Air Suspension - Pros and Cons

mrsixstrings12 · Post by **mrsixstrings12** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:02 pm

I've been wanting to lower my neon for awhile, and while i save money for a setup i've been debating on what to get. I, personally, love the slammed look but with my driveway, i scrape with just stock suspension if im not careful. Solution - AIRBAGS. But i also am SRT swapping the neon in the spring and eventually want to go big turbo and whatnot.

From gathering my info so far, airbags and big turbo speed dont go together quite well. So is this true or are my sources wrong so far?

Are there other cons to an air suspension set up?

The kit im looking at is the K-Sport Airtech Deluxe. Any info on this kit or maybe recommend a different one?

I DID read this link and i couldnt really seem to find any focused info about the air and speed thing.

viewtopic.php?t=23559&highlight=air

I also read in another thread that it may cause problems with alignment?

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:21 pm

didn't realize you were from Greensburg... Pretty close to me. I'm out near monroeville.

I personally wouldn't do air on a daily driven neon but that's just a preference. When I put my lip kit on and was at stock height I complained about scraping too. Then I threw lowering springs on and started driving more carefully, then replaced those with coilovers and dumped it and drive even more carefully and I rarely scrape even on the steep hills in Pittsburgh.

There is a member Lawhon that has airstruts for a neon for sale. You'd just need to piece together the air management system as I believe he sold the tank, valves, lines, switches etc. Check the FS boards. It's an old thread.

mrsixstrings12 · Post by **mrsixstrings12** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:47 pm

awesome! always nice to meet a local! hah

and why not for a daily driver? i've never got to ride in a bagged car. i imagine its quite bumpy. or is there some reliability issue with bags?

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:07 pm

Just more maintenance to bags that a static drop. If you use rubber air lines you have to worry about hoses dry rotting, getting cut and leaking. Same goes for bags. They are rubber after use they will wear out and could blow out and possible leave you stranded. Depending on how drastic your setup is you may lose your sway bars. Valves can go bad, tank can leak etc. These are just things to think about. As for the ride, I've never been in one either but depending on the PSI you ride at and if you have sway bars you could potentially have a car that handles very well.

Do you know Shane Whitehead? If not you may want to talk to him if you are SRT swapping. He lives in Latrobe and SRT swapped his orange blast sxt. I believe his screen name is 2005neonSXT or something like that.

mrsixstrings12 · Post by **mrsixstrings12** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:21 pm

hmm. never thought of that. thanks for the info!

and no i dont but im sure ive seen his car before. there's only like 2 orange neons that ive seen around here haha but thanks for letting me know! im sure ill run into some problems

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:31 pm

I could help out too I'm sure. I'm going to be swapping my car in the spring probably. I just finished building the motor a little while back but I don't have a garage to work in. I also did a lot of work swapping superdan's neon this past summer so I have experience.

mrsixstrings12 · Post by **mrsixstrings12** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:25 pm

awesome! well, as long as i get a job soon i have everything lined up to buy and everything so i'll definitely let you know man! if you need help with yours i'd be glad to help too, although i wouldnt be much help haha

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:23 am

airbags and speed can go very well together... all depends on application. just make sure you go with 8 valves in order to have control of each individual corner of the car. the ride quality depends on the psi you'll be riding at. high psi/full bags is a very bumpy ride (awsome if your pasanger has large bewbz) and as you lower the psi/lower the car, the ride gets smoother.

i d/d my car with bags for almost two years... winter times being the worst. seems to be that you will always get moisture in the air tank (even with water traps/seperators). that moisture travels to the valves and in the lovely winters in chicago, you end up with frozen valves. i would have to let my car run for a while with the back seat rest down, in order to get some heat to the trunk. aside from that, never really had any issues... i did however, always carry some extra hose and fittings in case something whent wrong

a fun story that i like to tell... i once got a flat tire in February. i thought it was too cold to get out the car and change the tire... so i ended up basically 3-wheeling the car home

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:21 pm

But he had to stop at every fire hydrant.

Public Disturbance · Post by **Public Disturbance** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:42 pm

My uncle has air on his 77 Cadillac and other then the reasons said above no reason you couldnt use it on a dd be the first neon to do this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtqN4YtotVY

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:47 pm

Good info, Sam.