Hi guys. Had my E63 at Mercedes for a check up and they told me that my rear strut on the left side was leaking a little. They want around 3000$ to change both rear struts. So im thinking about doing it myself.
I have been looking around on the web and cant find many sites selling the strut for my e63 but alot for the rest of the e-class.
It seems that the hole e-class model has same strut except the E63, it wouldnt surprise me but i wanted to check with you if its true, and if its true do you know where i could find the strut for the e63? The cheapest i have found is around 1100€ for one pair.

Thanks a bunch!

 

OEM rear left part # 21123201325, right 2113201225 – cost effective alternative aftermarket Arnott A2725: https://www.arnottindustries.com/par...34_gid963.html

 

Thanks mate.
But Mercedes gave me this numbers.
A2113266900 and A2113267000 for OEM rear struts.


Edit: I saw your link, those are the air parts. Its not my air spring that is leaking, its the shock absorber. It looks like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/BILSTEIN-B4-AIRMATIC-STOsDAMPFER-HINTEN-MERCEDES-E-KLASSE-W211-20-101893-/391343009917?hash=item5b1ddc707d%3Ag%3AwIsAAOSwA4dWHffGbut thats for all other E class except E63 AMG.

 

2113266800

 

Okey so mine has been replaced by the ones you posted? I will need to double check that info with MB. What i have seen is that alot of sellers post info like "Not for code 489" (i think it was 489), what is that?
I can adjust the hight of the car and the hardness of the shockers so i dont want to order wrong shockers if you know what i mean

 

Okay. Here's the deal. You should understand how your suspension works if you don't want to be ripped off. However, the E63 is a more specialized vehicle, so maybe that's academic!

What you are talking about is a shock, not a strut.

It sounds like you have Airmatic suspension.

Easy to confirm. Put your VIN number in at www.17vin.com and it will produce your entire list of options from the factory data card. It will show all the codes, and then if you click on the little SA Codes tab, it will put descriptive words with the codes.

Here's a good layman's explanation about how your Airmatic is set up:

In the front, you have STRUTS. These combine the shock absorber function with the spring function in one unit. The Airmatic Struts are adjustable as to firmness and height. They are expensive, but easy and inexpensive to replace, as not much work is required to do so. You can get the MB ones from Huskerparts.com at a discount. You can get the Arnott rebuilt ones or rebuilt ones from RMT (Rebuild Master Tech) in Florida.

If you have 4Matic (4 wheel drive), the front struts on the W211 are different from the front struts on the ones without 4Matic, because the powered front wheels require a different setup.

In the rear, you have the SPRINGS and SHOCKS as different components. The springs are not traditional metal springs, they are "air springs", which are also referred to by the dealer and such as "bags" or "air bags" (not to be confused with the passenger cabin safety air bags). The Mercedes/Bilstein air spring design features the spring and a separate metal "reservoir". To get to the reservoir, you need basically to remove the whole undercarriage, because there is a hose that runs across the undercarriage between spring and reservoir. So, to pull out the old bag and put in the new OE-designed one, you pull off the undercarriage, remove the bag and reservoir, insert the new bag and reservoir, and reinstall the whole undercarriage. The bags are not anywhere near as expensive as the front struts, but the labor charge is insane because of all the work involved. Accordingly, the Arnott-designed rear bag doesn't have a reservoir. To replace the old system, the mechanic just removes the wheel (really!), cuts the hose that runs across the undercarriage between the bag and the spring, leaves the now-useless reservoir in place, removes the old bag, and installs the new Arnott bag. So the labor charge is much lower. I have the Arnott bags. They rock. When they were installed, the car rode like it was brand new, riding on rails.

What you are having problems with is the shocks, also made by Bilstein. Because they are part of the Airmatic system, they are a thousand times more complicated than the regualar shocks. And much much more expensive. I am not aware of anybody other than Bilstein that makes them, and I am not aware of any rebuilt ones. So, you just have to hunt for the best deal possible on those parts either in a Mercedes box or in a Bilstein box. It is exactly the same thing.

The bad news for you is that the part numbers you gave us are ONLY for the E63 version, so someplace like Huskerparts.com may be your best bet. It's $522.41 for each of your parts. Put in the part number without the A prefix. Huskerparts.com is the parts window at a US MB dealer in Nebraska, so maybe that doesn't help you unless they will ship internationally. They sell for about 25-35 percent off what your dealer will want. So that gives you an idea of a fair price, rather than your dealer's price.

There is a fair bit of labor involved in changing the shocks (that pesky undercarriage again), but $3000 means about $2000 of labor, which is a lot. I think I paid my independent mechanic about $500 in labor to install mine.

Good luck! Come back with any more questions.

 

Does that imply they no longer give a great ride? If so, how long did it take for the quality to noticeably degrade? I installed mine about a year ago and they still feel great.

 

Oh, no no no I was being too cryptic. The whole story is that I put them in because I was told by the dealer that one of the old bags was nearly shot in terms of its ability to hold pressure (i.e. that it was deflating due to an internal defect when the car was off), which turned out to be 100-percent-completely-and-absolutely-wrong. I didn't need a new bag because of a potential or actual failure. But I didn't know that. And my expectation was merely that the Arnotts would work properly and the ride would be the same.

So, what I meant was that my awareness of the improvement came right after I put them in. After picking up the car following installation and driving around locally on the Island all day, I took it into the City on the Expressway late at night. I was tired, it was late, and I wasn't thinking about the fact that I had two new bags; I was just rolling home. When I looked at the speedometer, I was surprised at how fast I was going. Then I went, "WOW!!!! What a difference!" The stability of the ride was noticeably-improved. And I noticed the improvement without thinking about the fact that I had just had this work done. I wasn't "testing" the bags, so no placebo effect. The question was "Why the heck is the car suddenly riding so well?" And the answer was obvious.

No diminution at all in ride quality after several months. The Arnott bags are, in my opinion, a great product. (In fairness, new OEM bags probably also would have improved the ride on this 12-year-old car, but the Arnotts are a great design and deliver great performance at a very fair price.)

 

Thanks for the reply, same experience here. Maybe almost exactly the same... but just have another question. Also sorry OP for the side-post here.


What was the actual cause of the deflation? I ended up changing my rear bags but am a bit curious if the problem may have been something else... I first had the car checked at MB and they said the bags were fine, but they would occasionally lose pressure, particularly on one side. I changed the bags and things are fine, so probably was just a bad call by MB, but I'd like to find other potential causes so that I can be better informed in case there is ever a "next time."

 

Rubber sleeves don't age and start leaking. Usually old rubber blows big hole and then you have obvious situation.
I think all those leaks when suspension drops overnight have to be internal valve leaks.
I had suspension errors coming on my wagon when I put heavy load in it.
I figured out it has to be worn compressor not pumping high pressure needed for big load and rebuilding compressor solved the issue.
BUT.... I experienced that MB programmers did very lousy job and when compressor fails the pressure, the computer keeps the valves open , what dumps air from holding suspension.
That is why rebuilding compressor, I install T line with pressure gauge that allows me to monitor the system in case of any problems and also allows me hooking up emergency compressor.

 

Thanks for taking your time and explaining how it works. This is my first Mercedes so I am not used to their cars.

They wanted to charge me about 1700$ for labor and 1300$ for parts.
If im going to pay someone to do it I think it would be best to let Mercedes Benz do it, I think I can get it done for less money, I have already got an estimate for around 2500$ and he said he could give me around 10% discount.
Thing is that the parts are expensive and all that I save is about 200$ buying them myself and there is to much risk, could be the wrong parts, could be bad parts etc. then i have to fix the warrenty myself, in the end it could cost me more to be cheap. If I could be saving alot more and be able to do the job myself then it would be another matter.
Im wating to hear from my parents as they live in Spain, And I know its cheaper there so we will see what estimate they give me

Once again, thanks for your help!

 

any pic of your compressor set up? this seems like a Great idea

 

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...e-rebuild.html