Hi
Firstly, let me thank everyone here for the threads and posts.. its been great information and have learnt alot about my S Class.
FYI, I have a 2004 S280, yeh its 2.8l but works fine for me in Singapore, as the taxes and price are ridiculously high for cars, if you know.
Its got only about 53000km but lately the front right side has been sagging abit and there were cracks in the Airmatic epoxy stuff around the metal plug.

Didn't go back to the AD.. they wanted S$2000 (US$1430) per airmatic strut and another $500 (US$350) for labour!.. so I went to a recommended 3rd party MB mechanic and just got the front 2 replaced at S$1300 (US$927) per strut and only S$100 for labour.. was this OK price?

Now it rides fine and both sides are balanced.

Also have been having problems with the assisted door closing mechanism. There's a hissing sound from front passenger door.. and also the driver's side died.. tried the 'pull out 20A' fuse trick and the driver's door works again for a few days and then dies again.
Mechanic says that likely cause is a leak in the door mechanism.. showed me a unit that he was replacing for a S500.. the whole unit had to be replaced as the main area that leaks are crack around this gasket like thing that he says cannot be repaire..
Told me to use the car until it really gives out, and he will replace both front door units.. quoted S$700 (US$500) per unit.. is this about right??

Also, some of the plastic instrument buttons appears to have some surface layer 'melting' which makes it sticky and dirty.. anyway to clean this stuff off.. have tried mild detergent but doesn't seem to work.. in fact, it seems to rub off the markings on the buttons!

Thanks

 

The price you paid for the front Airmatic units was a bit high by DIY standards but pretty much in line with what good indys charge around here. $100 for labor is great, though!

The door assist mechanism can be purchased on eBay for much, much less that the price you were quoted. The real danger with this particular issue is not so much the lack of close assist. You can always just shut the door yourself. Rather, the vac pump in the boot is subject to possible abuse. If it overheats and subsequently fails; you'll be spending much more than is comfortable for such a simple little vac pump. Get the door diaphragms from ebay and put them in yourself. Since the driver's door is used the most; you could probably get by with replacing just that one. The hiss is a sure sign of where the failure is. The hardest part of the repair is removing the door panels but you can find a guide online for that. Be careful with the wood trim piece. It likes nothing more than to develop cracks and make more money for your local dealer. Otherwise, it's perfectly easy.

The sticky button issue is common to just about every W220 owner. Some have had success with "Shout" stain removal pens. I cannot find the Shout brand here but tried "Tide Stick." It did not work. If anyone gets the "Up in Smoke" reference; I certainly did not try to clean my buttons with south of the border ganja Some like rubbing alcohol and so on and so on. There is a fairly recent thread extolling the virtues of various possible remedies. Replacement buttons are stupid expensive for what they are but may be worth it to you. I have a 1.5 year old little girl so every other surface in the car is just as sticky as the buttons so I can't even work up the resolve to give the issue much thought.

Good luck.

Sam

 

Yeah, you know man, it's tied to a stick.....also nice double entendre here with the carpet cleaner reference...." so I can't even work up the resolve to give the issue much thought...."

Good work on that one Sam!

My S500 is in the shop today and tomorrow getting the instrument cluster replaced under warranty but I am going to try Goo Gone on the buttons when it returns.

 

ALEV8,
As he is in Singapore all of our wordplay may well be lost on libra13. Pity, that. Entertainment is fairly difficult to forge around here lately. Be sure to check all of the cluster functions before you leave the dealer's parking lot. Mine worked just fine except for the NAV and tuner displays on the MFD. 10 minutes and all was back to normal.

libra, Since you have spotted obvious cracks in the epoxy; you may get by for quite some time by installing the repair kit available from Mercedes. It does away with the epoxy completely. You need the kit as well as a nifty little tool to hold down the sealing disk while putting the snap ring in place. Both can be had for less if you search online parts houses....maybe even eBay.

Sam