David Guarino

Look thru a lot of emails about the struts and air bags what I need is something to ell me about the air compressor I don't here it go on would like to find a way to fill them with a out side source and find the compressor and start from there 2010 E 550

Thanks for any help DAG104

bmwpowere36m3

Man, that’s so illegible... what’s the question?

How to fill the struts and air springs without the onboard air compressor?

Not easily... first, you’d need to plumb into the valve body, bypassing the compressor. Second, you’d need to activate the valve body solenoids to each of the air struts and air bags. Finally you’d need to deactivate the solenoids to keep the air in the struts and air springs.

May be easier to buy a replacement air compressor, jack up the rear-end, remove a cover, air line, two electrical connectors, three nuts and swap out the compressor.

alan_e550

I genuinely wanna help but I can’t read that. Perhaps I smoked too much? Not sure 🤣

Left Coast Geek

before messing with ANY of it, have a shop with the XEntry system run a full diagnostic on the airmatic system, that should identify what the actual problem is before you randomly start replacing parts. its as likely to be a control system issue as it is to be the compressor or air springs or solenoid control block or plumbing.

Arrie

After troubleshooting and fixing my Airmatic system I can say that thye scanner of any kind is basically useless for this job. All it can tell you is if the compressor has gone bad, or if wiring to it is bad or if wiring is bad to different valves. And it probably can tell if the brains for it have gone bad.

It cannot tell anything about air leaks or if valves are stuck or leaking. As long as the circuits are closed the scanner does not know if the component works or not.

In most cases there is a leak in a spring and car drops. A scanner tells car is down beyond control limits. Well, I could see this very clearly without a scanner.

The only usable function the scanner can do is to tell why the compressor has been stopped. But this also is because there is a leak and the system protects the compressor by shutting it off.

Airmatic troubleshooting takes good old skills to do the work, like checking for air leaks at fitting connections. In almost all cases it is the air spring leaking and we all know what the fix for that is. If the car is near 10 years old the springs will go and leak so throwing money in it is really not wasted even if the problem is later found to be leak at a fitting or in the valve group.

pierrejoliat

More likely not enough my friend, LOL.

grantnlee

Not OP. I just bought a 2011 GL550. From the Carfax:

Services Performed

• Vehicle serviced
• Front strut(s) replaced

Safe to say the front struts is referring to the Airmatic air suspension? Are the back ones just as predictably failure prone (and expensive)?

Thanks,
Jay

Left Coast Geek

A GL (W164 in 2011) is a whole different chassis than a E class W212. Airmatic air springs are separate from the shock absorber struts on the 212, and probably on the 164.

edit, ooof, looked up the GL500 in the mercedes parts catalog for laughs.... I believe that W164.886, and whoa, looks like it has a single air strut for shock AND spring in the front, and nothing else. rear looks to have the airspring and a separate shock.

bmwpowere36m3

No. W212s with Airmatic use air struts in the front (typical macpherson) and in the rear a separate air spring and damper.

grantnlee

Nice. So the life expectancy clock has been restarted on my front struts/Airmatic. And the rear I understand is quite a bit easier (hopefully read cheaper) to replace. Next major concern is the compressor itself which seems a bit noisy. Time will tell.

Needleroozer

If the compressor is noisy it could be the mounts. It wouldn't hurt to check and see if they're worn out.

Needleroozer

Before doing that, check the fuses.