S Class W221 ABC Light on after shock replacement and very high car

[Sam87]

Hello,

Today I replaced the drivers front shock absorber on my S65AMG. The part is brand new from Mercedes. Everything went smoothly. Afterwards I raised and lowered the car when it was on the ground about 20 times in case there was any air in the system. I checked the fluid level for the ABC and when the engine is off, the level is at the bottom line and when the engine is running, it's at the top line [ where it's meant to be from what I've been reading ].
When I went on a test drive, the ABC light came on [ yellow light ] and the car raised up but it went super high! I didn't know the car could go that high and the ride became very hard/bouncy. As soon as I turned the car off and back on, it went to normal height.
I noticed that this happens when I go over 30mph. I only drove the car twice and now it's parked up

The car never done this before. It happened after replacing the shock absorber. I plugged it in and it came with 4 unknown fault codes on the ABC system.

Any advise what it could be or if I have done something wrong while replacing the shock?

 

[Spider10]

I can't help with the above but what did you do with the old shock as im after 1 to strip down

 

[alexanderfoti]

Raising/lowering the car does not bleed the system effectively.

You need to follow the bleed procedure, which involves all 4 wheels off the ground and undoing the bleed valves on the lines.

You need to carry out plunger calibration after replacing the strut (With STAR/DAS, or another capable system)

 

[Sam87]

I can't help with the above but what did you do with the old shock as im after 1 to strip down

I will take it back to Mercedes as they will give me some money back. I do have a rear one from my previous S class which is faulty

Raising/lowering the car does not bleed the system effectively.

You need to follow the bleed procedure, which involves all 4 wheels off the ground and undoing the bleed valves on the lines.

You need to carry out plunger calibration after replacing the strut (With STAR/DAS, or another capable system)

Thank you Alex!
That makes sense... I'm worried now to undo the valves as they are a bit rusty.
Do you know where I can find the procedure to bleed the system?

 

[alexanderfoti]

Yes they are normally a bit sketchy.

Do the strut calibration first and see if the problem gets sorted.

 

[Spider10]

I would be interested in the faulty rear shock

 

[Sam87]

Yes they are normally a bit sketchy.

Do the strut calibration first and see if the problem gets sorted.

Thank you!. I was hoping you'd reply to my thread and you did . I appreciate the advise

I would be interested in the faulty rear shock

Give me some time and I'll let you know what I'll do with it and I also need to see where I've stored it as it's been a couple of years since I had it done

 

[Spider10]

No problem do it at your own leisure
Thanks

 

[Sam87]

Yes they are normally a bit sketchy.

Do the strut calibration first and see if the problem gets sorted.

I thought I’d get your advise again.

My friend plugged the car into his computer as he has the options to go to the suspension.

It had an option to click if the car had a suspension/strut changed. Once we clicked on that, it raised the car very high and then it went right down. After that it raised the car to normal height.
I done this twice to make sure it was all good.

After that, it also had an option to release air in the system. By clicking on that, it lowered the car all the way down twice ( like it was bouncing ) and raised it back to normal height.
I done this twice also to make sure there was no air in the system.

I also thought it would be good to do rodeo test.

Once all this was done I went on a test drive and the car still did the same thing. ABC light comes on ( in yellow ) and the car raises itself all the way up.

I did also change one of the abc sensors ( near side rear ) about a month ago but I never drove the car until now that the offside front shock was also changed.

Could it be that I haven’t registered the new sensor that it’s causing this issue?

The reason why I ask is because my friends computer also had an option for when changing one of the levelling sensors but last night I didn’t think much about it.

The car is parked in the garage and I won’t be able to do anything until Friday but I thought I’d ask you and see what you think?

Many thanks

 

[Sam87]

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[alexanderfoti]

What active codes do you have in the ABC system whilst the warning is showing?

 

[Sam87]

What active codes do you have in the ABC system whilst the warning is showing?

My friend will plug the car in again today and once I have the codes, I will post them here.
Thanks

 

[BlackC55]

It could be a faulty level sensor or one that's not been fitted well. Bleeding the air out can take sometime to do using rodeo. I usually put it on for 20 mins or so and then you can see if the ABC pump is any good too. If it goes under 100Bar then the pump is worn.

Best to do calibration of the vehicle level too.

 

[Sam87]

It could be a faulty level sensor or one that's not been fitted well. Bleeding the air out can take sometime to do using rodeo. I usually put it on for 20 mins or so and then you can see if the ABC pump is any good too. If it goes under 100Bar then the pump is worn.

Best to do calibration of the vehicle level too.

This problem could have been since I changed the nearside rear levelling sensor but I never drove the car afterwards. Now that I changed the offside front shock absorber, I took the car for a drive and noticed the problem. You could be right, maybe one of the sensors is faulty. I'll see what fault codes come up in a little bit and post them here.

Thank you for the advise

 

[alexanderfoti]

It could be a faulty level sensor or one that's not been fitted well. Bleeding the air out can take sometime to do using rodeo. I usually put it on for 20 mins or so and then you can see if the ABC pump is any good too. If it goes under 100Bar then the pump is worn.

Best to do calibration of the vehicle level too.

+1. Sounds like you may be just triggering past the calibrated level sensor value.

 

[Sam87]

Hi again,

This were the readings I was getting. I have no idea if they’re good or bad so I thought I’d take some pics and post them here for the ones that understand The ABC pressure would change as it was giving live readings, it was going higher, starting from around 160 bar to 190 bar or a bit more. Does this mean the pump is healthy?













I thought I’d try and release any pressure that might be in the system. I done that a few times. Car would go right down and then go up and down a couple of times and then it would go up to its normal height once the procedure was completed.

I also done the rodeo test a few times.

Then I thought I’d do the level calibration but once I would press F3 on the computer to start the process, it wouldn’t work. Then I thought I’d leave it alone but when checking for fault codes after not being able to complete this, the faults below came up and I wasn’t able to clear them.
Not sure if I messed anything up?

This were the fault codes because I couldn’t compete the levelling calibration.






I thought I’d still go for a test drive and see if the suspension would go up once going over 30mph as I done the rodeo test a few times and also released any pressure that might have been in the system.
The car drove normal for more than 10 miles. No ABC warning light and the suspension didn’t go up.
I did notice that the height wasn’t how I had set it up as it was in the pics you guys might have seen on my other thread. The rear seemed to sit a bit higher after all this. After coming back from the test drive, I took the linkages off and adjusted all four again. When I first fitted them a month ago or so, none of the linkages were adjusted the same. The near side front was different length to the offside front and so were the rears, near side rear to offside rear. At the time I thought maybe it was still ok to do that as that’s how I got the car to sit the same in all four corners. Maybe after doing the suspension calibration yesterday because of the length differences on the linkages that’s why the car wasn’t siting the same?
After spending ages to get all four corners to match exactly how I wanted the car to sit, I got there in the end.

I was so frustrated yesterday with all this, I kept saying to my friend I will sell the car as I’m fed up of fixing old cars.

When I went on the test drive, it was the first time I pushed the car a bit and I have to say……… wow this thing pulls hard!!!! It would go from 60mph to ( a bit higher speed ) like the wheels were off the ground! Seriously fast car. I think I had some pressure in my system after all this drama and had to release it somehow

Now my question is, do I leave it as it is? It seems to drive normal, no warning lights and suspension is staying normal but why can’t I clear this codes?
My friend said he will bring his star computer next week and we’ll plug it again and see if we can clear them with the star system

Thank you again for the advise @alexanderfoti and @BlackC55

 

[BlackC55]

You need to do the level calibration before clearing and go through the initial start up procedure. Until you do that the codes will not go.

None of the level sensors will be at the same height side to side. They are not from factory. Also the level side to side is not ever the same when they were brand spanking new.

 

[Sam87]

You need to do the level calibration before clearing and go through the initial start up procedure. Until you do that the codes will not go.

None of the level sensors will be at the same height side to side. They are not from factory. Also the level side to side is not ever the same when they were brand spanking new.

The light came on again while driving the car yesterday. This time the car didn't raise, just ABC light on. I can't do the level calibration because it asks for number to be put in the boxes and I have no idea how to do that. How do I measure it, from what point to what point do I take the readings and add them to the computer to do the calibrations? I'm happy to pay you to sort out the calibrations on the car. I live in London, how far are you from me?

I never realised that the level sensors are not at the same height. That's good to know, thank you

 

[BandyAndy]

I live in London, how far are you from me?

Here you go Sam,

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[W1ghty]

The light came on again while driving the car yesterday. This time the car didn't raise, just ABC light on. I can't do the level calibration because it asks for number to be put in the boxes and I have no idea how to do that. How do I measure it, from what point to what point do I take the readings and add them to the computer to do the calibrations? I'm happy to pay you to sort out the calibrations on the car. I live in London, how far are you from me?

I never realised that the level sensors are not at the same height. That's good to know, thank you

He’s in Portsmouth