WAH63

Sometimes when I pull up at the lights in my ML63, you notice the car's suspension come back up and sometimes drop down lower.

I know that the car drops at speed, but is it normal for the car to adjusting like this fairly regularly. It feels real strange like the ground is moving.

kokanee

I haven't figured it out. Sometimes the gap above the tire when I park is large, sometimes small. Weird.

Whoopsy

I noticed that when I turn off the car the car 'settles' a bit, and when I started it, it will rise up a bit. Maybe the varying gap is because of uneven 'settling'?

DoctorD

Yes, it does this, but usually that means that the ride height between axles is slightly out of synch.

p.s. I have adjusted my suspension countless times now moving the ride height sensors and its now in a 'happy place' - i.e balanced. No more big variances as there was when fresh from the factory, just composed and near roll free cornering.

vinceching

well its doing what i was programed to do... adapative damping.

you must have the air susp set in auto. therefore its going to continously adjust the suspension making sure you have a level ride given the pavement you are on.

if you select sport or even comf, you won't get as much movement in the suspension at the lights

WAH63

Actually, I pretty much always have it in sport, so I wouldn't have thought that it should be constantly adjusting, it should be fairly fixed at a low ride height. It even does it sometimes when I have only been driving in a 60km/hr zone and I pull up at a stop sign or lights.

brt3

One questiion I have -- and I hate to be so lazy as to not figure this out myself -- is why does the car raise up when the doors are opened, then settle down with the doors closed? This doesn't bother me as I'm quite tall, but it drives my wife nuts as she can't clear the side bolsters when she gets in. If the car could be set to stay at the lowest setting it would make ingress and egress much easier for her...

Whoopsy

Stupid programming on MB's part. When you turn off the car, the car drops because the air pump is turned off and the air bag sags and the car drops. When you unlock it, open the door, the car 'thinks' you are gonna drive 'now', so it re-pressurize the bag IMMEDIATELY, and the car raises. If only they programmed it to RAISE the car AFTER we get in.

Just file this under Stupid German Logic, there are times when the German's twisted logic drives me NUTS, but I still keep coming back for more.

brt3

It's funny; so often German engineering is brilliant, but there is a stubbornness that refuses to admit mistakes. Witness BMW and iDrive, for example. Or, the way Germans ridiculed Amerian cars over the years, only to now adopt the "chrome everything" look. The new GL550 is ridiculous in this regard; the star on the grille is nearly the size of a basketball hoop...

Back to the suspension. Is the ML63 subject to the same up/down cycles when you lower the suspension per DoctorD? It sounds as though it still raises and lowers but the range is greatly reduced...