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I know this has probably been asked before, but I am having issues with my ’14 E550. The front drivers side will completely sag and bottom out in about 10 minutes. The dealer's $140 diagnostic was to say replace the air strut assembly for $1,900 and see if that fixes it... I would agree that the air strut is leaking, but the right rear is raising considerably. It is almost like the air from the left front is bleeding over to the right rear. Once I start the car, the left side will raise up properly, but both passenger side corners are extremely high. I end up doing is raising the car (the button) and then lower it back down. This seems to help the car be on the same level on all four corners.
Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a “balancing valve” that could leak and bleed over to the right rear? Attached are pics that show all four corners.
First step will be acquiring a good scanner, at least an iCarsoft. Best would be a factory Xentry clone for $600-1000, which will pay for itself after a few visits to dealer if your semi-serious DIY'er. If its a simple leak, drive around till the car settles in ride height and park on a flat surface. Lock the car and keep the key at least 15' away. Come back in a two hours and see if the car has dropped. If its dropping in 10 minutes from a leak, you should hear it. If in two hours it hasn't dropped much, measure all four corners and recheck next morning and record the readings. Report back.
Once you have a scanner, you can verify the ride height sensors are functioning correctly.
Your problem is a simple leak on the left front air spring or in the plastic tube running to it.
When the front left goes down it puts more load to front right, which also lowers under higher load. Rear right goes up because the car body is stiff. The car “rocks” around “front right-rear left” axis so when front left goes down the rear right goes up.
Check the tubing from front left to valve block for a leak. Someone else posted this easy troubleshooting method earlier as the long tube is not that easy to inspect.
The way to do this is to mount an extra piece of tubing with a ball valve to the air spring under hood. Then, when car is back level, close the ball valve and see if that corner drops. If it does then the problem is the spring. If it does not then the problem obviously is with the tubing or the valve in the block.
I pulled the tire and put a jack under the brake rotor. When I popped the bottom of the dust cover boot off the strut, I can hear a leak which, to my thinking, tells me the bag is blown.
$$$
Oh well. I was hoping it would be an easy (cheap) fix, but looks like I need to replace the strut (both). If anyone else has a better idea, I'm game...
06-10-2021, 02:25 PM
Airmatic Issues - '14 E550
I would agree that the air strut is leaking, but the right rear is raising considerably. It is almost like the air from the left front is bleeding over to the right rear. Once I start the car, the left side will raise up properly, but both passenger side corners are extremely high. I end up doing is raising the car (the button) and then lower it back down. This seems to help the car be on the same level on all four corners.
