I want to reverse the lift. Im confused.

[JoshuaS]

Hi everybody,

So I bought this 2011 Denali XL for the wifey as a Christmas present 3 days ago, while I'm waiting to give it to her im falling in love with it lol. So as you can see from the pics it appears to have like a 2" leveling kit i suppose. The front looks just a hair higher than the back. My mechanic buddy says he saw a spacer on top of the stabilizer. Now he also said the rear still has the oem air ride system with what appears to be a new air compressor.

But he said the air bags around the shocks are rotted off, they are just wide open. Im not a big fan of the look of the front higher than the back so I'd like to remove the lift/level spacers. Can I just remove them and thats it or is there other components that would have to be replaced or brought back and would it require a tech2 to reprogram? As far as the bags being wide open i don't notice any issues when driving it feels fine hitting bumps, should I switch to shocks or just go back with air ride or just let them be? And im wondering if they are open because when it was leveled they didn't add spacers to the bags maybe?

 

[akbrener]

should be as easy as removing the spacers, either at the top or bottom of the strut.. then re-align it.

 

[adventurenali92]

The front end could just be simple spacers, but the more common and popular way to level these trucks is to replace the factory torsion keys with leveling keys. Have your mechanic verify that it’s just the spacers and not the torsion keys as well. If it is leveling keys and not just the spacer, it’s no big deal, just get a set of OEM torsion keys, swap the leveling keys for the OEM torsion keys, and then an alignment and it’ll be back to factory setup.

As far as the rear shocks go, to answer your question no the level kit has nothing to do with the air shocks in the back. That air bladder around the shock being gone is a very common issue with these rigs. After time the air bladder gets eaten up and doesn’t hold air anymore. Then what typically happens is the compressor will constantly run to fill them up and will eventually burn itself out. You can convert to a regular shock, but you will need resistors wired into the factory auto ride suspension wiring to make the computer think it is still functioning. Otherwise you will get a “service suspension system” error message flashing on the info center in the cluster. You will also need to swap out the rear coil springs to the stiffer springs to match the standard shocks. The factory Z55 option code suspension code(your air ride system) comes with a softer spring than the standard suspension. And the softer spring won’t work with the regular shocks.

The other option is to go with either new OEM air shocks, which are stupid expensive, or replace the air shocks with aftermarket air shocks. That’s what most do. That route is a good route and if you take it, you’re gonna want to get your hands on the air shocks made by a company called Arnott industries. They’re based out of Florida and are the leading manufacturer for replacement air shocks. I myself have a pair of their air shocks on my 2006 Denali which essentially has the same air suspension setup. They’re cheaper than OEM but just as good quality and they come with a great warranty. I believe rockauto.com carries them for a good price with said warranty. And you can use the forum vendor discount code that rock auto offers here and get a little bit off the price. That’s really the best way to go for replacing the air shocks. Keeps it factory operation and the nice part about it is that it retains the factory auto level function and the factory ride quality.

 

[JoshuaS]

The front end could just be simple spacers, but the more common and popular way to level these trucks is to replace the factory torsion keys with leveling keys. Have your mechanic verify that it’s just the spacers and not the torsion keys as well. If it is leveling keys and not just the spacer, it’s no big deal, just get a set of OEM torsion keys, swap the leveling keys for the OEM torsion keys, and then an alignment and it’ll be back to factory setup.

As far as the rear shocks go, to answer your question no the level kit has nothing to do with the air shocks in the back. That air bladder around the shock being gone is a very common issue with these rigs. After time the air bladder gets eaten up and doesn’t hold air anymore. Then what typically happens is the compressor will constantly run to fill them up and will eventually burn itself out. You can convert to a regular shock, but you will need resistors wired into the factory auto ride suspension wiring to make the computer think it is still functioning. Otherwise you will get a “service suspension system” error message flashing on the info center in the cluster. You will also need to swap out the rear coil springs to the stiffer springs to match the standard shocks. The factory Z55 option code suspension code(your air ride system) comes with a softer spring than the standard suspension. And the softer spring won’t work with the regular shocks.

The other option is to go with either new OEM air shocks, which are stupid expensive, or replace the air shocks with aftermarket air shocks. That’s what most do. That route is a good route and if you take it, you’re gonna want to get your hands on the air shocks made by a company called Arnott industries. They’re based out of Florida and are the leading manufacturer for replacement air shocks. I myself have a pair of their air shocks on my 2006 Denali which essentially has the same air suspension setup. They’re cheaper than OEM but just as good quality and they come with a great warranty. I believe rockauto.com carries them for a good price with said warranty. And you can use the forum vendor discount code that rock auto offers here and get a little bit off the price. That’s really the best way to go for replacing the air shocks. Keeps it factory operation and the nice part about it is that it retains the factory auto level function and the factory ride quality.

Kinda like these?

 

[wjburken]

Hi everybody,

So I bought this 2011 Denali XL for the wifey as a Christmas present 3 days ago, while I'm waiting to give it to her im falling in love with it lol. So as you can see from the pics it appears to have like a 2" leveling kit i suppose. The front looks just a hair higher than the back. My mechanic buddy says he saw a spacer on top of the stabilizer. Now he also said the rear still has the oem air ride system with what appears to be a new air compressor.

But he said the air bags around the shocks are rotted off, they are just wide open. Im not a big fan of the look of the front higher than the back so I'd like to remove the lift/level spacers. Can I just remove them and thats it or is there other components that would have to be replaced or brought back and would it require a tech2 to reprogram? As far as the bags being wide open i don't notice any issues when driving it feels fine hitting bumps, should I switch to shocks or just go back with air ride or just let them be? And im wondering if they are open because when it was leveled they didn't add spacers to the bags maybe? View attachment 265149 View attachment 265149

A few things here.

If someone installed spacers on the front and did not recalibrate the AutoLevel system to take that into account, the vehicle could be constantly trying to achieve the stock height differential between the front and the rear.

The sag in the rear is likely due to the fact that the air bladders are blown and are not able to lift the rear of the vehicle. I think you will be surprised what a new set of rear shocks will do for you. A lot of people piss and moan about the expense of the air ride system, but these are not entry level vehicles and will cost a little bit more to maintain, but you get a nice vehicle in return. I would never want to disable that feature on my ride.

If you want to maintain AutoRide and AutoLevel, go with Arnott AS-2708's (reman'd OEM with AutoRide function) in the rear. If you are just concerned with AutoLevel, go with Arnott's AS-2700's.

To @adventurenali92, the NNBS vehicles do not have torsion bar suspensions.

 

[adventurenali92]

A few things here.

If someone installed spacers on the front and did not recalibrate the AutoLevel system to take that into account, the vehicle could be constantly trying to achieve the stock height differential between the front and the rear.

The sag in the rear is likely due to the fact that the air bladders are blown and are not able to lift the rear of the vehicle. I think you will be surprised what a new set of rear shocks will do for you. A lot of people piss and moan about the expense of the air ride system, but these are not entry level vehicles and will cost a little bit more to maintain, but you get a nice vehicle in return. I would never want to disable that feature on my ride.

If you want to maintain AutoRide and AutoLevel, go with Arnott AS-2708's (reman'd OEM with AutoRide function) in the rear. If you are just concerned with AutoLevel, go with Arnott's AS-2700's.

To @adventurenali92, the NNBS vehicles do not have torsion bar suspensions.

Ah ok didn’t know the NNBS trucks went away from torsion bar systems.

 

[adventurenali92]

Kinda like these?
View attachment 265218

Those are the passive air shocks. They will work. But I still would recommend going with the arnott shocks. Better quality and will last longer.

 

[Jason in DLH]

Just glancing through it appears nobody mentioned adjusting the ride height sensor. Make sure your mechanic adjusts that as well.