E500 Airmatic visit shop on cold mornings
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Joined: Dec 2018
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E500 4matic wagon
E500 Airmatic visit shop on cold mornings
My car has been giving me a visit shop warning for the airmatic on my morning commute, so I stopped this morning and tried to see what the fault code was and got nothing with my iCarsoft MBII. (Not sure if it is able to pull a code for the airmatic anyway.)
If I stop and restart car, the malfunction warning clears without fail.
Is this an indication my air struts are failing, or is the car just having trouble with the sub-40°F weather?
The car never has the warning in the afternoon.
If I stop and restart car, the malfunction warning clears without fail.
Is this an indication my air struts are failing, or is the car just having trouble with the sub-40°F weather?
The car never has the warning in the afternoon.
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Joined: Jan 2017
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From: DFW
2005 E500 Wagon
The iCarsoft MBII can definitely pull Suspension codes. Even if it clears from the dash, the code would still be stored in the system for the reader to pull. Cold weather tends to bring out the worst in my E500 so it's possible one of the springs is leaking a bit when they get cold. In my experience, it will eventually make itself very obvious.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 27
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E500 4matic wagon
The iCarsoft MBII can definitely pull Suspension codes. Even if it clears from the dash, the code would still be stored in the system for the reader to pull. Cold weather tends to bring out the worst in my E500 so it's possible one of the springs is leaking a bit when they get cold. In my experience, it will eventually make itself very obvious.
Worst case, I'll check them out when I replace the lower ball joints soon.
The car seems to have no issues holding air for a few days at a time, haven't let it sit much longer than that any time recently. If they are bad, I am very DIY capable, haven't used a mechanic in probably 13 years since I had to have a spark plug thread replaced on my 2000 Mustang GT while I was living in the dorms in the Air Force and didnt have the proper tools with me.
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Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2018
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E500 4matic wagon
it looks like I may have figured it out. in AZ the afternoons are significantly warmer than the coldest mornings, so the pressure in the tank will correspondingly drop with the wide temp swing. Each morning the warning came on, I was using the raise vehicle button right as I left my driveway and this was causing a reservoir recharge time to be too long.
I haven't had the issue yet this week since I stopped using the raise vehicle button in the morning.
I did finally find the way to pull codes with the iCarsoft unit. Talk about counterintuitive...anyway it is pretty darn handy even if the GUI is weirdly designed.
I haven't had the issue yet this week since I stopped using the raise vehicle button in the morning.
I did finally find the way to pull codes with the iCarsoft unit. Talk about counterintuitive...anyway it is pretty darn handy even if the GUI is weirdly designed.
