Skye Taylor

Hello, I own a 2008 GL 450. I was having trouble with the passenger-side air suspension air compressor. In the morning when I would get into the car the passenger-side would be lower than the driver side and the pump would make all sorts of noise as it struggled to lift the car to a level position. I purchased the new compressor online and had my mechanic install it. The pump was a lot quieter but when I parked the car for a while I noticed that the passenger-side still was lower than the driver side. I turn the car off then turned the car back on thinking that I could reset the car to be more level. This did not seem to work so I push the button to raise the car thinking that it would level itself off. In about 20 seconds there was a loud explosion on the passenger-side so a trip back to the mechanic confirmed that I had blown the front passenger-side air suspension bag. I order two bags online and will have my mechanic put them on. The question I have is as follows. Do I need to replace the Mercedes suspension height level sensor as I feel that maybe this failed to work to shut the pump off before it exploded the suspension air bag. Could this sensor be responsible for the Mercedes not leveling off on the passenger-side or could it be a relay? Has anyone else heads a similar situation? Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated. thank you

jonathankreb

I claim no real expertise, but I recently replaced all four airbags, and went through a fair amount of head-scratching to convince myself that my problems were limited to leaky bags and nothing more. Reading your description, I would conclude that you have leaking airbags. The factory airbags are notorious for eventually developing leaks, and when they leak, they sometimes leak down right away, and sometimes it takes several days--it all depends on where the leaky spot is with respect to the folds in the rubber. You probably had leaky bags for a while, and eventually, you wore the compressor out as it tried to keep the leaking bags inflated. You replaced the compressor, but still had the marginal bag, so the bag continued to leak and not level the vehicle. I expect that when the bag finally blew, it was because the bag is just in bad shape. Could the position sensor be bad? I suppose, but the vehicle knew when the bag had leaked down, and it would fill the bag enough to get it level again, so I would guess that the sensor is not the culprit.

good luck!

TX07GL450

It has been the leaking bag from begining of this ordeal. Compressor tried to help but died in the process.
Don't just order the bags. Order whole strut assembly if you have a lot of miles (50K plus) on them.
sensor is probably ok.