michaelm352

Hope to get some help here, the valve block clicks when the car is shut off and ride height is at normal setting. If I raise it to full height, shut the engine off, no clicking.

Hear's the weird thing, the car has been sitting with the battery disconnected for 4 days and remained at the normal height, never dropped a bit. When I put in the new battery, the pump ran for a brief moment and then stopped. Shut off, click click. I raised to full height. no click.

lexnoir

People who love their airmatic will hate me for saying this but... if you're not towing or need self-leveling and it's a higher mileage MB. Do the airmatic to coil conversion and be done with it.

​​​​​​Arnott I hear is the best. But over 1K with I believe (don't quote me, a lifetime warranty). I did a Suncore kit for $456. I thought I needed to get the computer reprogrammed to delete the airmatic warning but they had a workaround hack that worked.

My daily driver has air ride and honestly I hate when cars come with it. It's not a matter of if it will go out but when. It's an unnecessary hassle. We have all driven many cars that didn't have air ride and they drove just fine. I'm it towing or hauling anything so my use case may be different.
​​

michaelm352

I just bought the car last week as a weekend vehicle. Light towing, maybe pull a pontoon or take the 4 wheelers to the woods. I have other cars as drivers. The last owner just did the shocks but nothing else so the bags are all new, less than 1000 miles. The car seems to function fine, rides at the correct height, goes up and down as expected, even sat 4 days with battery disconnected, did not drop a bit. with the new battery the valve just clicks continuously after shutdown. Now here’s the weird part, if I raise to full height, then shut it off,, no click. I hate to spend 500 when I have new bags, not opposed to it, but if I can find the issue it may run awhile before needing the conversion.

Edit, after sitting at full height for a couple hours, the clicking has returned, but the car is at full height still. Where is the stinking fuse for the valave block.?

michaelm352

Another edit please. I put the car on a slope diagonally in my front yard so all 4 wheels were at different levels, raised it fully up, it went level. Click started albeit long time between. Found and removed fuse 32, click stopped. Car was still level at full height this morning. I think the valve is bad.

Max Blast

I don’t Think I understand your problem here.
if the car is level with battery disconnected over four days, your bags are good. The valve body will click when Distrubuting air to the four corners - that’s normal. Is it incessant?

check your level sensors for binding - they are what cause the valve body to distribute air.

michaelm352

Problem is it clicks when shut down, endlessly. I checked several times yesterday and even after a couple hours, slow click, click, pause, click, click. Is this perhaps normal behavior?

since the car will sit 3-4 days or more at a time, I am concerned about the battery going dead.

Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

michaelm352

So I went for the good stuff and bought the Arnott valve block and OEM relay. Installed today and noticed the pump looks very fresh as well. It sat 4 days waiting for parts with the fuse out, no leak down at all. With the new block, No warnings or errors, no functional problems, goes up and down properly and drives great. But the valve clicking persists, louder and when first shut off, a couple air releases, but constantly clicking every 4 to 5 seconds. Anyone have a suggestion?

Max Blast

Can you take a video of the area and the sound - post to YouTube and link it here?

michaelm352

there you go. Forgive the chihuahua in the background, doesn’t like the fireworks.

left the car sit last night, fuse out. Took it for a long ride today, hour and a half there, 3 hours or so sitting, hour and a half back. Video is about 20 minutes after getting home.

i went out just now and the click persists a little further spaced, but persistent. nothing to see on either of these, just did it for the audio.

i am going to leave the fuse in and see if the click is there in the morning.

Yup497

This would drive me crazy. I have a 2010 GL550 and mine makes this noise after I've shut off the vehicle, opened my drivers door and the clicking goes for maybe 10 seconds and stops.

I'm not too clear on the EXACT operation with the air suspension however I did replace my rear bags and front struts and bags all with new Arnott parts.

The only issue I've had is that the new front left strut is leaking (supposedly), as what dealer states.

Have you had anyone with a good scan tool scan the vehicle?

michaelm352

Tried the door trick, click...click...click...
I am suspect of a leak somewhere but with the fuse pulled or battery disconnected, no leak down over several days.
i will be ordering the iCarsoft V2.0 tomorrow

Max Blast

That is way louder than any selector valve I’ve ever heard - and this is the new valve? Did not the old one and the new one click this loundly and frequently?

i see two separate problems here -
1. Your valve is distributing air too often
2. your valve is very loud

1 is probably because there is a leak somewhere - with your car being level over night I suspect the line between the valve and the central reservoir or the reservoir itself. Central reservoir is the tank in front of the rear hitch, under the car.
2 I’m gonna have to think about this one - one thing I'm not hearing is the usually accompanying sound of air being moved - sort of like a pneumatic whine noise. Was the valve that you replaced original? Does the click come from the valve or the relay?

michaelm352

Yes, this valve is much louder than the old one. It does "puff" a couple times after shut down but that stops after a minute or two. No air noises at all, just a steady click click click.. It is the valve, i can feel it when i hear it if i touch the valve. I replaced the relay with OEM. Yes the original valve looked to be original to the car.

Will the iCarsoft V2.0 tester tell me if there is a leak? I am seeing no warnings or such.

Thanks Max Blast, I look forward to your response.

michaelm352

the click persists. I drive the car on the weekends, sometimes a couple hundred miles. Rides great, performs great, even did good with a 5 mile two rut excursion in the Ocala National Forest. I pull the fuse when I park it on Sunday night and it sits all week, no height loss at all.

Now, the new info, put the fuse in this morning, unlocked the car and set something on the seat,, but did not start it, no click.. no sound from it at all. I just got my iCarSoft so will look at it from there today, but no warnings are on.

ZdenniZ

The scanner probably will not help you. The problem is with something that won't let your car "fall asleep" after you shut it down. My friend has exactly the same problem and even the Star Diagnosis doesn't find anything bad. The valve is distributing the air across the struts everytime the car goes out of the sleep mode when you open a door for example. Something is causing this in your car without your involvement. You need to connect a multimeter and look at your battery drain when the car is shut down and then begin removing fuses one by one to see what is causing the battery usage and no sleep mode. Exactly what we will be doing with my friend's car tomorrow.

michaelm352

Great idea, I was thinking along that line, thanks for the tip. I will check that out this evening.

Max Blast

Hmm. Door switch stuck maybe?

ZdenniZ

Did you have any luck finally?

michaelm352

So it has been a few weeks since I posted. My E350 needs wheel bearings in the front so for the last two weeks it has been sitting (waiting for parts and rainy weather) so I have put about 2500 miles on the GL450. all functions seem to be fine but The clicking persists.

On one occasion, I loaded the GL with about 800 lbs in the back (batteries from a giant UPS) and drove it on the freeway about an hour home. Running 80 mph, the ride was perfect, the height was perfect all was right with the car. I even drove it in a non-paved environment (recycle facility) and over all the bumps and uneven terrain, worked as intended. One would hardly know the batteries were back there.

On another occasion, I had purchased about 50lbs of batteries (again) and parked the car, opened the rear deck and as i started swapping the batteries into the unit, i felt the rear go up and down just a tad, perhaps 1/2" then stop. It was like it was adjusting the rear height. Lasted only a few seconds.

On a daily basis I usually remove the fuse, but several evenings I did not and found the car still clicking in the morning. I have parked it on level concrete and measured/recorded the height at the top of the wheel openings and compared in the morning, once was over two days and there is no change in the height except the right front seems to move about 1/8" but that could very well be my measuring.

The click persists. I have observed the car, not measured amp draw yet, but it seems to shut down and go to sleep as it should. At least the wake up process seems normal. Once i connect the fuse, unlock the car, when i open the door, the mirror comes out and i hear the valve click and usually a quick whine from the block.

I got my icar (love the device and highly recommend for any DIYer). I had numerous old stored codes so i cleared everything in every segment and have been monitoring since, no codes or issues in the Airmatic system or anywhere for that matter.

I think I have a bad valve.
Any input?

Max Blast

At this point I would concur with the bad valve statement - at least, it's too loud which would indicate it is failing.
Even if you did replace it the new valve would be clicking away until it's wore out and gets loud as well.

As pointed out above, you have some kind of draw that is preventing the car from falling asleep and doing a proper wakeup and that needs doing first.
I don't envy you this task but look at door, hood tailgate switches first. The door switches are the first to send a wakeup signal to the ECM.

cartunes25

I saw this thread and I wanted just say that, in my opinion Arnott is not the best. I put this brand on all 4 corners and I have had 2 rear bag explosions, yes explosions. Sounded like someone shot a 45 in the car. The Arnott bag has a MAX rating of 100psi, the GL550 normal riding pressure is 113psi. This will vary of course but the point is that the normal pressure already exceeds the stated MAX pressure of the Arnott product. Forget even thinking about towing...

RogerErnest

Does anyone remember how they were able to solve this issue? My valve block clicks all night and in the morning the battery is dead. None of the tires are flat and the airbags are intact. I ordered a new valve block, as soon as I plugged it in it started to click. No sign of a leak. I would be very happy if you could share with me your experience and how you were able to fix this. Thanks in advance.