Front air suspension retrofit?

[E53diesel]

How much of a job is it to replace the front suspension on a 3.0d with front air suspension from an IS model? Is it worth the expense? Just want to be able to adjust the ride height with a button

[X5Sport]

Have a look at Realoem to see what parts you need.  Use the last 7 of your VIN as the 'Serial Number' and then compare against an IS.

There may even be a retrofit kit, in which make a note of any EBA number as those are the instructions and a friendly BMW Dealer may kindly print them off for you.

More likely to be 'heavy' in terms of the metal parts.

Other than that I would have thought it will be switches, wiring, pipework and level sensors, possibly a different compressor and a bit of coding.  You could order the 3.0d with full air, but few did as it's not proving the most reliable of systems!

[graemeX5]

Hi and welcome.

I would expect the cost would be prohibitively expensive to do this especially if you want original parts whether new or even second hand, and probably it would add up to somewhere between 50% and 100% of the cost of your car.

If you are desperate for this to option it would be easier to go out and get an IS model with it, but press the check control on the dash to see if it has air suspension inactive on the display to see if it has any faults.

But if you read a lot of the posts on here about the air suspension on the frontit is not the most reliable system. It can through up a lot of errors and issues, as their are a lot of sensors which are prone to elements and wear and get a lot of hard wear, let alone routing the relevant wiring or the system.

You will probably find more people with the air suspension going to alternative systems such as coilovers or spring when they have problems rather than sticking with airbags on the front. Some have positively avoided having a car with air suspension and opted for a different model or regretted having bought a car with it on.

Having said that each to their own, but a car with front air suspension already factory fitted to it is probably the easiest and cheapest way in my opinion to get the end result you want.

Graeme

[Horizon]

As said, most people with the all round air suspension wish they had springs instead.

[E53diesel]

I was looking at the coilover option but the cheapest I found was £750 all round, wasn't sure how much it would cost to source & fit the front air system. I tried lowering springs on the front, but didn't give me the drop I wanted & it wasn't adjustable, also managed to get lowering links for the back but it wasn't what I was looking for.

[graemeX5]

Hi

I would agree and say the coilovers roite is the easiest way to lower the car, but watch out for the camber esp on the rear as it will need adjusting or you will be replacing the tyres frequently , as it can be bad on some standard height cars.