herrbenz

I have a 2001 W210 4Matic wagon with a sagging rear suspension. When I bought the car it the tires were pretty much shot. After only a thousand miles, the new fronts are showing abnormal wear on the edges. The alignment shop says the sagging rear is throwing the front geometry off.

I've searched quite a few sites this week and have more questions than answers. There is no evidence of leaks, front or rear. The fluid reservoir is full. I don't think the ride is particularly bad, although it does bottom out on bumps when the teenaged boys are in the rear seat (2nd row, 350 lbs. total).

Do the accumulators have any influence on the ride height or do they only provide room for fluid expansion?
If the pump was bad, I would lose power steering function as well, right?
Can the valve lever be adjusted to change the ride height?

I intend to get the rear up on ramps this morning and try to move the valve lever to see what happens.

Thanks in advance for any advice, I appreciate it!

McBrew

There is an adjustment for the ride height. The actuator is mounted to the rear sway bar. There is a bolt you can loosen and make the actuator arm longer, which should increase ride height if everything is working.

However, you might not have enough adjustment available due to saggy rubber bushings and such. You can either rehab all the bushings back there, or fabricate an extension to allow more range of adjustment.

That's what I'm getting ready to do. My leveling system works great. I can make it go up and down manually by removing the actuator and moving it by hand, but the adjuster won't get me to the right spot.

cbpeck

We had this issue too. From a maintenance perspective, the accumulators are pricey, but easy to install. The rear springs are cheap, but dangerous/costly to have installed.

In the end, I had my indy install new MB accumulators, MB springs & MB spring pads. I ordered the factory parts online from MB Anapolis for around $600 and paid the indy $250 for the labor, most of which was the rear springs. That's "friend pricing" from the indy.

The result? The ride height was minimally improved, but the ride quality was vastly improved. The rear end *might* ride 1.25" higher, but no more. The car is so much smoother, and a few annoying vibrations went away as well.

I was prepared to do the accumulators myself, but it was going in for the springs, so I just let the shop do it all. If you're willing to do the springs yourself you're either more qualified or more daring than I.

One note on the springs & spring pads: each wagon was fit with a specific spring size & pad size, depending upon it's options. You need to visually inspect your springs for colored hash marks (color & number of them) and inspect the spring pads for raised bumps (mine had 3). These will tell which parts are currently installed on the vehicle. You need to make sure you get the right ones from the parts supplier. It is not as simple as going off of the VIN.

I hope it helps.

herrbenz

Thanks for the info,guys. Circumstances prevented me from getting under the car last weekend, but it's on the top of my list for Saturday. I'm sure I'll have more questions for you then.

herrbenz

So I got the opportunity to get under the E320 yesterday. I found the system to be complete, without any indication of leaks. I was a little concerned with the rusty fasteners, but a liberal application of PB Blaster and a couple hour soak time did the trick.

I removed the linkage from the valve lever, started the engine and was pretty elated to see the system lift the car when the lever goes up and drop back down when it was lowered. I made a quick trip to the hardware store for new flange nuts, disassembled the linkage and cleaned it up on the wire wheel and put everything back together. I adjusted the linkage out about a half inch and drove the car off the ramps to see it for the first time without the rear bumper dragging on the ground.

It is UNBELIEVABLE how much this improved the handling and ride! I put the car back on the ramp and extended the linkage another quarter inch and the height looks to be spot on. Even took a trip to the local Tractor Supply and loaded ten bags of horse food...as soon as the car started, up comes the rear.

So I guess I got lucky. But I AM impressed with how simple this system is and how well it works.

Thanks again for the info and your support.

rockstar143

So far, I love this forum...to the point and answers all questions.
I need to find and adjustment rod...someone removed it from my car.