E-Class (W211) 2003-2009

Air bag suspension? Aftermarket?

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Old Nov 25, 2015 | 07:43 PM
  #1  
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2003 e320
Air bag suspension? Aftermarket?

Anyone here upgraded their w211 03 e320 to bags? If so what set up? Thanks
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Old Nov 25, 2015 | 08:24 PM
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What would be upgrade to Mercedes?
Rolls-Royce?
Arnold is selling cheaper replacement, but one of the members reported abrupt blow up on that just after few months.
If you DIY you might want to buy Arnold as they will give you warranty,but labor will be on you.
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Old Nov 26, 2015 | 12:52 AM
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w211 03'
But... Why? I see everyone taking out the bags and putting coilovers..
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Old Nov 26, 2015 | 01:26 AM
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It is the same issue when the first cellphones without antennas come on the market.
Owners got so used to antennas that for few years manufacturers were installing fake antennas as they were not needed for the phone.
It is the same issue with each new technology, that doesn't have yet repair procedures posted on the net.
I am highly mechanically-inclined and pneumatic were one of my majors, but the %**E&& airmatic is 80% about computers.
I drive wagon with rear bags and those few who replaced self-leveling suspension with struts refused to post how happy they are....
Bottom line - air suspension IS superior and I think I have it over 50% worked out.
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Old Nov 26, 2015 | 02:19 AM
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2003 e320
I was thinking more like aftermarket custom air bag suspension... Accuair kind of brand bags.
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Old Nov 27, 2015 | 11:50 AM
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IMO the accuair air management system is the best and I'll be buying that after the 1st of the year for my 08 e class. You can purchase coilovers and go to bagriders.com and build your own setup. Accuair used to have preassembled bags that were direct bolt on but it's no longer listed on their website.
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Old Nov 28, 2015 | 09:11 AM
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2003 e320
Originally Posted by Blitz2639
IMO the accuair air management system is the best and I'll be buying that after the 1st of the year for my 08 e class. You can purchase coilovers and go to bagriders.com and build your own setup. Accuair used to have preassembled bags that were direct bolt on but it's no longer listed on their website.
I agree. Accuser looks pretty neat. I used to have a "UAS" kit for my srt8. It was good just not with all the cool gadgets accuair has. I'm just curious how it is on these cars from people with personal experience. But thanks.
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Old Nov 28, 2015 | 01:13 PM
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I doubt you will find W211 owner who converted factory air to aftermarket.
MB bags have dual-chambers that will change the comfort level depends on need.
I am not aware any aftermarket does that.
Then I did not convert any car to air ride.
Funny, I have air suspension on vintage bus conversion and some bags are over 20 years old. They hold the air for months.
Wife Mercedes drops after 4 days.
Also what I see the MB bags operate on the same principals what commercial airbags do - it is reversible sleeve that gives long suspension travel, while the aftermarket I see operate on principals of inflated ***** without much give.

Last edited by kajtek1; Nov 28, 2015 at 03:58 PM.
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Old Dec 9, 2015 | 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by kajtek1
I doubt you will find W211 owner who converted factory air to aftermarket.
MB bags have dual-chambers that will change the comfort level depends on need.
I am not aware any aftermarket does that.
Then I did not convert any car to air ride.
Funny, I have air suspension on vintage bus conversion and some bags are over 20 years old. They hold the air for months.
Wife Mercedes drops after 4 days.
Also what I see the MB bags operate on the same principals what commercial airbags do - it is reversible sleeve that gives long suspension travel, while the aftermarket I see operate on principals of inflated ***** without much give.
No offense, but you really don't sound like you know what you are talking about.

Dual bellow (what you call chambers) have been around for a long time now, you can even get triples.

After market bag systems are amazing these days. Longevity, comfort, performance, and reliability. They are in EVERY car scene from old hot rods, to track cars, and hard parkers.

Originally Posted by truballer328
Anyone here upgraded their w211 03 e320 to bags? If so what set up? Thanks
There are a couple people on bags on this forum, probably the best known bagged 211 is sickbenzcuevas, at least on IG that's his SN is. I haven't been on here in some time so i can't remember if it's the same here.



I unfortunately didn't look into bags at the time of my (very old) 211 build so i am static, i did however recently bag my '72 280sel. After that, made me regret putting coilovers on the 211.

If you going more towards performance (or your pockets are deep enough) i would look into the accuair. I know people who drift on the e-level, and the speed of getting your car to height is soo nice.

If you're looking more of budget, but want pre-sets, i would look at UA autopilot v2... it's nice for sure. I know UA recently came out with a "e-level" version, but i haven't heard much about it yet. I have a buddy who does a lot of air and he swears by UA, he won't even instal accuair setups because he says he doesn't want to deal with the aftermath.

Good luck though, a lot of MB purists around these parts. They usually dislike anything without an MB star or AMG logo, and forget about doing anything out of the box... probably why i never come back to these forums double edged sword though because there are some great people here as well.
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Old Dec 9, 2015 | 02:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Craftysince86
No offense, but you really don't sound like you know what you are talking about.

Dual bellow (what you call chambers) have been around for a long time now, you can even get triples.

After market bag systems are amazing these days. Longevity, comfort, performance, and reliability. They are in EVERY car scene from old hot rods, to track cars, and hard parkers.
As I said before, air suspension is on the market over 60 years and commercial grade bags can have 25 years life expectancy.
But you are confusing double or triple convoluted bags



with air springs



They operate on quite different principals and offer different characteristics.
As I said MB on some models have dual chambers what allows changing comfort characteristics while on the road. (can't find the picture now, but DieselBenz have been posting them before)
The comfort level is like comparing car on pneumatic tires with no spring suspension (golf carts) to one with spring suspension.

Last edited by kajtek1; Dec 9, 2015 at 02:31 PM.
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Old Dec 9, 2015 | 02:45 PM
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Google doesn't offer dual chamber air spring image, but here is double barrel air shock, that even better shows the principals.
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Old Dec 10, 2015 | 02:21 AM
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Originally Posted by kajtek1
I doubt you will find W211 owner who converted factory air to aftermarket.
MB bags have dual-chambers that will change the comfort level depends on need.
I am not aware any aftermarket does that.
Then I did not convert any car to air ride.
Funny, I have air suspension on vintage bus conversion and some bags are over 20 years old. They hold the air for months.
Wife Mercedes drops after 4 days.
Also what I see the MB bags operate on the same principals what commercial airbags do - it is reversible sleeve that gives long suspension travel, while the aftermarket I see operate on principals of inflated ***** without much give.
I am a W211 owner who replaced factory rear air springs with Arnott aftermarket air springs for a couple of reasons.
1 - No need to remove all rear suspension and exhaust components. I replaced the springs and left the reservoir in place. Arnotts don't use a reservoir and installation was relatively simple. Actually I did it on the ground with a jack.
2 - Warranty. Price. Shipping.


The Arnott suspension works well and I don't regret the switch. Of course, if I had a shop and a new set of MB OEM springs, I would probably stick with the OEM, but that wasn't the case. My only complaint (to myself) is that I purchased directly from Arnott by calling them up. I paid quite a bit more than if I had clicked on the Arnott link on Ebay and purchased from there. Still, the price was way lower than MB.
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Old Dec 10, 2015 | 08:50 AM
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Originally Posted by kajtek1
I doubt you will find W211 owner who converted factory air to aftermarket.
MB bags have dual-chambers that will change the comfort level depends on need.
I am not aware any aftermarket does that.
Then I did not convert any car to air ride.
Funny, I have air suspension on vintage bus conversion and some bags are over 20 years old. They hold the air for months.
Wife Mercedes drops after 4 days.
Also what I see the MB bags operate on the same principals what commercial airbags do - it is reversible sleeve that gives long suspension travel, while the aftermarket I see operate on principals of inflated ***** without much give.
I wonder alot and most of the time if you truly know much about this product at times as well, or anything after market.

comments about UAS and V air are true-that is a lower budget air build and like said previously if you have deep pockets get you something higher end. But in all honesty and speaking from experience I have a few friends that have gone with bc coils, UAS bags on the coils, and some air management system. Its relatively cheaper then dropping 6k on accuair. NO diss against accuair, but that stuff is high dollar.

Also if you tell UAS your set up now they will tell you which bags exactly fit over your coils if you wan't to run bag on coils.
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Old Dec 10, 2015 | 10:44 AM
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You are right cmriv. I never replaced air springs with air bags.
Also I never replaced pneumatic tires with wood rims.
Why would I do that?
When you have design that is superior to other designs and you talk about replacing it with poorer designs, there must be something wrong.
Kamisama, what we are talking about here is converting the MB air springs to aftermarket air bags.
In your case you replaced MB air springs with matching Arnott air sprigs. That was direct replacement and beside cheaper manufacturer did not change the principals.
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Old Jan 12, 2016 | 09:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Craftysince86
No offense, but you really don't sound like you know what you are talking about.

Dual bellow (what you call chambers) have been around for a long time now, you can even get triples.

After market bag systems are amazing these days. Longevity, comfort, performance, and reliability. They are in EVERY car scene from old hot rods, to track cars, and hard parkers.



There are a couple people on bags on this forum, probably the best known bagged 211 is sickbenzcuevas, at least on IG that's his SN is. I haven't been on here in some time so i can't remember if it's the same here.



I unfortunately didn't look into bags at the time of my (very old) 211 build so i am static, i did however recently bag my '72 280sel. After that, made me regret putting coilovers on the 211.

If you going more towards performance (or your pockets are deep enough) i would look into the accuair. I know people who drift on the e-level, and the speed of getting your car to height is soo nice.

If you're looking more of budget, but want pre-sets, i would look at UA autopilot v2... it's nice for sure. I know UA recently came out with a "e-level" version, but i haven't heard much about it yet. I have a buddy who does a lot of air and he swears by UA, he won't even instal accuair setups because he says he doesn't want to deal with the aftermath.

Good luck though, a lot of MB purists around these parts. They usually dislike anything without an MB star or AMG logo, and forget about doing anything out of the box... probably why i never come back to these forums double edged sword though because there are some great people here as well.
As in ua, are you speaking about universal air, or who exactly id like to into them. I messaged someone on instagram and he got me a quote for 2900 for a digital set-up but didn't tell me from who. When I bought mine from UAS it cost me 2300 for 300csrt8. Doing my due diligence of shopping around. thanks for all the info tho.
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