RED WARNING: STOP. CAR TOO LOW
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 24
Likes: 1
Mercedes E500
RED WARNING: STOP. CAR TOO LOW
2003 E500 with 142K miles
While driving today, a red warning was displayed on the instrument panel:
STOP. CAR TOO LOW.
I also heard a whistling noise as if air was escaping.
I got out and inspected the car. The right front seemed much lower than the left. The tire was almost touching the well.
I checked the other posts and seems like the air shocks do go bad. Here are my questions and thanks in advance for the help.
1. Does this sound like it is an air shock problem?
2. Should I replace both sides? Do they go bad at the same time?
3. Should I consider used parts for this?
4. Assuming that it is the air shocks, does anyone have the part numbers for the air shocks (left and right)?
5. The other posts mentioned: Arnot industries, ESC Tunning and Genuine Mercedes parts as potential sources. Any other sources?
Thanks
While driving today, a red warning was displayed on the instrument panel:
STOP. CAR TOO LOW.
I also heard a whistling noise as if air was escaping.
I got out and inspected the car. The right front seemed much lower than the left. The tire was almost touching the well.
I checked the other posts and seems like the air shocks do go bad. Here are my questions and thanks in advance for the help.
1. Does this sound like it is an air shock problem?
2. Should I replace both sides? Do they go bad at the same time?
3. Should I consider used parts for this?
4. Assuming that it is the air shocks, does anyone have the part numbers for the air shocks (left and right)?
5. The other posts mentioned: Arnot industries, ESC Tunning and Genuine Mercedes parts as potential sources. Any other sources?
Thanks
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,254
Likes: 15
From: Louisiana
03 E500 and Corvette
2003 E500 with 142K miles
While driving today, a red warning was displayed on the instrument panel:
STOP. CAR TOO LOW.
I also heard a whistling noise as if air was escaping.
I got out and inspected the car. The right front seemed much lower than the left. The tire was almost touching the well.
I checked the other posts and seems like the air shocks do go bad. Here are my questions and thanks in advance for the help.
1. Does this sound like it is an air shock problem? 95% probable
2. Should I replace both sides? Do they go bad at the same time? Over 50,000 miles yes
3. Should I consider used parts for this? No! use arnott rebuilt using discount from this site and full lifetime warranty
4. Assuming that it is the air shocks, does anyone have the part numbers for the air shocks (left and right)? Arnott site does
5. The other posts mentioned: Arnot industries, ESC Tunning and Genuine Mercedes parts as potential sources. Any other sources? Dealer factory new
Thanks
While driving today, a red warning was displayed on the instrument panel:
STOP. CAR TOO LOW.
I also heard a whistling noise as if air was escaping.
I got out and inspected the car. The right front seemed much lower than the left. The tire was almost touching the well.
I checked the other posts and seems like the air shocks do go bad. Here are my questions and thanks in advance for the help.
1. Does this sound like it is an air shock problem? 95% probable
2. Should I replace both sides? Do they go bad at the same time? Over 50,000 miles yes
3. Should I consider used parts for this? No! use arnott rebuilt using discount from this site and full lifetime warranty
4. Assuming that it is the air shocks, does anyone have the part numbers for the air shocks (left and right)? Arnott site does
5. The other posts mentioned: Arnot industries, ESC Tunning and Genuine Mercedes parts as potential sources. Any other sources? Dealer factory new
Thanks
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,184
Likes: 16
From: Highlands Ranch, Colorado
2014 BMW M235i
A few tips to add to Vettdvr's already complete answer:
>Do not freak out and think coil over conversion is the way out of it, why lose the functionality of your Airmatic setup when you can replace parts with lifetime warranty components? (Just in case this has been suggested to you, I wanted to give you my honest opinion).
>Always replace your shocks in pairs if you're over 50,000 miles this goes for the front and back even if they don't go bad at the same time, unless you hit a really severe road imperfection it is unlikely that both went out. I do not recommend having the work done at the dealership because they will end up screwing you out of a lot of money. Find a good independent Mercedes shop to do this.
>Arnott offers a rebate for old cores sent in to them. You can find the amount that they pay out for each of the blown cores on their website, for your car I believe it's $50 for the rear two and $100 for both front cores. https://www.arnottindustries.com/blo...cle-cores.html here is more information. If you combine this with the discount code you can save a pretty decent amount.
>If you aren't sure of the failure, take it to an indie mechanic and have them leak test it to make sure that the lines aren't failed as your air shocks *could* be fine, but from the symptoms you've described this seems to be the case.
This is such a common topic on the forum and an expected issue after certain mileages that if you have any more questions, there should already be an answer on the forum somewhere as this topic has been beat to death. Hopefully everything works out for you man
>Do not freak out and think coil over conversion is the way out of it, why lose the functionality of your Airmatic setup when you can replace parts with lifetime warranty components? (Just in case this has been suggested to you, I wanted to give you my honest opinion).
>Always replace your shocks in pairs if you're over 50,000 miles this goes for the front and back even if they don't go bad at the same time, unless you hit a really severe road imperfection it is unlikely that both went out. I do not recommend having the work done at the dealership because they will end up screwing you out of a lot of money. Find a good independent Mercedes shop to do this.
>Arnott offers a rebate for old cores sent in to them. You can find the amount that they pay out for each of the blown cores on their website, for your car I believe it's $50 for the rear two and $100 for both front cores. https://www.arnottindustries.com/blo...cle-cores.html here is more information. If you combine this with the discount code you can save a pretty decent amount.
>If you aren't sure of the failure, take it to an indie mechanic and have them leak test it to make sure that the lines aren't failed as your air shocks *could* be fine, but from the symptoms you've described this seems to be the case.
This is such a common topic on the forum and an expected issue after certain mileages that if you have any more questions, there should already be an answer on the forum somewhere as this topic has been beat to death. Hopefully everything works out for you man
Last edited by AMGAffalterbach; Jul 14, 2013 at 02:14 AM.
