danielkon

Im cruisin down the freeway in my s class when I go over a little bump and the car reacts a bit more harshly than normal, about 30 seconds later I get the...you know it...airmatic visit workshop malfunction. I pull over and I see that the ride height is as it always is (fine, relatively), but underneath something is hanging by a cable right by the rear driver side wheel, upon further inspection I could see that this has come off the strut itself and has hanging by the strut cable I guess. One end of the cable looked like it was severed via getting under the tire and I guess thats when the malfunction came on.

Now Ive attached some photos of this thing and I wondering if anyone could tell me what this part is, could I possibly get away with replacing just the cable or does the whole strut have to be replaced. Also how could have this possibly happened?? Also I noticed as well that there was fresh oil or like grease in on/in the area, is the strut filled with oil or liquid? Should point out that the car drives like nothing happened (for now).

In the photos I have already zip tied the part to the exhaust as it was being dragged on the road.

Very weird indeed!







That looks like the spot on the strut where damb thing came from.




My poor baby...






Not looking good.




This is the one one the other side, properly in place.



Ending the slideshow with a nicer photo, quite old now but very pretty!

IDFWU

weld it?
how hard did you hit the bump? Im kinda scared now because there is so much construction going on where i live and i just go over it like nothing bc i cant even tell, since airmatic rides like butter, I dont wanna get cocky and bamm this happens.

tusabes

Jb weld epoxy and zip ties

mrbobby

I think oxidation is th culprit here. You can notice rust on both assemblies. Not surprising that your location is Toronto.Rough roads and no fear of running out of salt in the winter. I hate winter but I particularly hate winter in Toronto.

danielkon

Yea theres lots of rust, its scary. if i go with the j b wield option and just find a replacement strut cable, would I need to also somehow refill the strut with the fluid that leaked out? (Im assuming that It did leak out the strut).

mrbobby

Boy oh boy. Now you're playing with fire. You're dealing with some pretty high pressures here and I don't believe the strut is repairable by a DIYer. I suspect you're going to have to deal with a used, rebuilt or new strut and with that much corrosion evident you may have to do the same thing on another corner before much time has elapsed.

tusabes

If you are going to leave it zip tied to the exhaust at least Change the plastic zip ties on the exhaust to stainless steel zip ties so they don't melt

DRTYLNDY

There is a time in life where cheapness does not pay off.
The strut is a very important part of the suspension and just using zip ties and JB weld is not the answer. A new/rebuilt strut is well worth the money instead of playing with fire. Next time if it fails you may not be so lucky.
That is my $.02
Johan

tusabes

The strut itself is still good , it's just the module that was tack welded to it rusted its mounts , those welds are not strong as they aren't critical , it's simply a way of securing it to the strut


Securing it via any other method (jb weld , zip ties etc) is equivalent to the tack welds

danielkon

Thanks for the inputs gents. I did go ahead and order a used strut however it turns out that the part was no good so they never shipped it to me and refunded me.

The car is still level and I don't hear the pump working overtime. I like the last post that suggested just reattaching the module to the strut. I would need to get a new cable harness. My main concern is that when the initial damage happened there was a lot of liquid that seemed to pour out from the strut, anyone have any idea as to what the liquid/ oil might be? I would need to refill it Im guessing should I go ahead and JB Weld it.

Or I might just say **** and get a new set of Arnott's for all 4 wheels. The ride quality would be restored to the cars former glory?

tusabes

There's no way to replace th fluid in the airmatic strut system
If the strut is still working properly just tying up the fallen part will work

Any muffler shop could also tack weld it back to the strut

Here's a strut with oil leak but it also leaking air


.