W220 Twitchy Rear

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Brilliant, thanks for the info. There may well be hope yet. Just waiting to hear back from the specialist.
 
I think they are pretty similar cost wise but ABC is harder to work with.

I would say ABC is much more expensive, the struts etc are £1230 from Mercedes, valve bodies more expensive, fluid more expensive. There are more parts to the ABC system too.

I suppose it depends what fails in the end.
 
I would say ABC is much more expensive, the struts etc are £1230 from Mercedes, valve bodies more expensive, fluid more expensive. There are more parts to the ABC system too.

I suppose it depends what fails in the end.

You can get re manufactured struts from both Mercedes and arnott for around £600, the valve blocks are pretty much the same price, admittedly air doesn't use fluid but even then CHF11s is only around £10 a litre, the only real extra part on ABC is the accumulators?!
 
Accumulators, many more hoses and the ABC pump itself. In terms of running costs its higher as the fluid needs to be changed out every 3 years or so at 150+ (just in fluid).

ABC struts are indeed available reman/exchange from MB but at £938 + VAT, compared to the £1371 + VAT.
 
Accumulators, many more hoses and the ABC pump itself. In terms of running costs its higher as the fluid needs to be changed out every 3 years or so at 150+ (just in fluid).

ABC struts are indeed available reman/exchange from MB but at £938 + VAT, compared to the £1371 + VAT.

In that case it would make sense to just get the strut from arnott for £600, or a second hand one for £200.

These are all dealer prices, no one in their right mind would pay them £20 a bottle of ABC fluid when you can get it for half that, an ABC fluid change at £150 LOL, I did it for £70 and it took less than an hour on my drive with no tools needed... People are scared of the hydraulic system for no reason, it is pretty easy to work with when you understand it.

ABC and airmatic pumps can easily be rebuilt, ABC valve blocks can be rebuilt but from what I've seen the airmatic ones can't.
 
An update for anyone following:

Garage have identified a leak in one of the system lines. Strut and pump appear to be OK for now, but they say they won't know for certain until the leak has been fixed. Does that sound about right? They certainly seem to know their way around the ABC system.
 
An update for anyone following:

Garage have identified a leak in one of the system lines. Strut and pump appear to be OK for now, but they say they won't know for certain until the leak has been fixed. Does that sound about right? They certainly seem to know their way around the ABC system.

Sounds right to me, it has probably burst at the bleed valve, quite common and should be an easy fix!
 
So the saga continues, and now the dealership wants the car repaired at their premises.

With one corner at its lowest, is the car completely undriveable, or could I get away with moving it a couple of miles on flat road in the dead of night?
 
Dont drive the car with the system very low on fluid. The pump will self destruct and send swarf through the system which will give you endless issues with valve blocks etc. Get it recovered.
 
Update: Car is currently in the process of being fixed.

Back to the twitchiness issue. I've read another instance of this happening on an S55, and the culprit turned out to be misalignment whereby the garage had incorrectly matched the rear to the front, not taking into account the wider rear. I've actually got the readout for the alignment from the day before I bought the car; is there anyone here who could help me make sense of it? I haven't got a clue what it all means.

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Hmm it's possible. A good Alighnment place will set the car in the system and the system will pull down the specs for that car and show the actual specs vs measured specs.

The only real way they can get it wrong I suppose is if they put the wrong car model in but you would want a reputable place to be doing the work.
 
Ok thanks. Will look into it more when I get the car back.

Hoping the pump/strut haven't died too because that will add extra time, but I'm assuming they'll have been taken out. Turned off the engine when it happened, but it had to be switched on a couple of times to get the car onto the recovery truck, and it looked as though pretty much all of the fluid leaked out.
 
If I where in your position I would want them to be replacing ad many of the expensive ABC components free of charge as possible :) even if it takes longer. Especially the pump.
 
That is true! Considering the Strutmaster conversion in a couple of months though.
 
Why though? Abc is a masterpiece, fitting traditional shocks and springs doesn't do the car justice in my opinion and is still hugely expensive
 
Not really a cost thing; I always knew the car would eat money, it's just that the ABC is both very unreliable and relatively specialist and not something that can be fixed quickly.

Having done a bit of research, the toe on the rear wheels looks pretty significant; can anyone advise if the values really do look realistic spec?
 

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