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Has anybody converted their wagon rear only air suspension to Arnott C2896 coil springs? If so, how does the ride and handling compare to the air springs? How does it deal with heavy loads? Do you have any pics of the ride height? I'm looking to convert my wagon to coil springs but I can't seem to find any info on this kit. Thank you
Don't think it is possible on wagons as loosing self-leveling will bring safety issues.
Does Arnott offers springs for wagon?
Than why would you delete nice suspension to go to harder springs? I sold wagon with air to get diesel, what forced me to hard-riding sedan. Frankly I missed the comfort.
Don't think it is possible on wagons as loosing self-leveling will bring safety issues.
Does Arnott offers springs for wagon?
Than why would you delete nice suspension to go to harder springs? I sold wagon with air to get diesel, what forced me to hard-riding sedan. Frankly I missed the comfort.
The wagon kit exists as evidenced by the PN, installation manual and multiple vendors that carry it. Im sure some people are already driving on it. I want to convert it because don't want to deal with airbag failure 500 miles from home in the middle of vacation. Reliability is far more important to me than a cushy ride for my rear seat passengers. I own 3 other wagons all with coil spring rear suspension.they all ride just fine. Is the Arnott kitt much worse than any other coil sprung wagon?
Are you talking about spring kits, or air bags kits?
The legal issues with the idea, besides illegal alerting factory body , you are going to have will be lights setting.
Without self-leveling headlights, when you load wagon rear springs - you are going to blind opposite drivers.
That can get you pulled over very fast.
I mean I have seen worse butchered cars on the roads, but you don't expect it on MB
Are you talking about spring kits, or air bags kits?
The legal issues with the idea, besides illegal alerting factory body , you are going to have will be lights setting.
Without self-leveling headlights, when you load wagon rear springs - you are going to blind opposite drivers.
That can get you pulled over very fast.
I mean I have seen worse butchered cars on the roads, but you don't expect it on MB
Are you just inventing pretend problems out of boredom?
Very good info and video, thanks. My rear airbag suspension is still working 18 months and 20k miles later but if it ever fails I'll be doing the same conversion as well.
Very good info and video, thanks. My rear airbag suspension is still working 18 months and 20k miles later but if it ever fails I'll be doing the same conversion as well.
tjts1, I Just read your last post because I'm considering the conversion also. My driver's side airbag is gone, and I need to do something and I'm not sure which way to go. You've actually contributes to my recent post about it. Did you ever do the conversion? If not did you learn anything else about it that you could share? I found these 3 kits (below) which you probably know about and there are probably more which tells me this is a common problem or there wouldn't be a market for these.
My rear air suspension has been totally reliable since starting this thread 3 years ago so I'm sticking with it. I also use the car for towing once in a while and its been useful for that as well. If it ever fails I'll probably just replace the airbags.
Doing the airbags sounds a little easier which is what I'll probably do. Afterall these have gone 122K and the car is 12.5 years old. What more can I ask from it.
Arnott springs sag in the rear. I had to modify a 3" spring spacer to level the rear out. I would suggest the BC Racing coilover kit for wagons as I will most likely go that route for adjustability.
Arnott springs sag in the rear. I had to modify a 3" spring spacer to level the rear out. I would suggest the BC Racing coilover kit for wagons as I will most likely go that route for adjustability.
Are you referring to coil springs or airsprings when you say they sag?
Yes, you lose automatic self leveling … which is useful for more than just headlights.
Conversion of Airmatic Mercedes to steel coil springing is a massively bad idea.
in Europe, cars with HID headlights are legally required to have automatically leveling headlights. (Washing too). In 3rd world countries like USA, nobody cares and there are lots of trailer park cars on the road.
After 6 years of ownership my rear airbags finally started sagging over night. Against my better judgement I decided to try Arnott replacement air springs. 3 weeks later both Arnott air springs exploded on the freeway a few minutes apart. The second one exploded while the car was parked waiting for the tow truck.
After that experience I decided to go back to my original plan. I picked up a set of used 2006 E350 sedan (non sport) rear springs, spring spacers and lower control arms. $130 all in.
The spring spacers they came with (2113250584) are the thickest stock size with 4 disks in the middle. MB offers version of the spacer from 0-4 disks in the middle to adjust ride height.
The installation was relatively easy but the ride height was a bit too low. The springs were designed for the sedan which is lighter than the wagon so I ordered an additional spring spacer from the dealer and disassembled it into its individual components.
Split the spacer disks in half and added 2 disks to each side for a total of 6 per side.
Perfection
The ride quality with the coil springs is sublime, much better than the air springs. I should have done the coil spring conversion years ago just for the improved ride. Arnott air springs are garbage.
Crazy! I knew their products were bad but both exploding? Glad your ok and didn't get into an accident because of this. Are you filing a warranty claim? Also, good to see a more reliable way to get the rear figured out and I did the same with coilovers and E350 lower arms.
Crazy! I knew their products were bad but both exploding? Glad your ok and didn't get into an accident because of this. Are you filing a warranty claim? Also, good to see a more reliable way to get the rear figured out and I did the same with coilovers and E350 lower arms.
Yes I made a warranty claim and they quickly shipped out replacement air springs. Unfortunately the warranty only covers replacement not refund. I sold them off on FB and recovered most of my money.
When the first airbag failed I was going 80mph. The car was perfectly controllable and I was able to stop safely onto the shoulder. About 10 min later after I called AAA the second one exploded. I'm just happy it didn't happen while the tow truck driver was strapping down the car. There was no damage to the wheel or tire.
Both air springs failed where the rubber bag is crimped onto the top hat with a large steel ring. The steel ring holding the whole thing together came off.
I measured the steel ring on the failed and replacement air springs. The replacements were 0.8mm smaller. I suspect they didn't make the crimp tight enought and I ended up with a bad batch. The replacements are probably going to be more reliable. It's not worth the risk to me.
After driving the wagon a few thousand miles with the sedan speing it became obvious that they are too soft when the wagon when fully loaded with people and stuff. Sport springs are an option they are still too short for the heavy wagon. Eventually I found Lesjofors 4256873 HD springs on Rockauto. They are identical in every dimension compared to sedan springs except the wire thickness. The sedan springs use 14.5mm wire, the Lesjofors HD are 15.5mm which makes them about 30% stiffer. With 3 spacer disks instead of 6 it added 1.5" of ground clearance. The ride quality is unchanged.
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