Sick of rear air suspension leak - replacement springs advice

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mahussain2000

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Joined
Sep 25, 2013
Messages
74
Car
Mercedes E270 ********** 2003
Hi guys I've got a 211 estate E270 2003 and has a leak somewhere as the rear passenger side is at its lowest position after parking it for a short while. Also got a normal error once of car too low then went back to normal and subsequent to that I had a red error of car too low.

Cost of this repair is astronomical compressor and air suspension leg. Is there not a budget spring option to eliminate this air suspension and if so can I get away with using existing dampers.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Mahussain
 
Arnott industries do a coil spring conversion kit.

There are also air compressor return kits for around £30 and rebuilt airbags as well for relatively little money.

It is a great system and worth keeping really.
 
Could you advise on price and part numbers?

Thank you
 
There's 2 camps with this those who love air suspension and those who hate it

For me it's fine on 4x4's on cars it's sh!te never driven a good one yet s class , e class or any other manufacturer they never give the same handling as a spring and shocker set up ride may be better and smoother but it's at the expense of handling and they are so problematic forever leaking

If it were me I'd junk it and fit a conversion demon tweaks used to do one for the 211

Just my two penneth
 
Doesnt the Air suspension on the estate self level? if thats the case it could be handy if your carrying various bulk loads.

Im not worried either way and its nice to know there's a cheaper alternative out there if the air system plays up.

Perhaps id be more pro coil spring if i had driven that set up in a s211
 
If your estate has the standard rear air suspension then the best way to remove it is to use second hand parts from a saloon .
you will need the lower arms , springs and spring top mounts .
the easiest way to remove the error messages is to remove the fuse from the side of the dash , or use Star to remove the coding from the clocks for Partial Air Suspension .
 
I'd dispute the handling issue.
Having driven the 211 with steel springs and airmatic, I believe the airmatic both rides and handles better.
 
I'm not a huge fan of the feel of air suspension, it feels loose and the wheels don't feel very well controlled over sharp bumps.
Pre-charged hydro-pneumatic suspension is much better, but more expensive.

There is good technical reason for this, which I posted up a few days ago.
 
V12 I'm probably inclined to agree with you, but it's so costly to replace. Whilst it was working it's the best ride coming from an A4 Avant. (Different league)

Even arnott want 400 euros each for a replacement leg plus compressor it's way out of my league.

Mahussain
 
What part of the suspension is leaking? I think it was on one of the MB forums in the States where the rubber pipe from the air bellow connects to the alloy tank was leaking due to the alloy corroding/oxidising. Rubb this down and refit may sort your issue.
 
Problem is I have no schematic for the suspension. Don't know where the junctions are to check for leaks. Would appreciate it if someone could provide this information

Mahussain
 
Jack the car up and follow the lines. No offence but if you can't do that you really shouldn't be working on the car yourself. It's very straightforward.
 
V12 jacking the car is a walk in the park and following lines will be easy enough with respect I would have liked to know where the connecting block is, I have an idea where the compressor is and the connectors on the bag are and directly go to the respected area, but no worries I will trace the lines.

Mahussain
 
I think there's an element of confusion creeping in here - we need to know if your car has the full Airmatic suspension, or just the standard self-levelling setup. You talk of expensive struts, so this would tend to imply that your car has the Airmatic setup, but if it doesn't have this, the rear uses air bags which are a lot cheaper than the struts you mention. It's worth retaining the standard setup in either case, otherwise you'll lose the benefits of self-levelling.
 
Sorry for not making it clear my vehicle has no 4 matic. It has the standard rear air suspension and springs at the front.

Can you shed some light on the type of suspension I have?

How do I find the part number for the air suspension?

Thanks in advance

Mahussain
 
He does mention about using existing dampers, so I had presumed he only has self levelling, no airmatic.
The normal airbag is 300 euros from Arnott and the airmatic version is 400 euros.
 
Maybe I am confusing suspension systems.

Sorry for this. Maybe someone can clear the confusion.

I understand with airmatic with 4matic air suspension
I now think I understand with airmatic without 4matic (which I thought I had)? No rear height adjustment control button, I guess I don't have this.
I now assume that I have just a self leveling rear air suspension?

Thanks in advance
 
4matic is 4-wheel drive, which you won't have on a UK RHD S211. Airmatic has a button behind the gearstick, and if you look into the front wheelarch you should be able to see the coil springs if you don't have Airmatic.

It's most likely you have standard coil front / air rear self-levelling. The compressor is below the LH headlamp, so there's quite a lot of air line to trace. If the leak is somewhere other than the bellows, I would have thought this is fairly quick and easy to sort.

My only concern is you specifically state the passenger side is sagging, which points the finger of suspicion towards that corner.

Good luck tracing it...
 

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