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I have these air springs on a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder. I really like them a lot. They have fixed the sag in the rear and combined with new shocks my car handles like new. However, the install was a lot more complicated than advertised on Air Lift's website. I had to completely take the rear end out of my car. The springs needed to come out, so i had to rent a spring compressor, the panhard bar had the be removed and the shocks. You have to remove the bumpstops and drill a hole in the spring seat for the airline. It was a ton of work but well worth it. Keep in mind that each vehicle install is different, so if your worried about your car check for the instructions for your vehicle.
Edit:
I've now had these on my car for almost 3 years. I can report they are still working great and I'm so glad I put them on. When you have nothing in the car or are not towing, you can set the pressure real low and you don't even know they are there; nice and comfortable, but stops bottoming out. When I load up the back with scuba tanks, gear, weights, and hook up the boat, I up the pressure to about 20psi. This levels the car out, and the ride is still very comfortable. Maybe more than when not loaded. When you put on air springs you should really change your shocks as well to something that gives better control for the expected added weight.
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I bought this to put on my '97 Pathfinder. I frequently tow a trailer with quite a bit of tongue weight, and I was tired of the headlights pointing at the sky every time I hooked up the trailer, as well as the constant bottoming of the rear suspension every time I left the pavement. I wanted something to firm up the rear springs and level out the vehicle. The Air Lift 1000 does this very well.The install was not too involved on my vehicle. The instructions that came with the kit were absolutely awful (I still don't know if I got it installed according to the manufacturer's intent, but it seems to work so I'll assume I must have done it right). After reading reviews here and a couple of online forums, I was expecting to have to disconnect the shocks and the Panhard rod to get in and drill the lower spring seat, and I wasn't looking forward to that. However, armed with tools and a free Saturday ahead of me, I charged bravely forward.
Fortunately, as others have pointed out, the Pathy has a 1/4" or so hole in the lower spring seat. It's just large enough to feed the tubing through, but as others have written, you don't want to do that the tubing won't slide in and out easily and will bind and break. However, with the truck on jack stands and the axle drooping to maximum extension with the shocks still attached, I was able to slide a Dremel tool with a rotary file bit into the spring. Half an hour per side were sufficient to enlarge the hole to 3/4" and smooth out the burrs. I spent some extra time making sure that everything was completely smooth I don't want anything that can cut the plastic tubing.
The next problem was how to get the bump stops (aka "jounce bumpers") out. I tried unbolting them (a 12mm socket on an extension fits the single bolt in the middle of the bump stop), but they won't fit between the spring coils. I finally got a big kitchen knife, lubricated it with soapy water, and cut the rubber part in about the middle that left me with two pieces that could each just fit through the spring coils.
To get the new air springs into the coils, I pulled off the little caps from the air line connection on each one, squeezed the air out by kneeling on it, and put the cap back on. That kept them mostly deflated during the installation. It took a bit of pushing and pulling to get them into place, but I was able to work them between the spring coils and get them in the right spot without too much difficulty. Again, this was done with the rear suspension at maximum extension, so I had as much space between the coils as possible to work with.
Finally, I routed the air lines. It was just a matter of leaving enough slack that they won't get pulled as the suspension moves, and routing them along the top of the axle and along the same path to the truck undercarriage as the brake line. I connected them in a Y configuration (I don't need different pressure in each spring for my application), and ran the line to an air fitting that I put on top of the rear bumper to the side of the liftgate, where it's protected from accidental damage and is easy to access.
Once the air line was all tied down, I aired them up to 35 psi, drove the truck for a while to make sure they seemed OK, then began dropping the pressure. Without the trailer, the truck does nicely at 5-10 psi, with a slightly firmer ride that avoids wallowing over speed bumps. With the trailer attached (350 lbs. of tongue weight, along with around 200 lbs. of gear in the back of the truck) I've been running 20 psi, although I may drop that to 15 psi and see if I can get a slightly better ride.
All in all, I'm very satisfied with the Air Lift. It was well worth purchase price and the three hours to install the system, and it's really done wonders for how my truck feels with the trailer attached.
UPDATE: I've had this installed for a year now, and I continue to be well satisfied with it. The only issue I had was a loose valve core that allowed air to leak out, which took seconds to fix with a valve core tool (the one you can pick up for a couple of bucks at a parts store to remove or replace the cores for your tire valves). I'm happy with the handling of the truck and the fact that it continues to sit level, and I'm delighted that the setup is holding up well. This was definitely worth the price and the install time!
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Pretty straight forward installation (about 4 hours) only questionable part was how short to cut the bumpstops..........I used 1-1/8 inch and it worked out great. Greatly improved ride vs. the sagging springs and banging bumpstops. Ride is greatly improved and the stance of the vehicle looks like its supposed to instead of squatting down in the rear. Also, no one is flashing their high beams at me at night any more.Honest reviews on AIR LIFT 60742 1000 Series Rear Air Spring Kit
I Installed the Air Lift 1000 kit into my 2002 Pathfinder which was experiencing really sacked-out rear coil springs. Replacement springs were ridiculously expensive and these air bladders were less than half the cost. When just two Adults and a full tank, only 30% max rated pressure is needed to keep her rump standing high and proud again. Interesting, I had always known mine was due for some attention but it took other similarly afflicted Pathfinders seen on the road to convince me to act.Installation was straight forward for me (after a slight detour). This being the fact that the 2002 model has lower spring seats that include a center hole that tantalized me to perform installation similar to some others (not drilling it out to the larger bore). All went well until a week later when, with a sudden brief blast of air, the flaw in the method became evident. I was raising the truck back up on the lift for some other work when the poly tube, feeding air to the bladders, popped off one of them. Upon close examination, it appeared that the bladders, after entering service, (being filled with air) become conformed to their individual springs, a death-grip of sorts. So when lifting the truck, allows the rear axle to extend until hanging by its shock's, this allowed the springs to extend and subsequently pull the Air Lift Bladders alarmingly high off their bottom spring seats. For them to do this they must draw their poly tubing air feed tubes up through the seat holes. In this case the original small hole's close-fit gripped the poly tube enough to restrict their smooth feed through and so popped it off the brass nipple extending from the bottom of the bladder. Furthermore, when dropping the vehicle back down on its suspension, the tubing would not return back down the small holes, but would accordion (pinch) into worthlessness. (I tried this as an experiment).
So with my new found knowledge, I decided to reinstall per Mfg instructions including, removing the springs, drilling the holes out to at least 5/8", smoothing out any burrs and then reassembling with extra tubing coiled enough beneath the spring seats so that the bladders can rise and fall when the vehicle is raised the way a service station would (via body frame).
Handling is great, even heavily loaded with four adults and gear for the holidays plus a trailer, still only requiring raising pressure to 50% of maximum. A wonderful product to be sure.
