S210 rear knock (shock/sphere)

[philg1981]

2002 s210 320cdi. Started getting a real bad knock especially at lower speeds at n/s/r. Had a quick look at lunch and the shock unit dosent seem to have much pressure ie hand in and give it abit of a wiggle. Other side was tight. Could this be low oil pressure due to u/s sphere? No obvious leaks. And where abouts under the bonnet is the reservoir for the sls? So can check level.

Take it if was sphere it's best to replace the pair?

Tganks for any info/help

 

[alex89]

Before I fitted airride to my s210 I had a similar knock, turned out to be bushes. Easy to detect if you can get the car into the air and give everything a hard shake. Fairly simple fix if it is.

You can buy bilstein shocks that straight out replace the SLS, albeit they'll lower the wagon by a bit. Or you can take my airride off me

Good luck with the fix

 

[philg1981]

Yes will get it up for proper look but not fir a few days unfortunately.
Would love to bag it! I'm in the middle of a twin pump hydraulic install in my w140 so a matching daily would be cool! Tho imagine it's abit out of my price range at the mo.

 

[bolide]

You can buy bilstein shocks that straight out replace the SLS

I suspect the S210 is like the S124 where the SLS provides springing & damping. If that's the case, you can't use a shock absorber as a direct replacement. You'd need some kind of coilover strut

bilstein shocks that.. replace the SLS, albeit they'll lower the wagon by a bit

That'll be because you've removed the main rear springs. Good luck with putting 250 Kg in the back afterwards

The rear struts are not shock absorbers

Nick Froome

 

[renault12ts]

^ The S210 has springs and struts/rams at the rear...so the struts can be replaced with shockers...but why bother? (Or have I read you wrongly?).

 

[bolide]

The springs on the rear just stop the thing scraping along the ground. They're tiny. The real springing - and damping - is done by the sphere

The SLS gives a rising-rate spring effect so stiffness increases as the car is loaded. If you remove the SLS you lose the main spring, the rising-rate effect and the damper

The rear struts are not shock absorbers. Just thought I'd remind everyone again...

Nick Froome

 

[alex89]

That makes sense for how the SLS systems work, although in my experience the car works fine without the SLS. Admittedly I was running Eichbach springs and Bilstein struts but in amongst day-day driving I drove 2000 miles round trip down to Worthersee in Austria and back with four people in the car and luggage, it didn't miss a beat.

There's a chap in the states running the same bilstein shocks and standard springs I believe and he's not seen any problems so far..... I'll ask him how he's getting on with it to find out for sure though.

Alex

 

[philg1981]

If the reservoir is over filled would tgat point to anything? It's about an inch above the mix level when it's running but no load in rear. All tie bars etc are tight so I'm still towards the ram/sphere theory for the knock. It only started happening after I had the car jacked up to renew the tyres. It's strange and really annoying me!

 

[bolide]

the shock unit dosent seem to have much pressure ie hand in and give it abit of a wiggle. Other side was tight.

Not exactly what you mean here, but if the two sides are different then there is very likely a problem. It could be the suspension sphere, bent or leaking strut or a broken / perished mount or bush

Struts are cheap as chips second hand as every wagon has a pair. Spheres are relatively expensive and I'd only ever replace them in pairs

Struts you can replace individually - because "they're not shock absorbers"

Nick Froome

 

[philg1981]

Found the problem!
The bottom of the ram, where the 2 bolts mount it toblerone arm, just above that on the ram body, it has rotted away! It was floating on top of the mount! Scary!