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So, I just talked with someone at Arnott and this guy tells me if I let the air out of the strut, I will need Star to reinflate the shock? From what I have read from other sites, no Star is needed, just the compressor on the vehicle, am I wrong here????? He also stated that I shouldn't have to deflate at all that it should just go right in but all there video on the website shows people installing it in a none 4matic vehicle so theres no axle to go over top off which requires another 4" of play.
Last edited by ingydrummer; Jun 10, 2015 at 04:15 PM.
Put it on, plug it in and lower the car so when the car is powered up it will sense the low strut. It will then automatically add air. Don't lower it all the way just enough to below normal ride height. Don't power up until all is buttoned up car lowered. Dont' start just turn key on and it should pump up. If it doesn't go to full ride height cycle the key on for 60 seconds each cycle.
Thanks for the reply vettdvr, my problem is that I can't even get the strut installed. I have the 4matic so I have an additional 4" to compress to get the fork over the axle. I can't compress the shock using the 5v trick. It just wont move so Im stumped on how to shrink the strut down enough to get it installed period. Im stumped???? I called Arnott and they said they have no idea what im talking about. I told them that their video on installation is on vehicles without 4matic. If that was my case I would be driving my car right now......
Thanks for the thread konigstiger, Im going to try the paper clip trick seeing as the 9 volt battery trick did not work for me.... I will update on progress.
Well, I ended up laying the shock in the engine compartment and plugged it in and cycled the key a dozen or so times till it exhausted all the air out of it. Then I took it into the garage and compressed and zip tied it then installed it. All is good with the strut now but I have another problem now. When I turned the key on to air the strut up, I now have no cluster at all. I think I may have blown it out while locking and unlocking the key so many times.....this sucks.
Thanks for the step-by-step - worked great for me.
The only extra thing I did was removing the 3 mounting nuts for the ball joint so I could drop the upper control arm and get the suspension to drop further. You do need a torx socket for this, but it makes getting the new one on WAY easier, and you don't have to pop the upper ball joint.
I also used the voltage trick to let some air out - you want the connector on the top of the strut - as you look at it, there are three pins - the bottom-most pin is for the negative wire from the battery, the middle pin is where you want the 5v. Hopefully this works, as you look at it with the shock head-on, straight up-and-down (edit - the pins are offset, but it won't let me use spaces to represent them accurately):
-----
| o | --> ignore this one
| o | --> 5v from battery
| o | --> negative wire from battery
-----
I actually used a 9v with no negative effects. With the control arm dropped, I only had to let out a tiny bit to make it easier to thread the bolt at the bottom of the strut - I maybe hit it for a second total in two or three little short busts - hardly anything.
I knew the left was bad, but was going to do both....and when I pulled the wheel on the right side and start taking things apart, all of the sudden I notice an Arnott sticker on the one already on the car - score! Someone had replaced it already, and based on the date code, it is only a few years old, just before we got it.
Last edited by bootzilla; Aug 29, 2015 at 10:08 PM.
Finally it's time for me to work on the front passenger side air spring. Arnott part is on order and should have it on Friday.
The thread has provided a few good tricks on releasing pressure to get it fit. I can certainly try it, but owning a STAR system gives me one more option to deflate it.
I assume to do it, I need to attach the air line and electric connector on top and go into the menus. I have been there, but my question is:
What is the proper deflated pressure?
The leaked one is at ~5(maybe bar, forgot the unit). Would the system be able to deflate to ~3, and is that low enough to compress the air spring?
Thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge.
If you r replacing your s500 with Arnott struts, please do NOT try to decompress the struts. You WILL damage it. Arnott ship their struts PRESSURIZED. U can not install these struts if u jack the car up one side. In order to install the Front struts...u have to jack the WHOLE front end up and the wheel hub will drop itself low and u can align all the screws.
Loosen the lug nuts on the wheel first. Then use the jack and lift the car up one side and put a jackstand right under the lower control arm. Do the same for the other side. Use the jack again and lift up the other side and put a jackstand under the lower control arm. U may need the jack in case u need lift up the wheel hub higher or lower to align the bolts.
If you r replacing your s500 with Arnott struts, please do NOT try to decompress the struts. You WILL damage it. Arnott ship their struts PRESSURIZED. U can not install these struts if u jack the car up one side. In order to install the Front struts...u have to jack the WHOLE front end up and the wheel hub will drop itself low and u can align all the screws.
Loosen the lug nuts on the wheel first. Then use the jack and lift the car up one side and put a jackstand right under the lower control arm. Do the same for the other side. Use the jack again and lift up the other side and put a jackstand under the lower control arm. U may need the jack in case u need lift up the wheel hub higher or lower to align the bolts.
What if you're doing it on a lift?
Why would I replace my whole car with just a set of struts? Seems like a bad trade to me.
'13 ML350 Bluetec for work, E550 for pleasure, & ML350 for my wife
Glad to find this thread. I need to replace the front left strut on my 2007 E550 RWD. I had the classic front left drop to the ground situation. After much reading I got the whole vehicle up in the air and started troubleshooting. Found the compressor worked fine. I then found oil wetting the bottom of the strut/shock. So, I've been reading about the Arnott Re-Mans. As I understand, I will lose the Comfort/Sport mode feature if I install Arnotts. I'm wondering what other 2007 owners have done.
TIA,
David in MD
If you are installing the Arnott air springs, you should not lose any of the different Airmatic modes (Comfort, Sport, etc.). I had them installed a few years ago and other than a defective Arnott air spring which was replaced under warranty, everything is working fine.
If you are installing the Arnott air springs, you should not lose any of the different Airmatic modes (Comfort, Sport, etc.). I had them installed a few years ago and other than a defective Arnott air spring which was replaced under warranty, everything is working fine.
JUST a quick FYI, as there are much more detailed install instructions....
Just replaced both Airmatic front struts with Arnott. The Air Springs came fully pressurized and I did not have to depressurize the strut, and I did not have to disconnect the sway-bar. All I really did was disconnect the upper balljoint to allow the suspension to swing out and down, then I was able to install both air springs fully pressurized.
This is what I did to install the fully pressurized strut WITHOUT depressurizing:
1) Install new strut in the upper housing area and attach the three nuts. You will have to press down on the suspension to allow for clearance then just lift the strut up and over the control arm, then just push it up and onto its lower mounting bushing.
2) Attach the upper three nuts to hold the strut.
3) This was the only slightly difficult part doing alone, Take a pry bar, insert the end between the control arm and the strut to force the control arm down a bit to align all the holes, then just slide the bolt thru.
Old thread I know.........I have killed myself trying to get one strut in, threw in the towel yesterday because it got way too hot outside.....102 degrees
Anyway, I did get the failed unit out, with a lot of work.........now trying to get the new unit in, I've released the air using the 9volt battery trick although maybe not all the air, think my 9 volt battery died.......I will try again today with the battery connect, disconnect to make sure all the air is out
I cant seem to get the strut over the control arm (I have popped the ball joint), I'm about 1.5 - 2 inch still too long.............
My question, I have only one side the jacked up, I am thinking maybe I cant get enough movement in the lower control arm since only one side is lifted and guessing the Sway Bar is loaded, does this sound correct? So if I raised the other side it would unload the sway bar and give me 2 inches, does this sound correct/doable?
You can disconnect the sway bar link. But if the other side is not raised up, you may have an issue of getting the link on and off due to tension in the stabilizer bar. But since the air spring is out, might as well disconnect the links since you have easy access. I do recomemnd raising up the other side.
What you can also try is to disconnect the upper ball joint. But not from the ball joint itself, disconnect the 3 bolts holding the ball joint to the upper arm. That may give you a bit more freedom to get the lower spring control arm lower. Might also need a large pry bar to put a bit of downward pressure on the spring arm to give you the extra clearance needed to get the air spring in.
Hello all, during next days I have to replace front airmatic strut on my W211 CDI 320 4matic facelift.
I have worries, how to replace air strut w/o remove axel. I read complete discussion but I don't know, which advice is relevant for my case. Some W211 have strut with "short" fork .... it seems easy replace.
But in my case, I would like avoid pulling the axle and lower control arm out as well as pretty much every other thing in the wheel well
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