Airmatic to Coilovers In Progress- 2014 E550
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 80
Likes: 2
E550
Airmatic to Coilovers In Progress- 2014 E550
Hi everyone,
It has been long time coming but starting this Wednesday.
Decided to tackle this with a friend instead of paying a tech but I am just removing the shock/air spring only.
I am leaving the air lines and everything else intact (taped up away from the wheels in the mean time).
I am keeping it simple for now just to get the coilovers on.
I will still contact the tech I was going to work with and see if he can program the car from airmatic to steel spring.
What I do not know is if I can still drive the car with the airmatic error popping up?
If i can drive the car with no issues until I have someone reprogram the car to be steel spring then I should be good.
Does anyone know? Should I direct this question to w211 people who did airmatic to steel spring conversion?
Will update this thread with the progress and install of the scale coilovers with the swift springs.
It has been long time coming but starting this Wednesday.
Decided to tackle this with a friend instead of paying a tech but I am just removing the shock/air spring only.
I am leaving the air lines and everything else intact (taped up away from the wheels in the mean time).
I am keeping it simple for now just to get the coilovers on.
I will still contact the tech I was going to work with and see if he can program the car from airmatic to steel spring.
What I do not know is if I can still drive the car with the airmatic error popping up?
If i can drive the car with no issues until I have someone reprogram the car to be steel spring then I should be good.
Does anyone know? Should I direct this question to w211 people who did airmatic to steel spring conversion?
Will update this thread with the progress and install of the scale coilovers with the swift springs.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 293
Likes: 53
From: Hollywood, CA
Tectitgrau S210
No you don't need the SDS tool to release the air. When I changed my air distribution solenoid I released all of the air by taking the lines off. Once I finished the work, put the car back on the ground the pumped kicked back on and refilled the system. It did take about 3 cycles to refill the system completely as the pump only runs for a limited time in order to save itself from overheating.
Just out of curiosity, why are you switching to coil springs. Do you really have that much damage to you Airmatic system? In nearly all scenarios it should be cheaper to just fix it than completely delete it. I would really only get rid of the whole system if there was severe damage to the air lines and required running new ones throughout the car. If you look around, rear air springs are cheap, air pump is cheap, distribution valve is cheap, level sensors are cheap, and all are fairly easy to replace. Yes, front air shocks are expensive, though you can get rebuilds for $550 each.
Just out of curiosity, why are you switching to coil springs. Do you really have that much damage to you Airmatic system? In nearly all scenarios it should be cheaper to just fix it than completely delete it. I would really only get rid of the whole system if there was severe damage to the air lines and required running new ones throughout the car. If you look around, rear air springs are cheap, air pump is cheap, distribution valve is cheap, level sensors are cheap, and all are fairly easy to replace. Yes, front air shocks are expensive, though you can get rebuilds for $550 each.
