christol21

So I just bought a 00 s430 and I was driving home and I see "stop car to low" light. I get out and look and the right rear is extremely low and all the other wheels are fine. I pressed the button for the suspesion and it just seems to make a lot of noises back there but no movement and it continues to make noise as I'm driving. The dealer said sorry but as is. Now I have a 10000 dollar piece of paper. The dealer finally agreed to have a guy look at it and as this is my first time with these cars I don't want to get ripped off. I searched the forums but I couldn't find anything in particular saying whether it might be a fuse or if it is completely shot, the other corners seem to work fine. Would the suspension be blown out just like that? How much is reasonable to pay to fix this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I really don't trust these guys to not rip me off. Please help. Thanks.

1morebenz

Your having at least a problem with the strut, valve and possibly pump and relay. If this were me I would sit and watch to see if it is the strut or more,
this will be an expensive repair no matter what. I'm sorry to tell you this. The best advice I can give you is to seek a technician who really knows this model and has done this repair before. If it is the valve it should cost less than $1000
to fix. Try not to drive this car anymore you will definately burn out the pump and relay cause it's trying to keep your ride leveled.

ajkennedy

Call around for independent mechanics whom work on MB. Ask them how much to install a customer furnished replacement strut from Arnott? Drive it to the lowest priced shop that quotes this work. Have them check it out and determine if it is strut or valve block or airline leak. If it is strut, call Arnott Industries and order one ($400). The install should be less than $300 for one side so it's no so bad and the Arnott struts are actually designed better than OEM and have lifetime warranty.

How many miles do you have on the clock? Don't panic, you'll get thru this and you may even have a case with your state DA that the car dealership sold you this vehicle without disclosing the issue that clearly presented itself after driving off the lot.

Good luck!

christol21

Thanks for the encouraging words. The guy at the shop looked at it and said it was probably the strut and he quoted just under a 1000 but said he wasn't sure. The car has 100k on it and I was nervous to buy it with that much but I just fell in love with the thing. I'll let you know what he says and if he says it's the strut then I'm going to look into an Arnott and call around. I have a guy about 60 miles away that I trust but that may be to far to drive the rear wheel up in the wheel well.

petmoi

Hey yall!!!! Petri from sweden here.... just last friday i bought myself a 2000 s320 and i also have problems with my airmatic but only when i have weight in my car, is it possible that the car has been lowered to the ground in the wrong way when the previos owner changed the rims and tires? the car now sits on ML rims with 245/45-18...