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I have been lurking for a while but I finally decided to make an account and it turns out I have a question.
So I found this 2010 E350 which was in good condition for a good price, I went for a test drive and everything seemed to work fine and it also had full service history. The car has 156K km on it. So before buying it the owner and I went to the service to check if everything was fine. Until the last test which was suppose to test the shock absorbers. Attached is the test results I and the guys at the service were frankly shocked. According to the owner he has no problems with the airmatic and the test wasn't accurate because this platform could not measure correctly. As more informant and not biased could you please give me your 2 cents? I checked in the dealership and changing the absorbers will be almost 1/3 of the price of the car.
Sure. I am Polish-American and am checking Polish MB forum.
Polish have long tradition of driving MB and often buy "projects" in Germany to restore it in Poland where labor is much cheaper.
That brings the situation where almost any village blacksmith has SD scanner and can fix lot of stuff on those cars.
I guess Bulgaria has low price labor as well, but finding a mechanic who is really familiar with those cars is a problem all around the World.
So I heard about French and British MB owners, who go on vacations to Poland and have their MB fixed there.
I am buying parts for my MB in Poland to have them shipped to Las Vegas, so Bulgaria should be only easier
I have been lurking for a while but I finally decided to make an account and it turns out I have a question.
So I found this 2010 E350 which was in good condition for a good price, I went for a test drive and everything seemed to work fine and it also had full service history. The car has 156K km on it. So before buying it the owner and I went to the service to check if everything was fine. Until the last test which was suppose to test the shock absorbers. Attached is the test results I and the guys at the service were frankly shocked. According to the owner he has no problems with the airmatic and the test wasn't accurate because this platform could not measure correctly. As more informant and not biased could you please give me your 2 cents? I checked in the dealership and changing the absorbers will be almost 1/3 of the price of the car.
Vehicles with Airmatic usually have adaptive damping which works based on inputs from different sensors on the car ( acceleration, pitch and yaw, level, speed, steering angle and a few others). I presume the people at the service you visited performed a stationary test. That doesn't allow the system to work at full capacity, so you will get very inacurate readings which do not reflect the overall health of the suspension components. Unless they have the MB specific test rig it's impossible to test for suspension travel and response. There are a few tests you can try with a star diagnostic ( airmatic compressor fill test, different valve bleed and fill times, air spring fill and leak test, etc.) to make sure the Airmatic performs within specified range.
Also look for leaks around the shocks, that's a sure sign of shock failure and those things are expensive as you well know. Good luck!
Sure. I am Polish-American and am checking Polish MB forum.
Polish have long tradition of driving MB and often buy "projects" in Germany to restore it in Poland where labor is much cheaper.
That brings the situation where almost any village blacksmith has SD scanner and can fix lot of stuff on those cars.
I guess Bulgaria has low price labor as well, but finding a mechanic who is really familiar with those cars is a problem all around the World.
So I heard about French and British MB owners, who go on vacations to Poland and have their MB fixed there.
I am buying parts for my MB in Poland to have them shipped to Las Vegas, so Bulgaria should be only easier
You are correct in all aspects of what you said. Thank you for the link and for the advice
Vehicles with Airmatic usually have adaptive damping which works based on inputs from different sensors on the car ( acceleration, pitch and yaw, level, speed, steering angle and a few others). I presume the people at the service you visited performed a stationary test. That doesn't allow the system to work at full capacity, so you will get very inacurate readings which do not reflect the overall health of the suspension components. Unless they have the MB specific test rig it's impossible to test for suspension travel and response. There are a few tests you can try with a star diagnostic ( airmatic compressor fill test, different valve bleed and fill times, air spring fill and leak test, etc.) to make sure the Airmatic performs within specified range.
Also look for leaks around the shocks, that's a sure sign of shock failure and those things are expensive as you well know. Good luck!
I will check it out in a second service and make sure to tell them beforehand it is an airmatic. Thank you for the advice and I will be sure to check the shocks as well!
OT, seeing your handle can't forget the impression from last Superbowl.
The "ski" at the end of last name indicate Slovenian roots, meaning Polish, Russian, Ukrainians, Bulgarians.
In Poland names with "ski" are not that common and I was quite shocked to see US Superbowl with 3 or 4 such names on the field.
So my conclusion is that US Superbowl had more guys with Slovenian names, than Polish socker team
How is Bulgarian socker team?
OT, seeing your handle can't forget the impression from last Superbowl.
The "ski" at the end of last name indicate Slovenian roots, meaning Polish, Russian, Ukrainians, Bulgarians.
In Poland names with "ski" are not that common and I was quite shocked to see US Superbowl with 3 or 4 such names on the field.
So my conclusion is that US Superbowl had more guys with Slovenian names, than Polish socker team
How is Bulgarian socker team?
The Bulgarian soccer team is doing quite poorly the past 10-15 years. In Bulgaria most last names end in OV like Popov,Berbatov and so on. I have noticed that a lot of Polish names end in Ski though
Do you even have airmatic? For the E350 in the US, it didn't come with airmatic, just shocks/struts. Airmatic was on the E550. In the US, there's Arnott which makes aftermarket airmatic parts. They're $250 each for the rears.
Do you even have airmatic? For the E350 in the US, it didn't come with airmatic, just shocks/struts. Airmatic was on the E550. In the US, there's Arnott which makes aftermarket airmatic parts. They're $250 each for the rears.
Arnots have European divisions as well.
I am still puzzled with European VAT taxes and know that lot of MB parts are much cheaper in US, than they are in .... Germany.
Strange World.
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Airmatic readings
