Inexpensive Air Lift for adjustable coilovers

[Firehuntah]

Well, KW told me hls won't work for some reason on m3 coilovers (not enough space), but maybe they wrong.

As about side loading, it's all about designing for that, I guess. Dampers themselves are hydraulic cylinders with high momentary pressure. But they solve it with the use of long seals. Which we don't have much space for. I'm sure that KW knows how to do hydraulic cylinder that won't leak on a car...

True yeah. Perhaps it will be fine. But I've done enough experimenting with the air cups. Don't want to start all over again with HLS. Maybe you can try it! As for them mentioning there isn't enough space.. I believe there's plenty of space for the HLS kit, Model 3 offers a lot of space inbetween the damper and knuckle. I don't think it'll be a problem really.

pillowballs be pillowballin'

How loud are the clunks compared to tire impact noise? I have spherical top hats on my coilovers. I hear the pillowball clatter on bad roads but it's mostly drowned out by tire impact noise (which was loud on this car stock, and stayed that way with the coilovers). On smoother roads without tire impact noise I can't hear the pillowballs at all thankfully. It's about the NVH level I was expecting from new, good-condition pillowballs - which is to say a little bit, not zero, but not excessive.

Yep.. the one thing I just don't like with pillowballs. It's just so noticeable on an EV where everything else is pretty much silent. But on mine it's actually quite loud, but only on bad roads. On smoother roads I don't notice it at all, stays silent. What coilovers are you using and why did you get pillowball mounts? I'd personally much prefer the OEM top mounts for reduced noise. Though I do really like the feeling with the pillowballs. Of the added NVH it's really only the N part that bothers me.

 

[tm1v2]

Why I'd get pillowballs you ask? Cause I WANTED them!

No seriously, it was one mount/bushing upgrade I never got to on my STI. Always wanted to try them if I ever got coilovers. I'd replaced rubber with spherical bearings before elsewhere on a car, I knew approximately what I was getting into. I also consulted with friends with similar taste in cars/modding/NVH/etc who had pillowballs on various cars.

My main concern was - and still is - how long the pillowballs will last in a street application (before getting noisy / worn). Top hats are way up high away from road grime, and I trust Redwood Motorsports to use high quality parts, so I'm hoping to get a good number of years before rebuild/replace.

If they wear out super quick I'll just swap to my stock rubber hats and that'll be that. So far so good though. The N part is really minimal honestly. The car is shared with my wife, if it were real noise believe me that wouldn't fly. Well one of the rears was quite noisy at first but Redwood took care of it, they reassembled it under warranty and it's been good since.

The coilovers are Redwood Performance Sport Ohlins DFV. Redwood does sell their top hats standalone, I don't know if they'd be compatible with your setup but could be worth looking into, sounds like they're quieter than what you have now. Not cheap tho.

 

[Firehuntah]

Well that's pretty special, wanting pillowballs on one of the most quiet cars available. But yeah I guess in your situation it isn't that bad though if the wife doesn't complain about it. I do get why you want them though as I really like the feel with them. If the noise wasn't there I definitely would keep everything as is as I really do enjoy the setup.

I actually did look into the Redwood top mounts before getting my current ones. But as you said, they're very expensive and wasn't able to get them when I needed them back then. Also someone I know that had them too had some noise issues too. So I decided to go with some top mounts that are used on air suspension struts. While they're pillowball, they're also surrounded by rubber. So in theory these should be quieter than the Redwood ones. I think the noise with mine is just a combination of the pillowball and radial bearing. And the many different adapters to stack it all together.

 

[MountainPass]

I came here to say "ask Robbie before you start!" but he was already here @Firehuntah thank you for being a pioneer and documenting your journey.

 

[Firehuntah]

I came here to say "ask Robbie before you start!" but he was already here @Firehuntah thank you for being a pioneer and documenting your journey.

Wouldn't have been possible without you! But yeah it was a real journey indeed. Honestly a real fun project where I learned a lot and in the end was able to solve almost all issues I had with the air cups. Just that annoying noise.. While there might still be a solution in the form of custom front air cups to be able to use them together with OEM top mounts, I'm just not going to put more time and money into it as there's always still a chance it won't work. And well.. as you know I'm going a slightly different route now.

 

[Firehuntah]

So I have to come back on info that I've shared here about the air cups and spherical top mounts and how noisy they are. Since I wanted to get rid of that noise, and also for some other reasons, I made the switch to air suspension. The noise was still there however. Turned out to be bad ball joints on the compression rods / compliance links. After replacing those arms the noise I had was gone. So it wasn't the air cups nor the spherical top mounts that were making noise.

While air cups on a Model 3 are still a lot of work to get done, I can now safely say it's at least a good option for those who really want to stick to coilovers but need the lift. Though there are 2 drawbacks. One is not being able to drive with the air cups engaged for long durations. Bad for the seals and front lifts higher than rear making the headlights point up. Other thing is dirt getting trapped inside the air cups, eventually destroying the seals. Especially on a daily driven car. I daily drive mine and after about one and half year the front seals were pretty much done. So you'd either have to clean them regularly or just accept having to replace the seals (or complete cups) every so often.

For me personally, having experienced air suspension now, it's the better option and I probably wouldn't go with air cups anymore. Though ofcourse coilovers will always be more reliable.