najafsen

Hey MB forum!
I'm going to buy an MB GLE 350d w166. I have two options at the same price. One is model 12/2017 with 144k km (First reg 03/2018). The other one is 03/2016 with 134k km. The older one is very tempting because it has all the possible options. The newer one has fewer options (no HK sound system, no Massaging seats, no Seat ventilation, etc). It also has less mileage. The reason for doubting buying it is that I see some oil on the air suspension, but I'm not able to distinguish if the source of the oil is the suspension system, or it is some external thing (E.g. if the seller has used some liquid to make the body look shiny, etc.). The same oil exists under the fender and some arias under the car (E.g, under the rear doors). The other reason I think it's from an external source is that both front suspensions look exactly the same. But on the other hand, at the very top of the air springs (where it's connected to metal) I see oil that looks like it's from the suspension. I don't know if oil from air suspension can leak from the top, or if it only can leak from the bottom. Also, one suspension, at the raised state, gets a wrinkle.
I'll appreciate it if you take a look at the photos and let me know if you see any problem with the suspension (not just oil leak). Currently, the suspension looks to be working as expected (I put the car on offroad and the suspension raised).
Sorry if the photos are not of very good quality. I took a video from the car and these are screenshots from the video. For some reason, I couldn't update image (I'm a software engineer ). So, I had to convert images to a single PDF file.

One more thing! Do you also see one suspension seen from the bottom, doesn't look straight!? Or is it just me? Is this even possible?

Thank you all in advance

chassis

Looks like the air spring has started to leak or has been damaged.

Air springs don’t last forever and in fact are considered normal wear and tear parts. Search this site for many threads.

najafsen

Thanks for the quick response. I googled but I didn't find any relevant topic expect for some videos of changing suspension on YouTube. I'm newby and I hear a lot that air suspension is expensive to repair. Is "air spring" the expensive part of air suspension? Is it usually replaced alone? Or should the whole suspension be changed?
To me, hearing that it's a normal wear and tear part means that one doesn't need to fear buying a car because of a leaking air spring. 🤔 Am I right?
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chassis

Please use the search feature on this site. There are dozens of threads and hundreds of posts. Mostly in the X164 and X166 sections of the site.

Air suspension:
- air springs (air bags or "struts")
- valve block
- compressor
- level sensors

Search for Arnott air spring replacement. They are recommended by posters on this site who have replaced the MB air springs.