S211 Rear SLF Trouble

[xf1j24]

2009 E280 CDI with the standard rear self levelling suspension. Operates fine on a daily basis when unloaded, recently had to carry around 300kg in the boot and I noticed that the rear was quite low but didn't think much of it. After about 1 hour on the road I got the big red "STOP CAR TOO LOW" warning, so I pulled over and found that the car was sitting on the bump-stops. Restarted it hoping that the compressor might kick in but nothing. Nursed it home fully lowered. The next morning I started the car and the compressor kicked in and slowly but surely the rear raised up again. This took couple minutes which I think is concerning no? Maybe it's a leaky valve block?? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

Additional info:
- Both rear bags were changed around 6 months ago
- The rear never drops normally, even after being left for months.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Hello and welcome ,Were you alone in the car ? MB recommends approx. 100Kg max weight for each passenger , which will spread the load. Then obviously what's left in 'reserve' for luggage and towing etc is down to the manufacturers specs.

Personally I think 300kg in the boot above the rear axle is a bit much but these types of specs tend to get muddled into gross vehicle weight when towing etc.

Did it drive ok when loaded , ie front wheels feeling light in turns ?

Not too sure but are towbar nose weights something like 70/90 Kg for most cars (max) .?

 

[xf1j24]

Hello and welcome ,Were you alone in the car ? MB recommends approx. 100Kg max weight for each passenger , which will spread the load. Then obviously what's left in 'reserve' for luggage and towing etc is down to the manufacturers specs.

Personally I think 300kg in the boot above the rear axle is a bit much but these types of specs tend to get muddled into gross vehicle weight when towing etc.

Did it drive ok when loaded , ie front wheels feeling light in turns ?

Not too sure but are towbar nose weights something like 70/90 Kg for most cars (max) .?

Thanks very much for the reply, no I wasn't, I had 4 passengers in total, 2 in the middle row and 2 in the boot seats + a fair amount of luggage. The rear was just on the bump stops so while the car did drive somewhat fine I had a bit of tyre rubbing on the rear fenders and of course essentially there was no rear suspension so extremely harsh and bouncy. I was under the impression that it should still self level though I might be wrong? I have also owned an R350 CDI with a similar rear self levelling setup only and even with more passengers and more payload it would still self level perfectly.

 

[WilliamMaldivess211]

Thanks very much for the reply, no I wasn't, I had 4 passengers in total, 2 in the middle row and 2 in the boot seats + a fair amount of luggage. The rear was just on the bump stops so while the car did drive somewhat fine I had a bit of tyre rubbing on the rear fenders and of course essentially there was no rear suspension so extremely harsh and bouncy. I was under the impression that it should still self level though I might be wrong? I have also owned an R350 CDI with a similar rear self levelling setup only and even with more passengers and more payload it would still self level perfectly.

Could you take it back to the place that did the new airbags?

I have had my e280 loaded up with seven adults and we had no problem. Except for the fact that the head room in the boot is not good. Probably not intended for adults .