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My S212 E300 with airmatic is showing serious signs of lowering overnight. The car has driven 90k miles and is now 12 years old. About half a year ago I already replaced the rear air springs as the car started to sag only on the rear. Now with colder temperatures, the front is showing similar behaviour. Sometimes the car will stay level, sometimes it will drop overnight. Typical signs of leaking bellows.
On top of that, ever since I got the car there has been a knocking sound on the front left of the car when driving slowly over bumps. When the outside temperature is above 25°C this sound seems to disappear, now again with colder temperatures the sound is very noticeable. I think it has gotten worse over the 2 years that I've been using the car.
Anyway, time to replace the front struts. After some reading and comparing, I've decided to get the Miessler Automotive aftermarket replacement struts. These are not refurbed but new units, according to Miessler they incorporate a functioning ADS unit (instead of a simple resistor to prevent codes). Shipping was fine, I received the units 2 days after ordering them. Pretty swift service!
Today I unpacked the first unit. It comes in a big cardboard box and survived the UPS handling. The unit is pretty heave, just for a laugh I decided to compare it to a front damper/spring from my Lotus Elise:
The Miessler unit comes in at roughly 14kg, the Lotus (bilstein) unit weighs only 2.5kg. That's a big difference over 4 corners of the car (though the rear units on the Mercedes are a more simple design as they don't act as a strut).
Planning on installing them over the next few days. As there was not much info on this forum regarding the Miessler units for the 212 chassis, this thread may be of value to others. If someone wants to know some details about these struts, or detailed pictures, let me know, the units are still on my workbench.
They were €1.500 including shipping for the pair of them. No core fee so I'm still free to sell the old struts if possible. No indication where they are manufactured, Miessler does not mention this on there website. I guess they would say so if they are manufactured in Germany.
Optically they look fine, I installed the front left strut today (2 hour job) without any issues. On the the front right and then a testdrive.
Regarding the knocking sound a have; after removing the strut I found very obvious play in the top bearing. That's probably the cause of the sound I heard. Let's see if the sound is actually gone once I get the car back on the road.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
