Pristine

Hey guys...took my 00 S500 to a shop and they had to raise it all the way up to check on few things underneath the car. I came back from there and parked it in my garage.
Afterwards, when I started the car, it said something like airmatic suspension low and also noticed the car was pritty low. Is there any precaution one needs to take before it is being lifted up in the shop? Did I damage anything?

Pristine

My car is really bottomed out right now. I was going through all the old posts which talk about airmatic issues. I read somewhere that if you jack up the car without taking the key out, it messes things up. I think this is what has happened in my case that the key was left in the ignition when the car was raised.

Have I caused some serious damage while doing this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Pristine

This morning I opened the fuse box on the passenger side of the engine to verify if that might be causing the problem. The fuse diagram said that the fuse for Airmatic is under "O". Do I need to remove that square plastic cover labled "O" in order to see the fuse underneath it? Is there any tool or special technique to remove it?

kenstudios

Pristine, what happens when you hit you airmatic to raise up? Does it raise without any issues? What it sounds like, there might be a leak in the system somewhere. That happened to me once when I changed a flat with the car running. After a hit the airmatic button it went right back up and stayed up. With a 550 in the garage I would forget all about the 220 and just drive the 550 but thats just me. I like your ride.

Pristine

kenstudios - nothing happens when I press those two buttons. The cars stays down and doesn't make any sound. Both buttons have the red light ligted up.

I think it is getting jealous of 221 and showing some attitude.
But i'm keeping both of them and getting rid of the 140.

I have taken the car to a mechanic, so let's see what he says.

kenstudios

The next thing would be a relay. Those relays go out and dont send power to the airmatic pump. Lets hope thats all it is.

Pristine

Yeah, I hope its something simple as that as well.

lx4life

so what ever happened?

Jayhawk

Yes, what did happen?

I had a similar thing happen when I had my winter tires put on last fall. The guy put the car up and when he put it back down the wheels were well up into the wheel wells. Fortunately, this guy knew what he was doing and said "you must have airmatic suspension." I about freaked, but he just reached in and started the car and it returned to normal. He said that can happen depending on how the car is raised. Apparently, if you raisse the car so that the wheels stay down the airmatic will shut down--if I understood him correctly.

massssoud

That "O" is a Relay and when it fails it burns out the Airmatic Compressor by not disconnecting the pump power supply. I believe that every W220 owner (year 2000 & 01) should change that "O" Relay every year. (it is only £22 but it save the compressor)

I also think any w220 with failed Airmatic would be on the ground if only there is a leak in the system,
In my case,I had to leave the car for 3 days while waiting for the Airmatic pump to be delivered and it was not lowered at all. (No leakage)


Regards
Mike

Jayhawk

The real danger when the car "drops" is that you can damage the struts, which will cost you $2k or more to fix.

sprink49

I wonder if MB dealers have a special lift attachment for air-matic cars..sort of like an attachment for the lift that raises the car from the suspension as opposed to the frame? My dealer did a rotate and ballance for me and I didn't have any of these issues. Just wondering.

Jayhawk

They DO know what they're doing.

IluvS500

we regularly have S-Classes in stock at work, and we always put new tires on and make sure everything on the car is safe with our premium used cars, and there are never any special precautions take to my knowledge when they work on the S-Classes. I've seen about 3 S500s and two S430s and 3 S55s up there. None ever had any problems.

Pristine

Turned out that the car had cracked strut mounts on both sides and the air pump failed because of overload. The cost was around $800 for the pump and $650 for mounts. That included parts and labor.

The car was no more than 2 inches off the ground so it had to be towed to the dealer. Getting it up on the tow truck was a real ordeal because of clearance issues. Very nerve wrecking to make sure that neither the front bumper nor the rear touches the ground. We took it real easy and made sure we don't scratch anything. So once we got to the dealership, there was no way to bring it down without some special conditions because the rear was sure to hit the ground. So the mechanic brought the computer and hooked it up while the car was on the tow truck. He tried to replace the relay and do something with the computer to get the pump going. But it was a no go. Luckily there was a ramp going down the garage at the dealership, so the tow truck went down a little bit and then lowered the bed so that it is almost horizontal to the ground. There was still a little bit of angle, but it caused just a tiny bit of scratch on the mufflers.

The whole experience was nervewrecking. I should have taken pics to show you guys, but I didn't think about it at that time. I must say the car looked absolutely pimped at that time

Pristine

Yeah I asked the dealer if there are any special consideration to take when the car is lifted and he said none. I think I might have had a problem in the making for a while, and the lift finally made the condition even worse to crack the mounts.

I'm taking my car to an indep mech today to get a complete brake job done. I have verified with several sources including some members here that no special consideration is taken when lifting the car, so I hope everything will be ok now.

Thanks for all your suggestions.