Retire park it they might last longer.
Theory of preserving air suspension
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Joined: Aug 2009
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05 e500 & 11 sti
Theory of preserving air suspension
On my daily commute home ,from the office (~30 mi incase anyone was wondering), I had an interesting thought about reducing wear on my aging air suspension on my 05 e500, so I figure i would throw it out to you guys and get some feedback. So the goal is to use the suspension setting which would put the least amount of stress on the components, generally. My two main theories are as follows:
Keep the setting on comfort which would reduce wear caused through dampening, but increase the stroke and put stress on the air bags.
Second Theory:
Stiffen up the setting (on either sport 1 or 2) which would increase dampening wear but decrease stroke travel.
I could be totally pulling ***** out of my ***, so feel free to chime in and let me know your thoughts and reasoning
ps: my mind was "elevated" when i thought of this, so take that into consideration
Keep the setting on comfort which would reduce wear caused through dampening, but increase the stroke and put stress on the air bags.
Second Theory:
Stiffen up the setting (on either sport 1 or 2) which would increase dampening wear but decrease stroke travel.
I could be totally pulling ***** out of my ***, so feel free to chime in and let me know your thoughts and reasoning
ps: my mind was "elevated" when i thought of this, so take that into consideration
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2019 G70 6MT & 2022 Ford Maverick XL
The first thing you should do is not drive "elevated".
The second thing is that all of the above is nonsense. Enjoy the car and accept the finite lifespan of the parts that it is built with.
The second thing is that all of the above is nonsense. Enjoy the car and accept the finite lifespan of the parts that it is built with.
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From: Louisiana
03 E500 and Corvette
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 39
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05 e500 & 11 sti
lilbenz, i appreciate your willingness to post, but i was not looking for parental guidance. I have enjoyed every second with my car and I dont mind replacing worn or broken parts. My objective was to be as gentle as possible to my old lady.
Lol guys i realize that the airbags will eventually leak and the shocks will eventually go too, but thats not what I am concerned about. My e5 is no longer the young, nimble, maiden that she once was and I am perfectly okay with that. If I have catastrophic suspension failure, I would just go with springs and shocks, more likely coilovers and shocks. I just wanted some input on my theories
Lol guys i realize that the airbags will eventually leak and the shocks will eventually go too, but thats not what I am concerned about. My e5 is no longer the young, nimble, maiden that she once was and I am perfectly okay with that. If I have catastrophic suspension failure, I would just go with springs and shocks, more likely coilovers and shocks. I just wanted some input on my theories
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Joined: Aug 2011
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From: Highlands Ranch, Colorado
2014 BMW M235i
I used to think along these lines of running it in comfort mode would put less stress on everything with less rigidity and such, so I definitely see your logic. But the others are right, even though my car is always in sport mode and sport II these days, I've had about the same number of AirMatic-related failures in both modes. Not to say this should be a causation or correlation study or have any statistical significance (let me gather some data from owners and do a 2 sample t-test shall we?), but it really doesn't matter in the end. I almost feel I have a few more squeaks and noises now that I've run it in a stiffer setting, though it's likely just the age and mileage of the car and all in my head.
The parts get worn, the rubber gets old, and we have what I had happen to me today - blown air bags. Just a fact of life. Interesting post though. I guess not driving my car like a total a-hole every day would probably help but I'm just to addicted to the roaring V8 and exhaust note, so I just make sure to keep up on all of my maintenance and install only the best quality parts so I can enjoy the girl until she is all used up
The parts get worn, the rubber gets old, and we have what I had happen to me today - blown air bags. Just a fact of life. Interesting post though. I guess not driving my car like a total a-hole every day would probably help but I'm just to addicted to the roaring V8 and exhaust note, so I just make sure to keep up on all of my maintenance and install only the best quality parts so I can enjoy the girl until she is all used up
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MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,184
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From: Highlands Ranch, Colorado
2014 BMW M235i
Matter of when not if. Either you have really great roads where you live, or you're about to have a really expensive repair bill lol. Air suspension is just like normal struts, it wears out after time.
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From: Florida currently. Have lived in 8 states and 3 countries.
2020 GLE450, 2020 C43, 2021 F350
Air suspension
You're right about the roads. I live in Florida and this car has never been north of Charlotte. Grew up in Boston, aka The pothole capital of the world!
