X5 Air Suspension Leak?

[Bcsan]

Hi I want to determine if my X5 has a air spring leak. What I observe is when parked overnight on my uneven driveway the left side sags in the mornings(driveway is sloped left to right and front to back). However, during the day when I park at work for 6 hours on a flat surface, I don’t observe any sagging on the left side. Hope someone can provide some guidance.

Thanks!

[jc-]

This is my first post on here… not my first bmw… just purchased a 2018 x5 50i…
I have not done much yet… spacers, h&r springs in front… and getting downpies and stage 2 on Tues…. Excited…
The question I hope someone can help me with is after lowering the front- the passenger rear is dropping instantly after turning it off… but fills back up after turning it on… this happened right after the springs in front were installed and those pin things were put in the rear to trick the air ride…. I didn’t think it could be a leak that quick… put soapy water on- nothing… will have more time next weeekend to look at it more… (I’m not a mechanic) (I can put a mean diaper on)- the guys doin downpipes will tell me too if it’s the bag that may have a hole in it…. Thanks in advance! Appreciate all the loyal and devoted people that are on here wanting to help… thx, J

[Kzang]

What year is your car? It probably has a small leak. One of the things you can do is get under the rear side, spray some soapy water on the bags to see if there is any bubbles forming. That is what the BMW tech did to mine to find out my driver side was leaking air so I changed out both left and right air bags recently. BMW wanted to charge me $2,000. I went to my local independent shop who did it for $900. They used the arnott brand which is basically the OEM without the branding.

[kanchis]

Originally Posted by Bcsan

Hi I want to determine if my X5 has an air spring leak. What I observe is when parked overnight on my uneven driveway the left side sags in the mornings(the driveway is sloped left to right and front to back). However, during the day when I park at work for 6 hours on a flat surface, I don’t observe any sagging on the left side. Hope someone can provide some guidance.

Thanks!

My experience with the air suspension is that the bags fail first. From doing this repair myself (check my threads, you should be able to find my write-up/experience). I messed with it for way too long because I was so adamant about believing that both bags would go bad at the same time. My theory of trial and error is that most likely only 1 bag was defective in my car. But the moment the ride height sensor detects that one side is going down it adjusts the other one as well. Now, it never deflate just one side for me. I have no hypothesis why one side would go down, unless a ride height sensor is bad.

Best advice for you is to replace the Airbags. The repair itself is pretty easy. Get the Arnott's, I think I paid $300 odd for both if I'm not mistaken. The only tough part for me was to wiggle the old bag out of its cavity as the suspension wouldn't go down enough to give enough space for it. Other than that it was pretty straightforward. If you do this yourself, take the opportunity to take the pump out and dry the desiccant beads. 100% sure they are wet. If you are in the Atlanta area I'm happy to help if we can find a time that works for both of us.

[jc-]

I ended up having a small leak and fixed it.. just got car back! Had down pipes and stage 2 done! Holy %*%#!!!!! This is Ridiculous!!!!! Highly recommend this! This super car fast! So much fun!

[Bcsan]

Thanks for the tips. I had it replaced with the arnott model with an indie tech shop. 480 for labor and 350 for the parts.

[JBorbits]

Arnott is the way to go, price wasn't bad. My third row air suspension when out around 40k miles and started sagging.