Rear Air Bags for S212 Arnott or Aerosus?

[Londonscottish]

Thanks, both! Airmatic maintenance has always seemed like the little cloud on the horizon of S212 ownership, but it seems that things have moved on and there’s no longer a £1k per corner headache from it, which is great to know.

Yes, it used to make me slightly nervous on my previous 211 as well.

But now it's down to £300 ea for rear airbags it's a much less unpleasant prospect.

 

[Londonscottish]

When I had mine done I think they needed to be calibrated, rather than coded. I think if you change a sensor that might need to be coded but the airbags are passive I think in that respect. I guess it could be an option to get them fitted, then if any ”calibration” is required that could be booked in separately.

I just asked; they think that STAR coding is only needed the car thinks it's been in an accident.

 

[Londonscottish]

I paid my local guy round the corner and he has only charged me £150 to fit. So all in it has cost me £588.00 fitted compared to £1,155.00 at Indie and £1,500 at MB.

My garage is more that happy to go with customer-supplied Arnotts. Brilliant. Autodoc it is then.

Great tip, thanks. Can't wait to get it done ready for summer.

 

[Beardz]

My chap doesn't have STAR, so as far as I can tell (and after looking at youtube videos) these air bags are just plug and play. After fitting they have stayed at the correct level without any issues and the car rides fine.

 

[Londonscottish]

My chap doesn't have STAR, so as far as I can tell (and after looking at youtube videos) these air bags are just plug and play. After fitting they have stayed at the correct level without any issues and the car rides fine.

Yeah, my local garage said it was more about "calibrating" them than anything else. They also see very relaxed about the job as they have done loads of MB's.

When commented on how common the problem seems to be on 212's they said they though the common point of failure was the seal between the rubber bellows and the bottom part of the unit.

And "the BMW ones are far more prone to failure" in their opinion. X5's, X6's & & series apparently.

 

[SW18]

Yeah, my local garage said it was more about "calibrating" them than anything else. They also see very relaxed about the job as they have done loads of MB's.

When commented on how common the problem seems to be on 212's they said they though the common point of failure was the seal between the rubber bellows and the bottom part of the unit.

And "the BMW ones are far more prone to failure" in their opinion. X5's, X6's & & series apparently.

That’s nice to know! It does seem that MB has got their air suspension design into good shape compared to the others. Maybe from long experience? The Audi system seems to get bad press as well, expensive parts and common failures...

 

[Londonscottish]

Two weeks in and zero sagging. The Arnotts cost £522, the fitting was £225. So just shy of £750 or half of "list price".

I'd no idea how much the slow sagging was irritating me until it was solved.

This weekend I celebrated by driving everywhere in Comfort mode. Speed bumps? What speedbumps?

 

[Londonscottish]

Well thanks to a useful tip I eventually managed to get a pair of Arnott Air Bags for £438 from Autodoc in Germany via their App which I found to be very useful.

10 days later and here they are safe and sound and ready to be fitted tomorrow. Hopefully this will at last solve my saggy bottom (it had better as all the lines and air bag will have been replaced)

View attachment 111656

Thanks, that was a great tip. And you managed to get an amazing price. Mine ended up at £522 all in which is still almost £100 less that ECP, etc.

Really glad I finally got it done. It started sagging 18 months ago. In warmer weather it used to take a few days, in colder weather I could sometimes see a big difference overnight. Recently it was deffo begging to get worse.

I'd sometimes start the car on the drive purely to get it to raise...... Driveway OCD LOL.

 

[Beardz]

Thanks, that was a great tip. And you managed to get an amazing price. Mine ended up at £522 all in which is still almost £100 less that ECP, etc.

Really glad I finally got it done. It started sagging 18 months ago. In warmer weather it used to take a few days, in colder weather I could sometimes see a big difference overnight. Recently it was deffo begging to get worse.

I'd sometimes start the car on the drive purely to get it to raise...... Driveway OCD LOL.

Glad I could pass on a useful tip, this is what a forum like this is all about.

You know what, during lockdown I'd do exactly the same to just to get it to raise!

 

[SW18]

Really interesting to see your outcome with the new Arnotts. Mine still doesn’t sag even after a long time parked, but it’s getting very bouncy over speed bumps now. I’m not sure if the gas struts are failing as they are looking tired and are seeping oil. So I’m not sure whether to replace the airbags, the gas struts, or both.

My local MB indie is someone I trust so I will discuss it at the next service, though they likely won’t be the cheapest to do the work which gives me a dilemma...

 

[mioba]

Airmatic used to cost a fortune when the bags were part of the strut. I guess MB realised that that it was not very sustainabale for the want of the lesser part failing leadiing to the entire strut being replaced.

The seperate bag design came into play around 2004 making it a more "affordable" repair.

 

[milleplod]

I had a pair of Dunlop rear bags fitted by my local garage a couple of weeks ago, they cost me £400 for the pair. I just wondered why Dunlop never get mentioned as a brand - they do seem to be a major supplier of units for various applications.

Pete

 

[Londonscottish]

Really interesting to see your outcome with the new Arnotts. Mine still doesn’t sag even after a long time parked, but it’s getting very bouncy over speed bumps now. I’m not sure if the gas struts are failing as they are looking tired and are seeping oil. So I’m not sure whether to replace the airbags, the gas struts, or both.

My local MB indie is someone I trust so I will discuss it at the next service, though they likely won’t be the cheapest to do the work which gives me a dilemma...

That sounds like dampers not springs. The damping's pretty tight on mine, especially in Sport. In Comfort the body movement is more noticeable but it's still kept in check.

You know if you have a problem with the Air part of Airmatic as it's binary; It either keeps pressure or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, the car drops.

 

[Londonscottish]

Airmatic used to cost a fortune when the bags were part of the strut. I guess MB realised that that it was not very sustainabale for the want of the lesser part failing leadiing to the entire strut being replaced.

The seperate bag design came into play around 2004 making it a more "affordable" repair.

I think the fronts are still combined units.

 

[Londonscottish]

I had a pair of Dunlop rear bags fitted by my local garage a couple of weeks ago, they cost me £400 for the pair. I just wondered why Dunlop never get mentioned as a brand - they do seem to be a major supplier of units for various applications.

Pete

I think it's because for a long time the only alternative to the MB units were the reconditioned ones that Arnott manufactured. A few years on and they started making them. Latterly they were joined by Aerosus.

If you do a search on ECP or GSF you can see quite a few brands inc Dunlop. I was quite surprised - not that long ago the only two options seemed to be Arnott or Aerosus.

 

[Beardz]

I had a pair of Dunlop rear bags fitted by my local garage a couple of weeks ago, they cost me £400 for the pair. I just wondered why Dunlop never get mentioned as a brand - they do seem to be a major supplier of units for various applications.

Pete

Interesting, the only 2 names that kept on coming up in my searches was Arnott & Aerosus. I went with Arnott only because more people had good things to say about them compared to Aerosus (who were much cheaper), also I purchased them via Autodoc because I could trust that their prices were all in and there were no worries concerning additional costs being included when they arrived in the UK.

 

[milleplod]

Interesting, the only 2 names that kept on coming up in my searches was Arnott & Aerosus. I went with Arnott only because more people had good things to say about them compared to Aerosus (who were much cheaper), also I purchased them via Autodoc because I could trust that their prices were all in and there were no worries concerning additional costs being included when they arrived in the UK.

I found the Dunlops doing an eBay search, they were (still are) being sold by Bullseye motor factors. Funnily enough, I didn't drop on any other retailers. I did Google Dunlop, it seems they bought out Trelleborg's vehicle suspension division some years ago, and built a new factory in Coventry in 2014. Made in then!

Pete

 

[Jimi999]

@Londonscottish My advice is to download the App as the prices on this are cheaper than ordering online. Also it might worth keeping an eye on the price as they do adjust during the month (I saw a discount applied of between 22% & 38%). 38% discount is the max I believe.

I priced them up thro the app also, and like yourself, a 30% discount was applied, but I closed the app with the 2 airbags in the checkout part, and 24 hours later another 10% was applied !

 

[sweeper]

Company known as Apart Suspension have a few options including Bilstein and Dunlop and the there is the very cheap Maxpeedingrods but I wouldn’t go there.

 

[br1anuk]

I had Arnotts fitted to my S212 last week. £476 from Autodoc App. Took a week to arrive from Germany with no import duty. Mine was sagging after a long weekend. The mechanic said the near side one was perished and the offside one must've been leaking back through the valve block. My car has done 61.000 miles. Big service though with a gearbox filter and oil filter change. Thanks to the posters on here who recommended the Autodoc App.