jrob3257

Hey guys, got a weird issue and wondering if anyone else may have experienced this. I never had any issue with the airmatic on my 2000 S430 until I took it to carspa (an automatic carwash) the other day. Drove straight home with no issues. Parked the car for a few hours and when I came out my front passenger side was low. Cranked the car and it rose back to normal after the "Airmatic, car too low" error popped up. Ever since that particulat strut seems to have some kind of leak in it. It will raise back to normal after i crank the car and sometimes the error will pop up while I'm in traffic. I am afraid of burning out the pump so I'll be taking it into the shop but was wondering if anyone knows what may have been jarred or knocked out of place by a carwash. I am hoping it is something as simple as a loose tube or something. Any help would be appeciated.

whoover

The seal at the top of the strut cracks. Nothing to do with the carwash.

jrob3257

I inspected the top of the strut and didn't see any visible cracks, will a crack like this be visible?

brenner

Actually, the part that cracks isn't really the seal. It is an epoxy "cover" about 1/4" thick that covers the seal. The seal is a 2" round metal disk that is the cover for the top of the strutt. It is held in place by a ring (spring wire). There is a repair kit that replaces the metal disk (seal). This newly designed disk has an o-ring seal on the outside of it (sort of like a piston ring). This is a much better design... The old disk (or seal) has to be pressed down far enough to take pressure off of the locking ring. A special tool is required (I made my own) to push the seal down. Remove the snap ring, pull out the old disk (magnet) put grease on o-ring of new seal, push it down, replace snap ring and slowly let the strut come back up. The hard part is getting all of the old epoxy out. I think they put the epoxy on top to keep everything from getting dirty and rusty. When the epoxy gets a crack in it, it doesn't necessarily mean that the seal underneath is leaking, but usually if the seal is leaking, the pressure between the seal and the epoxy builds up enough to crack it, and air will come through the crack. It's sort of like a tire with an innertube in it. If ther is a leak in the innertube, it will find a spot in the tire twhere the air can come out. I think the leak repair kit sells for about $80. It also has a new brass air valve in it. There are detailed instructions on this forum on how exactly to do the work. I did in about 2 1/2 hours. I hope this helps to explain it a little.

Skylaw

Good explanation of what happens, brenner!

The actual purpose of the epoxy is to act a a vibration damper so that the narrow neck of the brass valve atop the strut doesn't crack and leak - but the epoxy will do exactly what you said when there is a leak through the seal.

jrob3257

Thanks for the detailed reply, that looks like a bit much for me to try on my own, found a specialist that will take care of it for me. He suggested fixing both sides to get it out the way, anybody have a ballpark idea what this repair usually runs?

Skylaw

My dealer charged my $550 parts and labor for both, on my '00.

2strokepwer

last estimate in CT from a dealer was 960.00 for just 2 seals and labor!

Skylaw

2stroke,

Shop around a bit. I have seen prices posted on the forums ranging from $450 (independent) to $600 (dealer) fairly recently. Most of the charge is labor. $960 is ridiculous.