speedlaw

I was recently changing out my rear brakes at 140k miles and noticed the passenger side shock had leaked.

Has anyone done a DIY for rear shocks ?

Related, has anyone "tuned" them ? It appears to be the Bilstein system also used for Porsche, BMW and Range Rover.....DampTronic

Most threads are about the airmatic...which this is not.

speedlaw

wow...no one has replaced the rear shocks ? I guess I'm the mileage outlier here...

speedlaw

Continuing the path, these shocks are a bit over $500 each @ the Stealer. The MSRP for them at the usual suspects (ECS, FCP) is $415 each, but they are "out of stock, back ordered, no date". The actual swap looks pretty straightforward, so unless someone here has a better idea, it's off to the local Stealership. The skyhook has become back of car pogo....

AXO893

Am I reading this correctly? 140,000 miles and your just now changing the rear brakes? Have you replaced the front ones yet?

speedlaw

The front brakes are on the second set of discs, third (?) set of pads. (I'd have to check my list and I'm not near it now). I am amazed how heavy those discs are in front ! I went with the aftermarket Brembo disc and OE pads.

Back brakes are now second set of discs, with fresh brake pads. I replaced the pads I think twice in that time. (getting into service menu to retract them is usually the stupidest part of the process, there is a 1.5 second press to get there, I'd have ordered the other steering wheel if I knew how stupid it was on the nicer steampunk wheel....or maybe I just need to get a hacked Xentry. The actual brake job is easy, getting to service menu on this car isn't. My wife has the other wheel on a GLC, and service menu is easy to get to). I used OEM parts all.

I love the huge brakes on this car....they don't warp or vibrate, and last decently, even on a track day. One of my other cars is an e36 Lemons car, and we have the OE size brakes on that (OK, the car is stripped down and we use race pads), and I marvel that my street car has massive stoppers while my race car doesn't.

Back to shocks.....Rock Auto had them for a little over $300 each, but there is a right and a left (why ??) and they only had one, the other was back ordered. Checking FCP and ECS, they are $415 each and back ordered with no date. The guy at the parts Counter gave me a break on the price and they are $450 each at dealer but are available. Waiting for the call they are in......

W205C43PFL

If brakes, yes forum members did replace the brakes before: https://mbworld.org/forums/c450-c43-...ml#post8972673

speedlaw

So, after about two hours, got them swapped. Took longer to remove the wheel liners than to replace the actual shocks.

Softest shocks I've ever installed - they must default to soft/soft setting. The outgoing shocks had almost zero resistance, the new ones you could at least feel some fight.

This is the Bilstein Damptronic Sky system on the C43/63s. Other than one cut away diagram I was unable to find any white papers or discussion of how it all works. The shocks have the tiniest possible Bilstein logo on them.... and oddly there is a right and a left, first time I've ever seen that with shocks.

The back of my car is again stable, and you can again feel differences in the settings....mission accomplished.

W205C43PFL

Good for you! I am glad to hear that, I am all up for DIYing : )

It is nice that you also got Damptronic working properly.

speedlaw

That's why I didn't replace them with something else....I normally put Bilsteins in to all my cars when the time comes...here, it already had Billies, and their highest tech adjustable, so this wasn't tossing some commodity shock that cost the OE $15 and putting in a decent insert instead. I have both crap roads and perfect interstates. near me so the switch gets used. I drove a Porsche or two with the two position Damptronic before I bought the AMG and liked being able to toggle that function.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10....61348419876392

There's the white paper discussing the different systems, good description of the Damptronic Sky system in our AMG's and the theory behind them.

W205C43PFL

If I remember correctly, a forum member or from the operator's manual state that our cars are not meant to be driven in sport+ mode suspension on public roads, that is a reason why they can potentially leak.