rear air bag removal

Having renewed the front airbags a while ago ,which were fairly straight forward (after some good advice on here)decide time to do the rear ,as showing signs of wear.
Removed clips top and bottom ok ,pipe taken off ,pull bottom out from its seating,then the trouble the top will not budge ,yes it is the alloy type so am sure its welded itself to its seating.
any advice to help me get this off will be very welcome.
Front pair were plastic type so just fell off.
gog

get a bigger hammer, crowbar, prybar and be prepared to swear a lot.

Just double check that the vehicle is VERY securely supported before you go at it. If not ask your widow-to-be how much she'll take for the car without suspension.

Had this issue with mine a couple of years ago and feel your pain !!

Yes, try brute force by all means but make 100%sure that the car is solidly supported on good axle stands if it's not on a lift.

Firstly, ensure that the retaing clips are either removed or cut flush so that they will pass through the hole in the chassis. Secondly, soak them with good penetrating fluid...forget the WD40, use Plus Gas or similar, overnight.
If blood sweat and tears does not remove them, you may have to resort to the method I had to use...cutting the tops off with an air powered reciprocating saw (Lidl £15) that had a hacksaw blade fitted....took me about 15 mins. per side. The saw blade can be inserted in the gap between the mudshield and the chassis.
From the previous posts on here, the plastic end capped airsprings are a lot easier to remove, it's the aluminium end capped springs that are a pain in the ar*e.
I admit that there is no room to work on the back springs...must have been designed by a Gynacologist !!!

as everybody says,make sure car is well supported,have 3 weetabix tomorrow morning,get a big prybar and get stuck in.its probably just the aluminum oxidised good luck

Join the club. I have also been there with my 2000 DSE. Had to use a lump hammer and cold chisel to get the top of the bags off. Took ages. They came off in piece by piece.
All the previous comments are good advice. Only other thing I would add is watch you don't do any damage to the brake line which runs across the rear chassis. Easy to damage when you start levering the top of the airbag.

As others have said more force than seems healthy is required. You must have it supported properly for that very reason.

I smacked it with a lump hammer, pulled and prodded until it finally came free. It was finally freed by getting a slim pry bar up around the top spring cap and levering away around the edge till it finally came free.

I needed to clean up and Hammerite the chassis around the spring housing to cover all the scratches I made.

Bottom one was probably worse as the clip snapped when I tried to pull it out with some (decent) long-nose molegrips. I had to lever the bottom spring cap up with a big pry bar, levering against a handy piece of wood held against the axle.

This finally tore off the remains of the clip as the cap pulled free. The metalwork on the axle is more than man enough for such brutality - but again needed derusting, cleaning and Hammeriting.

An easy job on a fairly new car; a nightmare on something that's 15 years old and has seen 15 salty winters...

Malcolm

Hi,

just done mine, big pry bar and make sure its secure and lever it out!

Nothing else holds it, just go for it mate.


Kenny

As the way forward seemed the pry bar wedge option,dont think there is an alternative.
this is the way I went ,think the swearing help's too,after a good few hits with the hammer to wedge pry bar over the top of airbag in small gap under boot floor ,a pop was heard and out it came,as has been said a few scratches to bodywork to patch ,but a small price to pay to get it out,
thanks for the help,gog

Blimey, those rear air bags can be on the solid side!

I've been grunting away with all different sizes of prybar for the past couple of hours... decided to stop for a bit while the school kids are wandering home due to the load and frequent swearing this job is generating.

Any suggestions for angle of attack / size of bar / local dynamite stockist? I've given the tops a good soaking in penetrating fluid, but some fresh inspiration might be more use to me now!

Ah yes, previous posters were right all along - a bigger bar, heavier hammer, and more offensive swearing were all that were required.

At least they had the decency to make a satisfying "THUNK" sound when they finally gave up the fight

Well Done!!

I was lucky with mine on the last range!! just hung on it and pop!!

Anyways, time to do the new beasts bags, anyone know how to know whether they gonna be alloy or plastic tops.

Cheers!!

jamesblake said:

Well Done!!

I was lucky with mine on the last range!! just hung on it and pop!!

Anyways, time to do the new beasts bags, anyone know how to know whether they gonna be alloy or plastic tops.

Cheers!!

Click to expand...

Arnott Gen 2's are plastic and better than OEM

I put gens 2's in my last one. Time to order a set for this one.....here we go again!!