TerribleTed

I just received my replacement Airlift air struts. These are their second generation strut for the first gen xB replacing the clunky first generation struts they had. I have found an issue that could be dangerous. IF you are running oversized tires on wider high offset wheels be sure to check the clearance between the top inside edge of the tire and the strut bag lower mounting plate. I am running 18x7.5 rims with a 40 offset and 215/40/18 tires. The clearance at this point is very minimal, in fact my 2 struts are not exactly the same(the bag mount plate is 1/8" lower on my left strut), my left front tire slightly contacts the bag mount plate at factory camber settings. The first generation of these struts had no such issues for me. Do not want anyone rubbing a hole in their tire so please be sure to check.

I ran slightly negative camber (.5 degrees more negative from stock) on the first gen struts. At the settings I can obtain with these struts I can not get as much negative without tire contact on the strut, which means that without doing more fender stretching/body mods I can not take the car all the way down like I did before. I am going to call Airlift on Monday and see what their advice is.....sigh:/

Box_Rod

Wow...the more I hear about these "new" struts the more I don't want them...I'll stick to having just the "clunk" noise and no further issues untill something is really fixed.

TerribleTed

Upon further investigation (I just got home and was looking at the old air struts) I find that the measurement from the upper strut mount hole on the old strut to the old struts lower bag plate is 6 3/4". The new struts however measure only about 6" here. I can not tell precisely how much this distance is supposed to be since my 2 struts are different by almost 3/16" (I hope the longer one is correct so I can get another "longer" one and grind away some of the lower bag mount to get an acceptable clearance (is 1/8" acceptable....I liked 1+ inches better...grrr) at about -1 degree camber

TerribleTed

Through further adjustment I have found that it is possible to attain (on my car) a camber adjustment of -.9 degrees on both sides. The right side is adjustable to a max of -1.3 degrees the left maxed at -.9 degrees (before contacting the bag mount with the tires).

I attained this by doing the following:
1. With the upper mounting bolts loose push the strut in as far as possible and hold it there while you tighten the bolts and nuts. (the supplied hardware is sloppy in the upper mounting holes allowing somewhere less than 1/4" of adjustment).

2. Using a factory lower strut mount bolt in the upper hole, camber the suspension in as far as possible tighten this bolt with it bottomed inward in the slot in the strut.

3. Using an undersized or cam type camber adjusting bolt in the lower of the 2 lower strut mounting hole, adjusted the camber negative until you get what you want. In my case this is -.9 degrees of camber on each side. Any more and contact happens between my tires and the lower bag mount (I am currently at just less than 1/8" clearance...which is not enough to feel good about. I will likely gain another 1/8"+- by grinding a little material off the bottom of the outer part of the bag mount unless Airlift has a better suggestion.

My car is limited by the 40mm offset and the 7.5 wide rims with 40 series tires. The problem is that with the old struts I had very minimal clearance when I was laid out between the fender, bumper, and tire. I was able to attain -1.5 degrees of camber with plenty of clearance to the struts at the top of the tire since the bag mount plate was above the upper edge of the tire instead of right at it (I slotted the upper strut mount holes and used a camber adjusting bolts in the lowers to attain this on those struts as well.) Since I can go no more negative on these new struts (without contacting the lower bag mount with the tire) I have clearance issues when I am dropped to the ground. The tires slightly contact the fenders and poof them out ever so slightly where before with the camber a bit more negative I had a minimal clearance with no real contact (well excepting touching the splash shield a little).

My cars right front wheel has always been a bit closer to the fender than the left side. I assume my powertrain is mounted just a little bit off center to the right (likely within factory tolerance...). Has anyone else noticed this??

Sciond

yep and same in the rear.........

Spider13

I'd really like to rebag my box at some point in the game, but after having fought the airlift junk in the past and reading about the new junk. Fabbing something custom gets looking better and better.

I'd never had considered it a year ago, but the more I fab, the better it always seems over "bolt on".

Yeah I always had the off center drive train issues too.

Box_Rod

I hear you on this one Spider...I'm feeling the same way on mine.

jx1379

i hate to send you to another site, but i posted pics with the new setup last week on clubxb. i havent quite figured out how to post pics on scionlife, but it seems (terrible_ted) you were having the same problem as i was (only when i fully deflated on the new struts w/18x7.5 35 series tires and 38 offset did i rub bag and outer fender). i got in touch with airlift and i went up there for 2 days and they worked out the problem so that i could fit my rims/tires and reworked the upper mounting bolts. i, however, have not noticed the "left is lower than the right side", but i will double check/measure just for good measure.

fyi - i have only been driving on the newest struts for about 2 weeks, but i have put 1500-2000 miles on them and so far so good!

TerribleTed

I spoke with Jeremy at Airlift today. He told me about your car and is sending me a slightly different version of the new strut. He says the lower bolt tabs are a bit longer which would move the strut inward away from the tire a bit leaving more clearance between the tire and the strut. I will try them and send back one or the other version of these "new" struts. Hopefully I can gain just a little more Negative camber, a couple tenths of a dgree would put me back to where I was with the old strut version.

jx1379

yep - with the new tabs, you gain about a 1/4-1/2 gap, if not more, between tire and the "newest" bag/strut setup. the bag is a little to big and rubs on my rims/tires (18x7.5) so they made a skinnier diameter bag and that gave me my clearance. the ride is a little bumpy at times but the performance feel of the car is awesome. i use to baby my car around corners, but now i do not feel afraid to actually "drive" my car!

Spider13

This is a shame, old style struts had no issues to 8.5 or 9 inches wide. I guess them days are gone.

I'd like to see these on a car, i just can wrap my head around how they took away clearance between the strut and the tire.

TerribleTed

Actually they brought the lower bag mount down the strut body. The tire and strut are the same distance apart. The tire and the the lower bag mount however the new "new" struts have longer lower tabs which should push the strut body back in the wheel house gaining a little bit of clearance to the tire.

jx1379

huh - from what the techs told me as i stood there and watched them for 2 days, i am pretty sure my tabs were to long and they had to cut them off and re-weld shorter ones off to create a pitch and they used a skinner bag (watched them make it start to finish). but honestly, when it comes to the technical part of it all, i am still clueless. now normal day stuff - i am ok, but what the pros get paid to do i dont really understand. terrible_ted - is it possible we have 2 different problems even though its the same car (we all know they vary from year to year)? if it helps at all, i am getting to get my rims balanced since my stick on magnets went flying off the other day...but i can take some pics of what my strut looks like now to compare? idk, but thanks for the info!

TerribleTed

What they did to mod the struts for you is as you say. what they are sending me is struts with modified lower mounting tabs. He did not say anything about a different bag to me. I will see in a few days when they get here.

What I said above is that the clearance problem of tires hitting the bag or bag mount was caused by the fact that they moved the lower bag mount down the strut (closer to the top of the tire) by over 3/4 of an inch vs the old (first) strut design.

And yes we likely have the same problem. You were rubbing bag because you likely ride lower than I do. I touch bag directly to tire when I drop the car with these current struts, but, do not rub in operation (my front lip is 1 3/4" taller than stock so low for me is not a really low suspension height). The tires are almost rubbing the lower cast metal bag mount though. If I rode at lower air pressures then I would likely rub bag as well.

Spider13

I see now

I'd be afraid the longer tabs would get most of the camber issues back. This seems like alot of trial and error for a "production" part. Humpt.

Gothbox

so am I going to have any probs with my 16x8 +35 offset wheels?

Box_Rod

I find it interesting that the following post was made today (8-14-08 @ 8:06 AM) on another xB site from Jeremy at Air Lift:

"No, the issues with the front struts have all been taken care of. No more noise, or positive camber issues. I will try to get some pictures posted of the new struts."

I'm not saying anything bad about Jeremy, he has been extremly patient and helpful with us xB owners...but give me a break... we are seeing/hearing issues with these "new" struts.

Just my $0.02 worth...

jx1379

they didnt have an xb to fully test the "newly designed struts"........so this means when i got my "newest released set", they werent even available to the public yet. they had mabye 2-5 sets go out to make sure everything was a GO. but when i got mine..........i encountered a little bump in the road. needless to say, i drove my happy a$$ up to michigan and had them work on my car to make sure their "newest design strut" would fit/work/perform like they were designed to....not to mention i was there for 2 days just to make sure that everything was perfect. so as of right now (and i have posted mileage with the new struts on clubxb since i got them) i have put on over 2200 miles on the "newest struts" and have had no problems what-so-ever. so i hope that my mini-vacation (i did this in the middle of my work week and had a 6 hour drive/400 mile to michigan and back) has all of the xb'ers rolling safe and problem free with the "newest struts". as of today 8-14-08, I would say the problems with clunking, camber, and fitment are all fixed (at least on my box and i am sure it will be for all others).

ogerdgonz

jx1379 is the only person with the struts Jeremy mentioned. I have been helping get these fixed and I am the main reason they had jx1379 come up for the tech session. When Ted gets the same struts jx1379 has the problem should be solved.

Also it is hard to design a "custom" suspension part for every tire and rim combination out there. A company can go off what the stock options are and what ever their research car has. They are working with everyone to make people happy.

aalbertson3

That was me that asked the question. I found it interesting too........