 
as far a top part i think its self explanatory, remove nipple, drill the hole towards the back on the car and thread the bag up to the frame rail with the provided longer stud. 
the bottom bag bracket has to be trimmed little more than mk5 application, about 1/4" above the suggested line.


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