dwooderson

Last Saturday morning, the right rear corner of my wife's 2007 R350 was sitting in the garage bottomed out.

I drove it around a bit, and it seemed to resolve itself, and it was fine for six days (she inspected that area before and after every trip). This morning, it was bottomed out again.

I'm confused, because I didn't think this car had the Airmatic option because we don't have the fancy controls and graphics like the GL320CDI has, but now I'm wondering if air springs were standard on this car, and just not adjustable?

If it is a failed air shock, does anyone know the approx. repair cost? Can an Indy shop resolve this more economically? Any suggestions in the north Dallas area?

kimster

Bilstein

http://cart.bilsteinus.com/productsearch/40-148359


Arnott

https://www.arnottindustries.com/par...56_gid619.html

Mercedes eom #3

http://www.mymercedesparts.com/parts...iagram=5730648

dwooderson

Thanks Kimster.

That Arnott is CHEAP! Any quality concerns to be aware of? I'm tempted to get the Blisteen based on name brand.

I'm mechanically inclined, but generally afraid to work on suspension. Based on the installation instructions linked from those product pages, air shocks appear to be super easy to replace; lift, pull the fuse, pull the wheel, disconnect and pull the old shock (incl air fitting), install the new shock, install wheel, replace fuse, drop vehicle, drive...

I might call some indys to see what they'd charge if I brought the part.

DukeBoy27

FYI this is one of the most commonly discussed item on this forum and there is a lot of info on the Arnott bags. Searching may yield some quick answers to your question, or lead to additional thoughts to talk about

PeteInLongBeach

You should consider replacing both rear air springs, as it is very likely that the other one will fail.

Some R-class cars had the full adaptive Airmatic option front & rear, but all the others had the simpler self-leveling air springs in the rear.

dwooderson

Thanks all, I searched and read all about the Arnott springs, and plan to replace both rears myself.

My wife loves this car, it's in absolutely fantastic shape for having 90k miles, but after reading this forum for an hour, now I'm worried about a catastrophic valve failure!

PeteInLongBeach

Which valve failure are you referring to?

Air suspension compressor / solenoid / valve is not overly common or horribly expensive. Arnott has compressors, and they aren't too difficult to replace.

Transmission valve body / contact plate issue happens occasionally, and is about $1,000 - $1500 to fix.

Balance shaft / idler sprocket issue is the worst (upwards of $6,000 unless MB contributes towards the repair), and you can determine the liklihood of that with your engine's serial #. If your engine was in that serial # range, I would think the failure would have manifested itself before now at 90,000 miles.