SZMB

Today I replaced the self leveling rear shock absorber in my 2004 E500. It took about 2 hours and was fairly easy to do. The car has 70k mi and the rear shock absorber (passenger side) was leaking and covered in oil. The leak started at about 66k mi. The shock was fairly worn at 70k mi and probably can go another 3k mi before it's completely worn out. I bought the new Bilstein shock from autohausaz.com for about $380.
Here are some photos I took while doing the work.

SZMB

more pictures

SZMB

last picture

And here's the DIY procedure in pdf

DIY replace rear shock absorber E500.pdf

Neoii

Thanks for the writeup and pics. I downloaded the pdf for future reference.

dacollector

great timing, thanks, i am to remove the shock tomorrow and the air spring as i need to replace the airspring. this really helps.

SZMB

If you have time, please document the procedure (w/ pictures) in removal and installation of the air spring and post it in this forum. This is one big ticket item. That will help out a lot of people in the future.

Dtv211

This is very user friendly. Sticky this please!!

vettdvr

Great write up!

LAZARU5

Is anyone else having trouble with the pdf? Or is it just me? Great post BTW. I guess I am lucky to have 100K miles without problems with the shocks and air springs.

Diesel Benz

Downloads fine for me at least.

vettdvr

Check your pop up blocker and make sure your AV is update.

bhmav8r

Excellent - thankyouverymuch!

Robbie3015

I did it yesterday. Worked beautiful, no problems at all. Price of the shock had gone up to $400.00 shipping included. Make sure when you purchase that you have the electronic shocks. A lot of the shocks marketed as fitting an E500 are the non-Airmatic shocks, they will not do the trick! Also, the bottom bolt in the shock requires a 16mm wrench / socket. Most American metric sets jump from 15 to 17 (like mine) and then you end up with a car on a jack and having to run to the (specialized) tool store (Home Depot doesn't carry a 16). Record for yourself how compressed the rubber piece looks under the washer on top of the shock inside the trunk. You'll need to make sure that the new one looks similar. The rubber on either side of the wheel well, the washer and the nut that go on top inside the truck, all have to recycled. The rubber can be hard to pry off and tears easily. Be careful with that. When you loosen the wheel well liner, make sure you check right in front of the little forward mudflap, on the bottom of the bottom door beam there is also a little bolt that holds the liner in place.
For the rest, great post. I am not a seasoned weekend mechanic, but it was easy enough to do. Saved me a nice bundle, just in time for the holidays.

vettdvr

Well dah.. at 102000 my E500 is clunking in the right rear my guess is shocks are shot. Time for new ones. Guess I'll breakdown and do them. I was planning to buy new car this year, but shame on me, I bought a plane instead.

Diesel Benz

Is that because a plane probably needs shocks only at the airport? I assume you got one without Airmatic?

A lot cheaper for me when I accept Airmatic as it is, including its shocks.

vettdvr

No airmatic on the plane, AND no SBC brakes. Does use a little more fuel 9 G/hr but does not stop at intersections and 500 miles is about 3 hrs of easy ride time. Would you believe way more reliable than my E500.

The E500 however will have a new shock installed on the right rear when it arrives. Ordered from one of the site sponsors.

I considered doing both. RR is leaking and clunking. However I decided to spend the $$ and see how difficult it is do to do the right. If it is ok then I will order the LR and replace it. MB said it is ok to replace only one if not greater than 50,000 miles. Ok,, I have 100000 miles and will replace one, verify results, then do the other.

Just my conseravtive engineering training, change, verify, reapply.

vettdvr

Update........... Today I actually replaced my rear shocks on airmatic system.

1) I did not deactivate with star system
2) the through cargo compartment has different bolts keeping the trunk panel in place. You must remove the tiedowns
3) The shock bushings are NOT included with new shocks so I reused old ones.
4) The job took longer than 2 hrs for 1 shock. But then I am over 60 so maybe I am just slow.
5) I had no alarms or warnings after the new shocks were installed.
6) I had oil leaks as shown in the procedure and noticed a major improvement with new rear shocks.

vettdvr

Update 2

Today I examined the old removed airmatic rear shock. It is made by bilestine same company and design that my corvette uses. I have found a way on the corvette to trick the computer so I can run regular shocks.

I did a reapplication to the MB shock.

The plug has a 4 pin connector but only 3 of the pins are used.

X X X 0 I will number them for conversation 1 2 3 X

I did a full ohms test on each pin to pin.

What I found was:

10 ohms between 2 and 3, 1 and 3.

20 Ohms between 1 and 2

Of course nothing to X

What I did on the corvette was to use a 10 ohm 20 watt wire wound resister to duplicate these for the computer.

The resistors would be connected this way.

------------xxxxx----------xxxxx---------
10 ohms 10 ohms


[------------------20 ohms---------------]

now apply the pins to this.

-------------xxxxx---------xxxxx----------

1 3 2

This should give the correct resistance for the computer.

consider if you try this I have not tested it and you may get different results than I did on my Corvette.

I would recommend you know what you are doing with your system before you attempt this as I am only providing my observation for someone with more data to add to if necessary. I have not verified what would happen to the system under this modification. This information is only for the purpose of opening some discussion in response to those who were interested in replacing the airmatic rear shock with a less complicated / more reliable / cost effective system.

I do know however that this mod is now commercially available for the corvette and does not damage the corvette system.

So best of luck and if there is anyone that would like to persue this I wish you the best and proceed at your own risk.

vettdvr

Guess there is no interest here.

SZMB

vettdvr, you've found some interesting information. Not knowing what the car computer is doing w/ these resistance, I probably won't try to save $200 by putting in a non-self leveling shock. However, if my car has close to 200k mi and is worth a few thousand $ or less, I would consider this option. Thanks for the info.

vettdvr

This mod works well on corvettes with the same type of shock. Billestine was on the box of the "new" oem parts I bought.

Todds911

Guys,

I've read this post several times and I am now considering doing the rear airmatic E500 shocks myself (2004). I tried the front shocks myself, and everything went fine until I tried to compress the front shock in order to get it over the axle and out. I learned this was basically impossible without the Mercedes computer (which tells the shock to fully compress). So I took my Arnott shocks down to the Dealership and they installed them for me. I still saved over $1k with the Arnott shocks.

So now my question is this - Can I really do this myself?? I saw the pdf, and it looks very straightforward. The one part I question is where the PDF instructs to compress the shock by hand. Again, this is where I failed with the front shocks (I only needed one-half inch more compression to get it over the axle, but it was not budging no matter what!).

I was just about to trade the car in for only $10k ("fair" condition KKB value), but then I found this post. MB Dealership quoted $2100 to do the rear shock job, and I need many other maintenance issues too (plugs, fluid changes, etc), and I wasn't about to spend that kind of money on a $10k car! But if I can get another year out of this car by doing the rear shocks myself, that would be great.

So what do you think? Are the rear shock R&R really as easy as the couple of people above make it seem here???

GT-ER

I've removed/installed the rear shocks and you'd have to be an idiot to get it wrong...lol.

SZMB

The shocks in the front are different from the rear. The front shocks have the air spring and the shock absorber integrated in one piece, that's why you can't compress the front shock by hand. In the rear, the shock absorber and the air spring are two separate units and you can compress the rear shock absorber by hand.
As for the transmission fluid change, it's not a simple DIY. There's no fill plug or fill tube on the 7-speed tranny, as far as I know. The dealer does this job for ~$400, including changing the ATF filter. They pump the fluid in through the drain hole, as I was told. Changing other fluids is fairly straight forward -- just the old-school ways. You can find most of the common DIYs in this forum.

Todds911

Thanks! I'm going to try it! I wonder if AutohausAZ is a sponsor? I'd like to give a sponsor a crack at the business first.

Regarding the Trans fluid, I have two dealers in my area. One told me that it was due for a change. The other told me that it never gets replaced for my year - 2004. The latter just doesn't seem right to me, but I'd like to believe them!

Best regards