bill morrow

My wifes 2000 E320 wagon, which she loves, had a rear tire go "pfft" one fine day.. it actually wore a small hole and all the air made an escape..
new replacement tire and took the car to the local MB dealer (mercedes of athens, georgia) for a 4 wheel alignment..
report back the rear wheels could not be properly aligned due to the rear springs needing to be replaced as they were "tired"..
OK, so springs can get tired..
the $900+ quote had me take the car to a local indy shop who says it is not the springs but the rear load leveling system..
HUH..? what load leveling system..?! first i heard of this..
the indy guy says it is off and he can't figure out what is wrong..
so now the car is waiting for him to get time to sort it out and it is parked in the georgia sun, melting..

my question's are:
1. are saggy springs to be expected on this car..?
2. could the dealer have mistakenly thought an inop load leveling system to be saggy springs..?

now what..?

for now, she is driving my ailing S600 which works well enough but really needs to either make a trip to the breaking yard or find out why it has trouble with cylinders 10 and 12..
and it is too fine a car to just throw away..

Shadow5501

All MB wagons have self leveling at the rear suspension as standard equipment. Your car and prior generations utilize the MB SLS system which uses high pressure hydraulic fluid, special shocks/struts, and nitrogen charged spheres to adjust ride height. Later wagons (starting with the w211 in 2004 model year) use air shocks and an electric compressor.

Your description of the tire wear and subsequent failure indicate the rear suspension is riding too low, resulting in excess negative camber.

On these older cars the SLS system does share the load with the springs in supporting the rear of the car, even when it is not carrying any additional load. So if the SLS fails, the rear of the car will ride too low. Given the age of the car the rear springs may very well be a bit tired, but you won't really know until the SLS is repaired.

On the plus side, the ride quality of the car should increase significantly after repair. The accumulators which hold the high pressure nitrogen gas leak down over time, resulting in a very hard and bouncy ride. It's almost certain they need to be replaced, typical lifetime is around 10 years.

A vendor has posted a series of videos on the function and repair of SLS systems, you can find the introduction here:

bill morrow

thanks for the link to that youtube fellow..
i've watched a few of his videos..

and thanks for the basic education on this issue..

i rarely drive this car so i am not up to date on the ride thing but when i have driven it it rode just fine..

based on your remarks i'll suggest to my indie guy that he go ahead and replace the accumulators which he has remarked on possibly being an issue if they are leaking down..