IKV
New Member
I have a W212 (2013 E Class Estate, AMG model) with about 80,000 miles on the clock. Over the past three months the self levelling air suspension on the rear of the vehicle has been collapsing overnight on an intermittent basis. Sometimes I will go out to the car in the morning and it needs to pump up before I can drive off, at other times there's no problem and I can get in and drive. Most times when the suspension has collapsed I get a warning message on the screen in front of me but occasionally I don't even though I can see the the suspension is down.
I took the vehicle into my local independent and they checked it over but couldn't find any leaks - they suggested that the standard fix is to replace the air springs for which they would charge £1,250. I'm pretty handy with the spanners and having checked a couple of videos, I reckon I can do the job but the parts (Pattern Parts made by Arnott) are still nearly £600 and I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money without some certainty of a result. My view is that if there is a leak in an airspring only one side would go down and if there is a leak in both then it wouldn't be an intermittent problem it would happen every time I parked. Incidentally I usually park on my driveway level ground.
So I'm looking for a common point in the system where there is a valve of some sort that maybe has a bit of dirt that is stopping it seating properly - is that a reasonable premise? Does anyone out there have any other ideas?
At the moment the system is pumping back up in a couple of minutes so it's not a problem but I can imagine that it is making the compressor work harder than it normally does and if that fails then I'm into much bigger expense.
Rgds Ian
I took the vehicle into my local independent and they checked it over but couldn't find any leaks - they suggested that the standard fix is to replace the air springs for which they would charge £1,250. I'm pretty handy with the spanners and having checked a couple of videos, I reckon I can do the job but the parts (Pattern Parts made by Arnott) are still nearly £600 and I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money without some certainty of a result. My view is that if there is a leak in an airspring only one side would go down and if there is a leak in both then it wouldn't be an intermittent problem it would happen every time I parked. Incidentally I usually park on my driveway level ground.
So I'm looking for a common point in the system where there is a valve of some sort that maybe has a bit of dirt that is stopping it seating properly - is that a reasonable premise? Does anyone out there have any other ideas?
At the moment the system is pumping back up in a couple of minutes so it's not a problem but I can imagine that it is making the compressor work harder than it normally does and if that fails then I'm into much bigger expense.
Rgds Ian