| cachupin |
| I have a 2001 MDX and I am looking for an air suspension. The reason for it is because I do alot of trailering, especially a 21 foot boat. In any case I am looking for help anyone can give me. I am also currently researching different manufacturers to see if they have systems that are compatible. |
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| renov8r |
Very few companies offer aftermarket air-suspensions. The few that do generally rely on the "air-bag-inside the coil" set-up. They may have adapters to mount the air-bags to suspension parts adjacent to the shock, but with the independant rear suspension on the MDX there just in not much room.
I would be very careful about using the airbags, as the pre-load they add to the suspension may degrade the handling/ride characterstics, and load the sway bar in an unusual way. Given the questionable integrity of the welded sway bar links, you definately want to be sure you have solid welds back their...
According to the Airlift Online catalog, they DO make a system compatible with the PILOT, so you might try them.
http://www.airliftcompany.com
( their cursed asp based site doe not generate a persitant link...) |
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| perk |
I just ordered the Air Lift 1000 Outback Special Rear; Coil Spring Leveling Kit; Incl. Load Controller II; from Air Lift Company. Part No: 65740 They sell these through www.summitracing.com for about $165.00.
The company only shows these as available for Honda Pilot, but I'm pretty sure the rear suspension is the same on Pilot and MDX.
When I receive these, I'll post later to give details on how it went and how it worked. |
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| manus1980 |
Perk,
Can you give a link to where on the site you found it? I can't find it using the site's search feature and I want to learn more about it. Thanks |
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| perk |
It's called the Air Lift 1000 Outback Special Rear; Coil Spring Leveling Kit; Incl. Load Controller II; I found it at www.airliftcompany.com
The company I purchased it from is www.summitracing.com. When you go to that site, look to the left upper part of screen and click on "manufacturer's search" From there choose, Air Lift Company, and part# 65740.
Good luck. |
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| DaleB |
quote:
Originally posted by perk
It's called the Air Lift 1000 Outback Special Rear; Coil Spring Leveling Kit; Incl. Load Controller II; I found it at www.airliftcompany.com
The company I purchased it from is www.summitracing.com. When you go to that site, look to the left upper part of screen and click on "manufacturer's search" From there choose, Air Lift Company, and part# 65740.
Good luck.
That looks like a great price. Let us know, take pix if possible. Interested in handlng observations, etc. |
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| bulan |
| so how did it turn out? |
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| perk |
Not well. Turns out that even though the Honda Pilot and MDX are both advertised with the same rear suspension, they are different in at least one material respect--the rear coil springs. The MDX does not have open space inside the rear coil springs. I'm not sure if the Honda Pilot does, but the folks who sell the air lift device believe so.
Anyway, long story short, I had to send the air lift kit back because it only works when you have open space inside the rear coil springs. This device fits inside that space and inflates to give upward pressure to balance the rear. Oh well, maybe someone else will come up with another solution. God knows we need it. I'm going on vacation across the USA next summer and I will have the X loaded down. |
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| DaleB |
quote:
Originally posted by perk
Not well. Turns out that even though the Honda Pilot and MDX are both advertised with the same rear suspension, they are different in at least one material respect--the rear coil springs. The MDX does not have open space inside the rear coil springs. I'm not sure if the Honda Pilot does, but the folks who sell the air lift device believe so.
Anyway, long story short, I had to send the air lift kit back because it only works when you have open space inside the rear coil springs. This device fits inside that space and inflates to give upward pressure to balance the rear. Oh well, maybe someone else will come up with another solution. God knows we need it. I'm going on vacation across the USA next summer and I will have the X loaded down.
That's a bummer. I would imagine Pilot & MDX are the same.
If not that would be a shock to one poster (tgmd99??) who said take away the VTM, transfer assembly, and prop shaft, look underneath and the MDX is identical to an Odyssey! It's just an Odyssey with that extra stuff......:rolleyes: |
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| bulan |
| i called air lift company and they told me they were looking into the MDX. not sure when though. can't find anything else that fuctions the same way. |
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| perk |
| Anyone hear anything else on the availability for air suspension kits for MDX? I really, really need one for an upcoming trip. |
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| bulan |
i have an appointment at an air lift distributor on fri (halloween) to have the outback special installed. when i called air lift company to get the information to pass along, they said it still wasn't available for the mdx. however, the distributor i backordered it from said they have it for me and it's ready to install. they also said that at the end of nov they will have an add on to it that will do self leveling.
i'm half expecting them to tell me, when i come in for the install, that it doesn't fit. |
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| perk |
Update: My earlier post was wrong and it does fit because I went ahead and installed one on my MDX this past weekend. It took all day, but everything fit just as it was supposed to. The MDX, Oddysey, and Pilot all have the same rear spring suspension. Found out something else you might consider. Looks like the rear shocks are standard fitting types. My guess is that you could go to parts store and look through the Hijackers and easily find matching sizes to install on the X. Wish I had known that prior to installing the Air Lift kit.
I'll have to check into that self leveling add-in. After all, that's what I wanted in the first place. Thanks for the info. and good luck. |
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| perk |
I finished installing the Air Lift 1000 Outback Special Kit on the X this weekend. Here are some pics:
The view once I got bumper stop cut off and first bladder in place.
(I later cut off a little more of the bumper stop.
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| perk |
A different view
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| perk |
The air line connections. Put these in one place at center of the rear frame between rear tires. Notice how I ran all the hoses inside of the lower control arms. No hoses stick out anywhere except where you see here at the junction.
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| perk |
Closeup of hose junction.
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| perk |
Bladder inflation valve goes thru the bottom of wheel hub where bumper stop used to go. This is thick metal so drilling a 3/4" hold is very difficult. If you can find a good rubber grommet to fit in the hole, I recommend doing that. I'll probably go back later and put these in.
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| manus1980 |
Perk,
Are you able to adjust the height of your suspension? How does the ride feel? Has the ride height changed at all? How does it corner and break? Give us some information on how it works. |
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| perk |
The hose comes forward to the air compressor. I found a perfect spot to place this. Right in middle of undercarriage there is a thick metal skid place placed over some critical item (don't know what it is). I removed the four bolts holding this in and bolted the air compressor in place on top of this skip place. Perfect fit.
(Notice the four self-tapping screws sticking out of bottom of skid plate. These were used to hold compressor in place.)
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| perk |
I ran the wires thru a big rubber grommet in the fire wall and into the interior. Then I placed the air guage and controls out of the way down low.
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| perk |
One thing I went back later to do. The instructions tell you to cut the bumper stop all the way off. I didn't want to do this at first, but I realized later that I did need to do this. To spread out the load on top of bladder, I installed a metal place with a vinyl cover on bottom. I believe this spreads the load a bit better.
Here are the install steps in sequence:
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| perk |
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| perk |
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| perk |
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| perk |
View after bladder is inflated. Notice the black paint. I painted the springs just in case I scraped off some paint when I was sawing out the bumper stops.
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| perk |
quote:
Originally posted by manus1980
Perk,
Are you able to adjust the height of your suspension? How does the ride feel? Has the ride height changed at all? How does it corner and break? Give us some information on how it works.
Yes, it looks like I get about 4 inches of lift in the rear when I pump the bladders up to about 60 psi. Haven't driven much yet, but in the short drive (with about 40 psi) it seems that ride was unaffected. The bladders will give as I go over bumps and don't seem to hurt ride a bit. But, I need more driving before I'll give my final assessment, so give me a week to evaluate before giving impressions on handling, etc. |
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| manus1980 |
| Can you increase and decrease the height while you are driving? Is it very noticeable when you raise and lower your ride? |
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| perk |
The device is independent of any other systems on the X, so you can raise or lower anytime you like. But don't misunderstand. The device is for raising the suspension once it has been compressed by a big load. It doesn't raise the suspension much over the regular height, it just raises it back to the regular height.
good luck. |
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| joebergner |
| perk: When you installed the metal electrical box, did you call for an inspection with the local electrical inspector. Did you take out a permit? Being a electrician I have never seen that applacation for a pancake box like that before, that is too cool:2: |
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| perk |
Pure redneck engineering! HEE HAW!!!
Grew up on a farm. It prepared me well to be the electrical engineer that I am. I spent 2 hours at Home Depot looking for a metal plate and plastic cover to use. This did the trick and came with a nice vinyl cover to prevent abrasion. Perfect. Naturally I was drawn to the electrical section eventually. |
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| perk |
Perhaps I was wrong in my earlier posting about ride height. It looks like the device does in fact lift the X above its normal height. Here are before and after pics.
Before bladders are inflated.
After bladders are inflated to 50 psi.
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| perk |
I promised to report back about a week after installing the air lift kit on my X. My observations are:
1) Almost no difference in ride quality. This is surprising because I fully expected the ride to change, mostly for the worse.
2) The rear suspension does in fact lift about 4 inches higher than normal when I inflate the bladders to 50+ psi (and no load in the back). This was never an intended benefit for me, so I guess it's just a small benefit for times when I might want to raise the suspension a little for mild off-roading.
3) I still haven't carried a big load or anything to test how well the ride height is correctable with this kit. When I do carry a big load, I'll have the answer to my real question: will this kit level out my suspension with heavy loads?
We'll see about these things as time passes and I'll check back in with updates periodically. |
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| kimsta |
Perk,
Can you lower it below the standard height? If so, how much lower?
Also, is the kit available for the front also?
Thanks |
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| perk |
| Nope. This kit won't lower the standard height at all. It is basically only a set of air bladders that fit inside your rear springs and can inflate to raise your suspension when you have a heavy load in back. Not sure about the front suspension. I'll climb under there and take a look next time I have a chance. |
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| evoge |
| The struts are inside the coil springs in the front so the air bladder will not work there. Prolly not a good idea for the front in any case. |
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| perk |
Evoge,
How far are you from snowshoe ski resort? My wife and I come there every new years and stay for a few days of skiing. Last year we stayed in Snowshoe out on Dry Branch Road about 8 miles from resort entrance. We rented an old house that was fixed up by some local folks just for renting. It was funny because the entire house was repaired with old, throw-away stuff. For example, the walls were covered with paneling that had been taken from some mobile home. The bathroom had recycled fixtures, toilet, etc. And all the furniture was clearly of yardsale variety. Thought it was kinda funny.
The biggest thing is that the house was 6 miles down a frozen dirt road covered by at least 6 inches of ice, snow, and gravel. As long as I kept it under 20mph, we had no problem. One day I got a little too fast and fishtailed about 3 cycles until I got the X under control. Don't believe anybody who tells you that VSA is good for ice. It's only good for paved roads. I had to fight with everything I had to get the car under control when it started fishtailing. Don't misunderstand me though. As far as going in the ice and snow, the X is the best I've ever seen. Just don't get too carried away, and switch the VSA off when you're on ice.
This year we are staying in Rimfire lodge in the middle of the resort, so we don't get to visit our hillbilly paradise home. Oh well, we still have the memories. |
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| Warzau |
| Okay let us know the truth, how difficult ( i would never say easy) is it to install? I mean I've done alot of thing, Xenon lights. Drilled for the rear spoiler, Removed the headliner to place some brackets,and drill them in. How difficult would it be to install and how long did it take? |
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| evoge |
Perk, totally off-topic, but:
Elkins is about 45 mins north of Snowshoe on Rt 219, and I live a mile behind the WalMart ("Not on the Digitized Road"). You probably come through Elkins on 219 or 33 unless you go all the way around to Snowshoe from the south.
I moved here for work from SoCal (and NoCal previous to that) 2 years ago and have pretty much enjoyed the countryside, the seasons, being closer to family in PA and DE, and the cost of living. The people are a different, insular, clannish (no offense to GreatScot) bunch, but I've lived all over the world and I consider it just another experience! My wife considers it something else altogether. We're going back to see her family this weekend and being closer than we were on the west coast is certainly better.
We got the X when we moved here for the AWD and reliability for the trips back east to see family. I'm far from the W.Va. dealers, but the couple little problems could wait until I was back to my original dealer. The blizzard last year was no problem and we came over several mountain passes. Luckily, no ice. (For the record, I totalled my Olds Aurora on its first trip in a W.Va. snowstorm. D'oh!)
The cabin you described sounds typical. The homes are either completely rusticated or actually quite nice, but I stayed at a B&B in the Sierra foothills gold rush country that was decorated similar to that on purpose and I had to pay $135 a night!
Since I've noticed a few DC/MD/VA folks talk about trips to W.Va. on occasion, I'll be more than happy to PM my phone # for emergency purposes if you get stuck in the area on the weekend. It's certainly too easy to get stranded! |
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| perk |
quote:
Originally posted by Warzau
Okay let us know the truth, how difficult ( i would never say easy) is it to install? I mean I've done alot of thing, Xenon lights. Drilled for the rear spoiler, Removed the headliner to place some brackets,and drill them in. How difficult would it be to install and how long did it take?
Well it depends on the quality of garage and tools you have at your disposal. You'll need to do things like drill 3/4" holes in the bottom of the coil spring holders. Not too many people have 3/4" metal drill bits laying around. That alone took a couple hours to drill and then smooth out the holes. I don't recommend this for anyone except folks with true DIY abilities, good set of jack stands, adequate garage floor space, large variety of good tools, and a full saturday at their disposal. I've noted other projects on this site that were more difficult, but not very many.
It took me about 8 hours initially, then another 2 to go back and replace a leaky T connector.
If you want a simpler solution do this:
1) find an auto parts place with a large selection of air shocks that will let you open the various boxes and actually handle the shocks for comparison.
2) remove the rear air shocks from your X and take one to that auto parts place and simply match them up.
Have to do this because no one will provide you with specs on the size of rear air shock fittings. I did that with my former car and it worked just fine.
But in this case, I wanted a system that would allow me to raise suspension from driver's seat, so I went with the Air Lift 1000 Outback Special. If you only need to occasionally raise and lower the rear, perhaps some air shocks matched up by hand would do the trick. |
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| evoge |
Perk, do you mean air shocks with the external valve to add compressed air to?
Your installation is controlled from the driver's seat, but did you see any systems that were auto-leveling? |
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| perk |
Yep. The alternative I describe near the end is indeed normal air shocks that are inflated externally, e.g., Gabriel HiJackers.
The Air Lift 1000 that I installed now has an autoleveling option that you can add. See the post by Bulan at the beggining of this forum. I checked it out and it looks like it would work, but I think it's far too expensive. When you consider that the entire kit only cost me $178, it seems kinda crazy to add a mere switch for $350 just for load leveling. I can do the load leveling just fine with the push of a button.
But on the other hand, this looks precisely like the kind of weekend project that gets me psyched. As soon as I saw the load leveling kit from Air Lift, I started contemplating how to create one myself. I have it figured out in my head already; just need to find the kind of parts needed to make it happen. Know where I can find some fried frog livers, eye of newt, and lizard ears? :2: |
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| perk |
| Finally got a chance to load the X down with all the holiday stuff last night. I've been waiting for a chance to see how the new Air Lift 1000 would hold up when I put a large load in back. Pleasant surprise! Even with only 5 psi in the air bladders, the suspension didn't sag more than 1/2 inch with about 500lbs extra in the back. Remember, I can pump them up to about 80 psi and raise the rear end by about 4 inches if necessary. In any event, I am absolutely pleased with the fact that now I don't have to drive so many long trips with the rear end down on the stops and the front end pointing at the stars. Much safer and more pleasant this way. |
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| evoge |
Very cool.
I was thinking of your setup again as I packed the X last weekend with three people, a dog, suitcases, birthday presents, a 3' Santa, 300lbs of cement mix in bags (don't ask), a Disney Christmas village, fruitcake, Home Depot supplies, and a new treadmill on the back trailer-hitch tray. Not too bad driving, actually, but the air-lift would have helped!
(Sometime I'll have to post the photo of the X loaded down from our first Christmas trip two years ago. Truly scary.) |
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| donsev |
quote:
Originally posted by evoge
... 300lbs of cement mix in bags... fruitcake
So, which was heavier, the cement or the fruitcake?
(Sorry, couldn't resist) |
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| evoge |
quote:
Originally posted by donsev
So, which was heavier, the cement or the fruitcake?
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
Ha! I'm telling my mom what you said about her fruitcake. She just might have to kick your a$$. |
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| BlueRidgePilot |
Perk,
I am getting ready to install these on my 2003 Pilot.
Do you have an update on your air lift bags??
Thanks. |
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| perk |
The best update I can give is to say that the system works great and should be standard in all SUVs with independent suspension. I added the auto-leveling kit and a higher capacity pump to my already existing Air Lift 1000 kit last summer and used it all the way across the USA and back. The system worked great and I highly recommend everyone that tows or carries big loads go get one installed.
If you want to see how it works, take this example--200 pounds in the rooftop carrier, about 500 pounds in the cargo area inside, about 200 pounds in the hitch carrier, and about 75 more on the bike rack. Multiply the 275 out back by 2 to account for the leverage in the distance extending from back of car.
Here is the picture.
Without the air lift kit, the vehicle would have been on the bumper stops and nearly undrivable. |
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