W211 Estate ABC failure after towing

[KillerHERTZ]

My brother has a facelift (57 reg) W211 E320 CDI Sport which he uses at the weekend to tow a catering trailer around 5miles each way.
On Saturday night the back of the car dropped so it is now sitting around 20cms from the road!

The car is now with our indy who cant fit it in until later in the week, from searching it looks as if the ABC pump or system has somehow failed. Any idea's why? the manual doesnt mention anything saying do not tow, or that it should be in a certain setting while towing.

If it was say left in C would this have caused the problem?

Should it be fixed ok, can the car be used to tow like this in the future without problems? otherwise he will need to sell it.

 

[BlackC55]

It will be Airmatic not ABC. I expect either a bellow has perished or the Airmatic pump has given up. Also the relay for the pump may have stuck causing the pump to operate all the time and burn out.

The bellows are £500 each and the pump is about £280ish IIRC.

Lets hope its the pump.....!

 

[BlackC55]

Towing should not cause this type of fault. It does not matter if it is in C mode.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Thanks for the info! ill pass it on.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Should there have been any syptoms before hand though? it just failed instantly when towing.

Brother has just mentioned its left overnight (once a week) attached to the trailer which pulls the back of the car down slightly - that have effected it?

 

[BlackC55]

Possibly. The car would have had to pump up not just the weight of the car but the trailer too.

 

[BTB 500]

Check the trailer noseweight isn't over the car's limit (in the handbook).

 

[A210AMG]

I will probably live to regret this... but how heavy do you have to load the car for it so say...NOPE, I cannot pump myself up...

I did try the trailer with these although they won 1:0 the trailer is now poorly.

 

[BlackC55]

Who knows?

 

[sinewave]

It's quite easy really, you just have to be ****d to look in the handbook!

Max Gross weight of a S211 320 CDi is 2460 kg
Max Front axial weight is 1080 kg
Max Rear axial weight is 1380 kg
Max Tow weight of a Trailer is 1430 kG
Max nose weight on the Tow Bar Hitch is not listed but is generally no more than 50kG from memory.
Max Boot load interestingly is only 100kg which is what I weigh!
Same goes for the Roof loading.

 

[WillDeBeest]

Max nose weight on my facelift S211 E220 is 84kg, if that helps.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

All fixed now, it was the Link Rod which caused the rear suspension to go shut down - safe mode I guess?

Is this a common fault? MB Cambridge had them in stock.

 

[A210AMG]

Max Boot load interestingly is only 100kg which is what I weigh

so 5 sleepers maybe a bit more than this...

Oops

 

[bolide]

The bellows are £500 each and the pump is about £280ish IIRC.

Is that £500 for an air spring? They were £130 for my E39 from a BMW dealer

Nick Froome

 

[renault12ts]

It's quite easy really, you just have to be ****d to look in the handbook!

Max Gross weight of a S211 320 CDi is 2460 kg
Max Front axial weight is 1080 kg
Max Rear axial weight is 1380 kg
Max Tow weight of a Trailer is 1430 kG
Max nose weight on the Tow Bar Hitch is not listed but is generally no more than 50kG from memory.
Max Boot load interestingly is only 100kg which is what I weigh!
Same goes for the Roof loading.

100kgs is only 4 bags of cement. I can tell you an E class estate can carry far more than that. The saloon may be different.

 

[sinewave]

The weights I quoted are straight out of the E-class manual on page 389

All Boot loads are 100kg so it must be more to do with not damaging the hardwood boot floor.

Axle weight is 1380kg on a 320 CDi Estate.

There is Trailer nose weights listed on page 394 and it's 84kg for the Estate.
OP, the Max Braked Trailer weight is 2100kg for Auto Trans and 1900kg for Manuals.

 

[renault12ts]

In my manual boot weights are quoted for the saloons only. I suspect that's because all estates have self leveling rear suspension, so can compensate for the load better than a saloon.

Mines a W210 though. But I doubt a W211 would not be able to do the same as a 210.

The estate is allowed to carry 200kgs more than a saloon.

 

[BTB 500]

Remember the trailer noseweight is acting on a point behind the rear bumper ... it's not like weight inside the back of the car. That's partly why the limit is lower than for load distributed in the boot space (which is much closer to the rear axle).

84 kg isn't much, quite possible to exceed that with a catering trailer I'd have thought. One of my caravans was close to 100 kg noseweight with two full gas bottles in the locker!

 

[KillerHERTZ]

What suspension setting should my brother be towing in? C, S, or M?

 

[Alps]

All fixed now, it was the Link Rod which caused the rear suspension to go shut down - safe mode I guess?

Is this a common fault? MB Cambridge had them in stock.

im assuming this is the rod that attaches to the sensor? This tells the airmatic computer the level of the car, they come off fairly easily but rarely broken, at least it was a cheap fix!