DIY Airbag Man OA6011 install in 120 Grande

[Pradolot]

Hey everyone,
So after buying my 2005 petrol grande and putting it through its paces. I can defiantly say the standard airbags will split in half (in my case drivers side) set to high through some serious wombat holes.
So after much reading studying and phone calls I decided to go airbag man 2" raised with bilsteins and king springs. Heavy duty ones. Now if anyone could shed some light. I'm having an issue.
After putting all new suspension was put in (at home by myself... If it matters) I ran a tape over what lift I had achieved. From bottom of the standard alloy toyota rims to wheel arc I have approx 815 after some bush bashing and settling. Need a wheel Alignment as camber is way out and at a guess. May drop Another 5mm. Now when I measured the rear it was only sitting at 790. So was face up a lot. So left it for a couple days. No more sagging at front. And rear hight the same. So next logical step was to space out the leveling sensors a little more in the rear to achieve more lift. As airbag man ones only lift the rear 30mm not 50mm to align better with the gxl 50mm raised struts because grande are 20mm higher than standard gxl aparently. Anyway so I needed 50mm in rear. Not 30. Pulled down sensors and added approx 7-8 mm of washers. Perfect... No. What thus has done now is raised one side of the prado on the rear to 830 (the hight I was trying to achieve) but not other side. So back on the phone. I'm informed the 2 airbags have a tolerance or +/- 15mm. To allow for obvious reasons. Uneven parking/heavier driver ect ect otherwise the compressor and relive valves would be never ending on and off. So question is.. How do I fix this? It's been about 100ks on car and on and off. Playing with in dash hight switch and it hasn't moved. Still uneven. So next step is to remove all spacers. Hope car goes back to factory height and then put all back in and start it up crossing my fingers.. As doing this in my view will make car Sence it's out by more than the allowed variance and set itself back to an undeformed looking Prado. I'll post results tomorrow night after I try fix it. If I can. Just wondering if there's and easier way? Or a definitive way to fix this if someone has had this issue before. Thanks in advance. Mullins

[kevdebbi]

Hi All

I had a 2" lift fitted to my 2004 Grande and raised the rear using the sensor spacers and the original airbags. Having planned a trip to Ningaloo towing my rather heavy camper trailer. After reading this thread I decided to play it safe and fit the Airbag Man kit, which I did a couple of days before our departure North. The kit I received was slightly different to that described in the thread, insomuch as the top end plates are no longer left or right handed, instead both have two countersunk holes that line up with existing holes in the top mount plate on the vehicle. The plates are now retained at the top end by an allen screw and nylock nut. Dependent on which side (driver or passenger) the screw goes into one or the other of the countersunk holes. This is a bit of a fiddly job, with not a lot of room to get the nut on the screw at the top of the mounting plate, but once done the whole base assembly is well retained at the top end.

Anyway, after about 3 hours the new bags (and sway bar spacers) were fitted and tested by manually raising and lowering to full high and low travel. It all looked good and I felt a lot more confident in the new bags with the weight of the trailer on the back. Strangely the auto height levelling didn't work any more but it did if I manually changed the height with the switch. I saw earlier in this thread that Way2Go has the same issue, so I'll keep that issue to another thread.

With that background I'll get to the point of this post. After travelling ~900Km from Perth to Carnarvon with trailer in tow, then another 150Km or so past Minilya the next day, on a straight flat run at 100Km per hour there was an almighty bang from my rear end. Initially I thought a tyre had gone but after pulling over I saw the driver's side rear end sitting on the bump stop. Using the trailer's jockey wheel as a jack (thank goodness for a well built trailer) I found that the airbag had not actually ruptured but had folded in half and the bag had dislocated from the bottom plastic bag end plate. I managed to pull the rubber bag right out, leaving the top and bottom end plates in situ, and the bag was not damaged at all. My mate (following with his trailer) and I managed to reassemble the airbag, which was not an easy task to roll it back over itself. Refitting it in somewhat uncomfortable conditions proved challenging (especially the top retaining screw) but after crossing fingers and restarting the vehicle the bag successfully reinflated and held the weight of the trailer.

I have since driven almost 2000Km without any problems, including dragging the camper trailer over some of the roughest corrugations and rutted roads and bouncing over rocks. Apart from having my teeth clenched each time we hit something bouncy, I have recovered my confidence in the Airbag Man kit. I'd just like to know why the bag failed as and when it did. I know there's tolerances with alignment of the bags when fitting but it's pretty hard to get it wrong when the top plate is retained by the screw and the bottom spigot simply sits in the bottom mounting plate hole and is free to rotate and self locate.

Interestingly the rubber bag is not glued or welded to the top or bottom plates at all, only held together by friction and air pressure.

Any ideas as to why the bag might have failed would be welcome.

Cheers
Paul

Hi Paul I have had a similar problem and am still trying to identify the exact cause. The retaining pin on both of my airbags seems to be 3-4mmm too long which is stopping the bottom of the airbag from sitting fully on the bottom mount. On my prado the pin hits the diff tube, this seems to be making the bottom of the airbag unstable. The drivers side bottom mount plate has started to bow down by approximately 2mm at its rear edge. Possibly you are having a similar problem?

Kevin

kev,

It might just be the camera but on the 3rd shot, it looks like the bottom mount is a little bowed. I suspect that the bottom mount is partially collapsed. I don't think there would be an issue with the Airbagman's bottom plastic block but the mount being bowed would explain why the base is 'rocking'.

I would remove the bag and try and straighten the mount.

[kevdebbi]

DIY Airbag Man OA6011 install in 120 Grande

Hi guys great thread. I have installed the Airbag Man OA6011kit and I am after a picture showing the bottom plastic block sitting on the rear axle, drivers side. I am having problems with mine and I don't think it is sitting properly on the rear axle. It looks like the locating pin on the bottom is a little too long, it is hitting the the axle tube before the block is fully seated. This seem to be causing the block to rock under load and become unstable. Both sides are sitting about 3mm high but the drivers side is the only side causing dramas at this stage.

[Way2go]

Also, With my height control issues, I disconnected the suspension computer (all 3 plugs) for an hour while I replaced a faulty redarc battery isolator (dodgy relay contacts) and after a 30 minute drive my ride height has since returned to the previous lifted height. I also tested raising to "H" at traffic lights and watched it return to "N" after I hit 50 KPH during this drive. I'm not sure if this helped sort the computer out but I did it a few times and at the end of the drive I was back at the right height. I still have to test the auto-height control by hooking up the trailer but hopefully this will give Way2go something else to try for his same issue.

Hi Paul,

I've had the suspension computer disconnected, but still have no auto self-levelling. Maybe I'll try disconnecting it for longer and see if that does anything. My suspension still resets itself properly (up from the 'L' setting or down from the 'H' setting) once the relevant speed is achieved - it is only the levelling as the rear load changes that is causing me problems. Toyota had it on their diagnostics a few weeks ago, and only found the 'TEMS disconnected' errors, which they then tried to tell me was the cause of my problem (after explaining to them that the TEMS system did nothing for the height functions, I think they realised I knew a bit more than they did).

[Pitbull]

Good stuff Macaroon, always satisfying to get the hands dirty and do the job yourself.

As an update for all the Sydney based PP'ers out there, after recently replacing the bags in my car (see http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...mpressor-Issue) I managed to source a supplier in Sydney that distributes the AirbagMan kits.

I had a mechanic mate of mine order them trade and installed them myself.

The suppliers details are as follows:

All Air Suspension
Unit 5, 10 Angas Street,
Meadowbank NSW 2114
Ph: (02) 9807 7641

Hopefully this may cut down on supply time as opposed to having them shipped from QLD.

Cheers

Pitbull

[macaroon1]

Thanks for the advice Amts. a. Very possibly maydo on the first but from memory the new spacers did not appear to be massively bigger..guess it all helps though?
b.

The Mk2 spacers that I'm working on now have several advantages:
1. It retains the bottom of the airbag without welding
2. It spaces the bottom so that the airbags don't over stretch with a lift
3. It corrects the angle of the airbag so that the airbag moves in and out along the axis.

One to ponder..again many thanks.
c. I defiantly have the lifted bags just rechecked the invoice and the box part/no. Thanks.

If the airbags are allowed to stretch that far, then I would be inclined to remove the sway bar spacers, add some spacers to the bottom, or check that the airbags are actually the lifted version.

[macaroon1]

^ Thanks for the advice Paul. When I saw the hatching I reckoned it was not too far from its extended travel limit! I reckon your on the money, there is possibly more chance of the whole bag disconnecting from the end piece (but fixable like you say/and did on the track) than the bottom plastic mount (knob end) disconnecting from the metal housing hole so the method of retaining OE bags would not help?? I am reading this right? BTW my driveway is very angled & steep!!

Just triggered my auto levelling ride height was out too. D/S was always a lot higher than P/S over the first week at various timescales: 835/790. 850/835. 850/825. Just found some very bumpy tracks for a few hours and both now 820mm..did not have to take any ride height spacers/washers out... 'old school'??

[Prmiller]

Macaroon1, that's certainly showing some travel but I wouldn't want to go much further than that. Having seen the airbag assembly in three pieces the rubber with the crosshatch at the bottom and top of the bags showing means it is very close to maximum extent and the only thing holing the bag onto the bottom and top ends is friction and gravity. I would think that if you tried to get another centimetre or so of travel from that bag it could stand the chance of disconnecting from the end piece. If that happens you'd hear the same pop I did and it then means total removal to reassemble the bag to the base. I imagine that would be easier done in a workshop environment than on the side of the road but still not fun.

BTW, I had a close look at my DS bottom mounting plate and there was no sign of distortion, with the base plate of the bag sitting flush on the mounting plate all over. No signs of flex or bending that I can see. Also, With my height control issues, I disconnected the suspension computer (all 3 plugs) for an hour while I replaced a faulty redarc battery isolator (dodgy relay contacts) and after a 30 minute drive my ride height has since returned to the previous lifted height. I also tested raising to "H" at traffic lights and watched it return to "N" after I hit 50 KPH during this drive. I'm not sure if this helped sort the computer out but I did it a few times and at the end of the drive I was back at the right height. I still have to test the auto-height control by hooking up the trailer but hopefully this will give Way2go something else to try for his same issue.

[macaroon1]

No dramas Paul that's what a car forum is for....sharing ideas and helping people??? please get back to confirm what the eventual problem is/was. Member awd2.0t may appreciate it et al!!!
Showing a lot of flex on my driveway; offers more than some 4wd parks!!?


;;

I really think these babies are not going too far but I could be proved wrong. The big issue with the grande esp heavy towing appears to be the d/s bottom housing????

[Prmiller]

Thanks for the tip Macaroon1. I read through the post and it sounds feasible that the bottom support plate on the driver's side warped under the weight of the trailer. I'll take a look. Also interesting about the auto-height controller needing to be rest. I think mine stopped working during the installation of the new airbags under full articulation, now the same as Way2go's "manual operation only".

Fortunately my bag popped only once and has been through some rough road conditions with the trailer attached since the roadside repair. Also worth noting that my "Normal" ride height seems to have dropped back to close to the same as before fitting the height sensor spacers, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Time to spend a bit more time on my back under the car I guess.

Cheers
Paul

[macaroon1]

And you know who you can call if you get stuck!

Well thanks to Craigm, he came up trumps, I'm now officially part of the airbagman 0A6011 group. Took me the course of the weekend as one has to allow for the paint to dry and we needed to cut away more of the D/S Prado top housing. Never the most confident under a car I could do it faster next time and very possibly alone. 3-5 hours I reckon sounds OK.

Too much flexing esp with the car on high articulation only leads to this.
;;

PP members on a trip tried valiantly with rescue tape to fix the gash in the rubber but to no avail. The bottom metal case on the airbag had a sharp metal edge..where it had bashed the top/bottom housing causing the gash. Ended up on bumpstops

On lifting the vehicle the divers side was not located in it's bottom housing either....possibly owing to it not been retained??


Went and bought the (new version) 0A6011 airbagman. Unlike Amts (1st poster) these are now retained by a bolt and nut which goes through the airbag top plastic housing, through a metal (car) housing hole, where the nut sits right next to the chassis rail (right pic).. .This is the hardest part of the job. Two pairs of hands are ideal here! No close up pics of these holes. The bags are handed so get this right (hence the chalk marks)! They are longer and more rigid and unlike the OE bags they are rubber and plastic.

;

Cutting the top metal housing to allow for the metal air hole...dont give it 90 degrees, allow for some angle like in pic...this is were I came unstuck as it had to be done again. have to paint and file these cuts. Tojo must build chassis from top of bags hence the need for this step.


Swaybars were done too. Make sure there are no kinks in the new hose and there are no leaks. Craig was great at all this. Zip tie excess air hose so its sits neat and tidy above the chassis rail, not hanging down.

Drop car cycle through all the heights, Low/N/High and hey presto:
;

I found for the first week my heights were all over the place..was even considering lifting it all up and pulling out spacer washers but a good bit of rough terrain sorted them out..now both at 825mm.

Again, many thanks to Craigm who came to my rescue (I was going to give up to take to a mechanic)!!! Nooooo. Car goes great now. Looking forward to the next trip to give em a real workout!!!

[craigm]

No I haven't re-enforced the Base plate. You may have seen my posts where my base plate had collapsed due to the stress placed on them with amts' Ver 1 spacer/retainer, where the airbag was restricted from movement. I knocked it back into shape and have regularly been keeping an eye on them and there has been no further warping/collapsing of the base plate. So the bags are sitting in place as they would like the OEM airbag Sean. The version I have is the model without the retaining screw in the top plate of the airbag like Macaroons.

[awd2.0t]

Thanks Craig,
Have you re-enforced the base plate on the drivers-side mount or just slotted in the new air bags?
Cheers,
Sean.