350z 3H Airlift Performance suspension install writeup W/PICS
04-11-2018, 10:03 AM
#1
350z 3H Airlift Performance suspension install writeup W/PICS
Hey guys, Ive just finished my 3H air lift performance install on my 2006 350z roadster and I want to put up an install thread because there is limited resources for this on the web. I’ll try my best to include every detail I can.
The start:
I’ll begin with the obvious task, jack up the car on all four corners and put the car on jack stands, remove the wheels.
1) Removing the front suspension.
I had tein coil overs installed so they had to go. I started on the front. Remove all the nuts, bolts retaining to the old suspension, the upper strut mount nuts, the lower control arm bolt, remove the brake line bracket so the brake line is free from the strut and you can pull it out. Remove the front struts. As a side note, you will need a jack to put under your hub to compress the suspension to aid getting it out.
2)Removing the rear suspension.
I had tein suspension in the rear as well, so I started removing the shocks, remove the top nuts on the shocks, the lower bolt into the control arm, remove the bolt that holds the spring cup to the hub, let that drop and remove the spring and rubber bushings. Remove the shocks.
3)Removing interior components.
With this step I’m going to include the removal of all components needed to install your wiring, hoses and hardwood. For my install, I chose to install hardwood in my trunk to mount all my equipment for viewing. Some guys bolt their compressors, tanks, manifold and hardware to the body under the trunk cover so it isnt seen so I will explain what I did for my install. I removed the rear plastic cover(the piece that has the trunk release cord), I left the sides(no need to remove these. you will need these in place for later), I removed the spare tire, the tools in the foam, I left the foam pieces for extra support for my hardwood.
Now moving up to the convertible top compartment, I peeled back the leather on the passenger side just enough to get access to both the trunk and the cabin of the car to run my wiring through.
In the interior, I removed the passenger seat, the panel by the seat belt, the small lower L shape trim on the floor that goes across where the door closes, and the panel down by your feet. Visualize that I ran my wiring all on the passenger side under the carpet, that is why we need these panels removed.
In the engine bay, I removed all the plastics around the battery so you can have full access to the fuse box and have lots of room for running your wiring.
4)Installing the airlift suspension.
I’m not going to go in deep detail with this step because the air lift instructions are fairly straight forward but I will point out some tips while going through the booklet. When you are installing some of the components you will notice some of the fittings already have liquid teflon installed on them so you don’t need to use teflon tape on these. When tightening the fittings in the suspension parts, there is a chart showing how many turns to tighten the fitting depending on the size. I followed this very strictly and I didn’t have a single leak. When the step arises to set your “mid-stroke” I took my measurements from the top of the hub ring to a point on my fender. Those were my reference points. Make sure you are at the “mid-stroke” height when tightening all your suspension parts. When installing the rear, you have to drill a 17/32 hole in the centre of the spring seat, what the instructions fail to tell you is you have to drill into the spring seat BUT you have to also drill into the body of the car or the nutsert will not fit in there snug, it will bottom out. The installation of the suspension is straight forward, the instructions are spot on, if you are mechanically inclined at all, you will find this simple.
5)Installing the hoses and wiring.
I started from the trunk with my air hoses, airlift gives you just enough hose to run so I wouldn’t be too generous when you make your cuts. I ran the hoses from the trunk to the front bags first, so to do this I drilled two 5/8 holes in my trunk and installed rubber grommets in them(you can do one big hole, 3 smaller holes, whatever you choose). I then ran out the front driver side first, I ran the front passenger side next, then I went back and tie wrapped them together to the brake lines the entire way up the car. On my roadster there seemed to be a perfect route to run these lines next to the existing brake lines, it was protected and up out of the way. I then ran the rear hoses to the bags and tie wrapped them neatly to existing wiring/lines.
For the wiring I also started from the trunk, I used a wire coat hanger as a “fish tape” to tape the wire to and pull the wires to each are of the car instead of feeding it the whole way. I dropped off the height sensor wiring to the rears first, pulled the harness through the convertible top compartment, in behind the seat belt into the cabin, dropped off the usb for the controller( I ran that into my centre console flip cubby area).
This is the awesome part, in behind the battery in the engine compartment there is a plastic tube that goes from behind the battery to the floor of the interior of the car, I sliced a small hole in the rubber of the tube on top, put my coat hanger down through that, taped on my harness to the hanger and pulled it up through.
Once in the battery box, there is an opening in the wheel well on the passenger side I ran my height sensor wiring down through and dropped those off to the passenger and driver side.
After all this I started from the driver side height sensor and tie wrapped my way back to the trunk leaving what I needed at each area.
In the engine bay, I hooked up the 12v power wires to the battery and the ignition wire to my fuel pump fuse. Airlift provides all the wire connectors you need to tit everything in.
6)The hardwood flooring.
I started by getting some measurements to see how much hardwood I actually needed. So what I did was I took the removable carpet piece from the trunk, laid it on a piece of cardboard and traced it out. Keep in mind this carpet piece is a little smaller than what I wanted the hardwood to fit like(it isn’t tight against the sides) so I added 1/4” to some areas so the hardwood would be snug against the sides of the trunk and I shaved it off if needed later. Once traced out on the cardboard I cut it out with scissors and that is my template.
I picked up some hardwood at home depot, its oak and it was already stained and varnished. If I had my time back I probably would of picked up some unfinished oak, it would of saved me a lot of time.
I stripped all the hardwood with stain stripper also from home depot, you brush it on, let it sit and scrape it off with a scraper. Once that was done, I pieced together the hardwood in the design I wanted it, laid the cardboard template on top of the hardwood and traced it out. I then took the hardwood apart and cut each individual piece with a jig saw. After everything was cut I laid all the pieces in the trunk to confirm the fitment.I then sanded everything starting with 80grit sandpaper working my way to 200grit.
After that I laid in all hardwood again and laid in all of my equipment(tank, compressor, manifold) and marked all the holes including the mounting holes and the holes I needed to make for the hoses and wiring the go down below the hardwood. For the holes for the hoses and wiring, I situated them under the tank and compressor so they couldn’t be seen when looking into the trunk. I then proceeded to stain the hardwood, I then varnished everything. Keep in mind you will want to make sure you drill the holes first before staining or you could chip the wood and expose raw wood.
7)Mounting the equipment in the trunk.
Here I mounted the relay to the trunk floor under a bolt that held my foam down on the passenger side of the trunk, I mounted the tanks filter to the driver side plastic under the hardwood flooring so it wouldn’t be seen. I tie wrapped all the excess wiring together down below the flooring to the spare tire mount so it wouldn’t be moving around.
With regards to the routing of the hoses between the equipment, air lifts instructions are very straight forward here as well, they have a detailed drawing of how to run the hoses so I won’t go into too much detail here.
A major tip I want to point out here is when you place your hardwood, I would suggest putting velcro tape on each piece of hardwood and the plastic panel around the whole trunk. Otherwise the wood could lift up when you hit a bump and make noise.
I used wood glue on my first three pieces of hardwood(closest to the cabin) and laid those in with the velcro tape on them, I then laid each piece one by one until I got to the point where I wanted to mount my equipment. I had to pick up my own mounting hardware because the hardware included with airlifts kit wasn’t long enough to go through my hardwood. I also bolted the hardwood down with a 7” long bolt to the spare tire holder to reduce on movement.
On the last piece of hardwood(the piece closest to the rear of the car) I cut this piece a little skinnier because you will want to be able to remove this piece in the future if you ever want to have access under the hardwood.
8)Installing the height sensors.
Everywhere I looked guys reference this job as difficult, if you know how to use a measuring tape and read instructions then you shouldn’t have any issues. On the front and rear, I mounted the sensor to the body of the car and mounted the rod to the lower control arm. The instructions are straight forward once again, the most difficult time is trying to be particular enough to set your sensor perfectly level above the point you are mounting the rod on the lower control arm. I used self tappers to mount the sensors to the body and I drilled and tapped the holes in the lower control arm. A 5/32 drill bit and m5x0.8 tap are the sizes you need for the bolts provided by ailift. Once the sensor and rods are installed, plug in your wiring.
9)Putting air in the system for the first time.
As the car is still on the jack stands, start the car, let the compressor run and build pressure to 150psi, once the compressor stops, proceed to put air in each bag(read the manual on how to do this with the controller). I put 70psi exactly in each bag, then let it there for 24 hours. Come back the next day and check to see if A) your compressor still has 150psi and B) if your bags still have 70psi each. There is a 4psi window that airlift says you can drop after the install, anymore than that you have a leak.
10)Calibrating your system
So this where I had issues, I was following the steps in the instruction manual provided by airlift and things weren’t matching up. I wanted to manually set my pressure/height in the calibration because I have a setup right now that if I go too low my wheels will hit my fenders and quarter panels but it wasn’t giving me that option plus I was getting all kinds of errors on the controllers screen.
So I called airlift(the guys are great over there btw) and they told me my manifold wasn’t up to date to follow with the instructions in the booklet. So I had to download the airlift app on my Iphone, bluetooth my phone to the manifold and update the system. After doing that everything went perfect. I went through each step of my MANUAL calibration and it passed perfectly.
I still have to roll my rear quarter panels so I’m not as low as I want to be on the rear yet but I’ll have that done in a couple of weeks hopefully.
Thats it guys, I’m sure I may have missed some details so if you have any questions feel free to ask!. Ive included pictures as well showing some steps of the process. Also if you like this writeup shoot me a follow over on instagram to see more pics of my roadster! @boosted.d is my name! Cheers!
The start:
I’ll begin with the obvious task, jack up the car on all four corners and put the car on jack stands, remove the wheels.
1) Removing the front suspension.
I had tein coil overs installed so they had to go. I started on the front. Remove all the nuts, bolts retaining to the old suspension, the upper strut mount nuts, the lower control arm bolt, remove the brake line bracket so the brake line is free from the strut and you can pull it out. Remove the front struts. As a side note, you will need a jack to put under your hub to compress the suspension to aid getting it out.
2)Removing the rear suspension.
I had tein suspension in the rear as well, so I started removing the shocks, remove the top nuts on the shocks, the lower bolt into the control arm, remove the bolt that holds the spring cup to the hub, let that drop and remove the spring and rubber bushings. Remove the shocks.
3)Removing interior components.
With this step I’m going to include the removal of all components needed to install your wiring, hoses and hardwood. For my install, I chose to install hardwood in my trunk to mount all my equipment for viewing. Some guys bolt their compressors, tanks, manifold and hardware to the body under the trunk cover so it isnt seen so I will explain what I did for my install. I removed the rear plastic cover(the piece that has the trunk release cord), I left the sides(no need to remove these. you will need these in place for later), I removed the spare tire, the tools in the foam, I left the foam pieces for extra support for my hardwood.
Now moving up to the convertible top compartment, I peeled back the leather on the passenger side just enough to get access to both the trunk and the cabin of the car to run my wiring through.
In the interior, I removed the passenger seat, the panel by the seat belt, the small lower L shape trim on the floor that goes across where the door closes, and the panel down by your feet. Visualize that I ran my wiring all on the passenger side under the carpet, that is why we need these panels removed.
In the engine bay, I removed all the plastics around the battery so you can have full access to the fuse box and have lots of room for running your wiring.
4)Installing the airlift suspension.
I’m not going to go in deep detail with this step because the air lift instructions are fairly straight forward but I will point out some tips while going through the booklet. When you are installing some of the components you will notice some of the fittings already have liquid teflon installed on them so you don’t need to use teflon tape on these. When tightening the fittings in the suspension parts, there is a chart showing how many turns to tighten the fitting depending on the size. I followed this very strictly and I didn’t have a single leak. When the step arises to set your “mid-stroke” I took my measurements from the top of the hub ring to a point on my fender. Those were my reference points. Make sure you are at the “mid-stroke” height when tightening all your suspension parts. When installing the rear, you have to drill a 17/32 hole in the centre of the spring seat, what the instructions fail to tell you is you have to drill into the spring seat BUT you have to also drill into the body of the car or the nutsert will not fit in there snug, it will bottom out. The installation of the suspension is straight forward, the instructions are spot on, if you are mechanically inclined at all, you will find this simple.
5)Installing the hoses and wiring.
I started from the trunk with my air hoses, airlift gives you just enough hose to run so I wouldn’t be too generous when you make your cuts. I ran the hoses from the trunk to the front bags first, so to do this I drilled two 5/8 holes in my trunk and installed rubber grommets in them(you can do one big hole, 3 smaller holes, whatever you choose). I then ran out the front driver side first, I ran the front passenger side next, then I went back and tie wrapped them together to the brake lines the entire way up the car. On my roadster there seemed to be a perfect route to run these lines next to the existing brake lines, it was protected and up out of the way. I then ran the rear hoses to the bags and tie wrapped them neatly to existing wiring/lines.
For the wiring I also started from the trunk, I used a wire coat hanger as a “fish tape” to tape the wire to and pull the wires to each are of the car instead of feeding it the whole way. I dropped off the height sensor wiring to the rears first, pulled the harness through the convertible top compartment, in behind the seat belt into the cabin, dropped off the usb for the controller( I ran that into my centre console flip cubby area).
This is the awesome part, in behind the battery in the engine compartment there is a plastic tube that goes from behind the battery to the floor of the interior of the car, I sliced a small hole in the rubber of the tube on top, put my coat hanger down through that, taped on my harness to the hanger and pulled it up through.
Once in the battery box, there is an opening in the wheel well on the passenger side I ran my height sensor wiring down through and dropped those off to the passenger and driver side.
After all this I started from the driver side height sensor and tie wrapped my way back to the trunk leaving what I needed at each area.
In the engine bay, I hooked up the 12v power wires to the battery and the ignition wire to my fuel pump fuse. Airlift provides all the wire connectors you need to tit everything in.
6)The hardwood flooring.
I started by getting some measurements to see how much hardwood I actually needed. So what I did was I took the removable carpet piece from the trunk, laid it on a piece of cardboard and traced it out. Keep in mind this carpet piece is a little smaller than what I wanted the hardwood to fit like(it isn’t tight against the sides) so I added 1/4” to some areas so the hardwood would be snug against the sides of the trunk and I shaved it off if needed later. Once traced out on the cardboard I cut it out with scissors and that is my template.
I picked up some hardwood at home depot, its oak and it was already stained and varnished. If I had my time back I probably would of picked up some unfinished oak, it would of saved me a lot of time.
I stripped all the hardwood with stain stripper also from home depot, you brush it on, let it sit and scrape it off with a scraper. Once that was done, I pieced together the hardwood in the design I wanted it, laid the cardboard template on top of the hardwood and traced it out. I then took the hardwood apart and cut each individual piece with a jig saw. After everything was cut I laid all the pieces in the trunk to confirm the fitment.I then sanded everything starting with 80grit sandpaper working my way to 200grit.
After that I laid in all hardwood again and laid in all of my equipment(tank, compressor, manifold) and marked all the holes including the mounting holes and the holes I needed to make for the hoses and wiring the go down below the hardwood. For the holes for the hoses and wiring, I situated them under the tank and compressor so they couldn’t be seen when looking into the trunk. I then proceeded to stain the hardwood, I then varnished everything. Keep in mind you will want to make sure you drill the holes first before staining or you could chip the wood and expose raw wood.
7)Mounting the equipment in the trunk.
Here I mounted the relay to the trunk floor under a bolt that held my foam down on the passenger side of the trunk, I mounted the tanks filter to the driver side plastic under the hardwood flooring so it wouldn’t be seen. I tie wrapped all the excess wiring together down below the flooring to the spare tire mount so it wouldn’t be moving around.
With regards to the routing of the hoses between the equipment, air lifts instructions are very straight forward here as well, they have a detailed drawing of how to run the hoses so I won’t go into too much detail here.
A major tip I want to point out here is when you place your hardwood, I would suggest putting velcro tape on each piece of hardwood and the plastic panel around the whole trunk. Otherwise the wood could lift up when you hit a bump and make noise.
I used wood glue on my first three pieces of hardwood(closest to the cabin) and laid those in with the velcro tape on them, I then laid each piece one by one until I got to the point where I wanted to mount my equipment. I had to pick up my own mounting hardware because the hardware included with airlifts kit wasn’t long enough to go through my hardwood. I also bolted the hardwood down with a 7” long bolt to the spare tire holder to reduce on movement.
On the last piece of hardwood(the piece closest to the rear of the car) I cut this piece a little skinnier because you will want to be able to remove this piece in the future if you ever want to have access under the hardwood.
8)Installing the height sensors.
Everywhere I looked guys reference this job as difficult, if you know how to use a measuring tape and read instructions then you shouldn’t have any issues. On the front and rear, I mounted the sensor to the body of the car and mounted the rod to the lower control arm. The instructions are straight forward once again, the most difficult time is trying to be particular enough to set your sensor perfectly level above the point you are mounting the rod on the lower control arm. I used self tappers to mount the sensors to the body and I drilled and tapped the holes in the lower control arm. A 5/32 drill bit and m5x0.8 tap are the sizes you need for the bolts provided by ailift. Once the sensor and rods are installed, plug in your wiring.
9)Putting air in the system for the first time.
As the car is still on the jack stands, start the car, let the compressor run and build pressure to 150psi, once the compressor stops, proceed to put air in each bag(read the manual on how to do this with the controller). I put 70psi exactly in each bag, then let it there for 24 hours. Come back the next day and check to see if A) your compressor still has 150psi and B) if your bags still have 70psi each. There is a 4psi window that airlift says you can drop after the install, anymore than that you have a leak.
10)Calibrating your system
So this where I had issues, I was following the steps in the instruction manual provided by airlift and things weren’t matching up. I wanted to manually set my pressure/height in the calibration because I have a setup right now that if I go too low my wheels will hit my fenders and quarter panels but it wasn’t giving me that option plus I was getting all kinds of errors on the controllers screen.
So I called airlift(the guys are great over there btw) and they told me my manifold wasn’t up to date to follow with the instructions in the booklet. So I had to download the airlift app on my Iphone, bluetooth my phone to the manifold and update the system. After doing that everything went perfect. I went through each step of my MANUAL calibration and it passed perfectly.
I still have to roll my rear quarter panels so I’m not as low as I want to be on the rear yet but I’ll have that done in a couple of weeks hopefully.
Thats it guys, I’m sure I may have missed some details so if you have any questions feel free to ask!. Ive included pictures as well showing some steps of the process. Also if you like this writeup shoot me a follow over on instagram to see more pics of my roadster! @boosted.d is my name! Cheers!
Last edited by crd00; 04-11-2018 at 10:18 AM.
The following users liked this post:
The Swede (04-12-2018)
04-12-2018, 11:29 PM
#2
Thanks for the writeup!
I'm looking into maybe doing a 3P install on my 08 coupe next year so every bit of information I can get is fantastic.
Let us know how you like it when you got some seat time, how it handles, how's the ride, anything bothering you etc.
Cheers!
/Zwede
I'm looking into maybe doing a 3P install on my 08 coupe next year so every bit of information I can get is fantastic.
Let us know how you like it when you got some seat time, how it handles, how's the ride, anything bothering you etc.
Cheers!
/Zwede
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