kcscout

Thanks. I only asked because there is an ABC light on my dash. Anyway the folks at Arnott checked my VIN# and told me the same thing so I have already ordered the conversion kit. Should be in by next weekent and I plan to spend a really fun Saturday installing next week. After that I will have four Airmatic shocks a pump and a valve body to sell (well that is if anyone can tell me where the pump and valve body are so that I can remove from my car). I would be glad to sell those to fairly cheap. I really don't know which part has the leak but once I get them off the car I can check each part individually and will only sell a part that holds air pressure overnight.

kcscout

This is my wife's car and I do let her drive it like it is for short trips. It pumps us in about 2 minutes and stays up for 2-3 days before it drops all the way back down to the ground. I figure that even if I find the leak another one will pop up in time and I will be chasing those leaks for the rest of the life of the car. If for a $1500 conversion kit I can eliminate all of that headache, thats money well spent.

trombone

The compressor and the valve block are in the right front wheel well, down toward the
bumper. You have to remove the well cover, lots of screws to undo.

kcscout

Well Guys, I did it. I just installed the Arnott conversion kit on my 2000 S500. No more airmatic system, and the ride is really sweet. Kinda feels like my old W126 body 300SD. Installing the kit was fairly straight forward, but I would not call it easy. For anyone who wants to do this be aware that you will be working on suspension connections that have been in place for years and you will run into a few stuck bolts. The Video and instructions from Arnott are good, but they leave out a few important details. The front struts mount on a post at the bottom and are locked onto that post by two set screws. You will need a 5MM allen wrench but mine were so stuck that I broke my wrench trying to turn them. I had to heat the bottom of the strut then quench cool the connection to free it up. I was able to avoid disconnecting the upper ball joint (which was another connection that was stuck). I just needed a helper to pry the lower control arm downward while I remove the strut and installed the new one. The rears were much more involved as you will have to disassemble the lower suspension as the instructions note, but you will also need to remove the wheel well cover and the plastic cover over the lower control arm. The instructions don't mention that, but it is necessary for access. All in all it took me about 8 hours to complete the whole job, but at least 2 of those was just trying to get the set screws out of the bottom of the front struts. My recommendation is to soak all the connections down in penetrating oil before putting a wrench on them.

tower

kcscout: Was it frozen from rust or frozen from locktite. I had problems removing my studs on the 02S500 and found on another post that using a paint stripper like heater would break the locktite so that the stud could be removed. In my case we drilled it out. Just wouldn't budge and at the time didn't know about the locktite.

kcscout

Tower: There was definitely locktite or a similar product on the threads as you could see the light blue coating after removal. There was also a fair amount of rust on the outer threads that could be seen even before the studs were removed. I was about to drill mine out when my dad (an old diesel mechanic from WW2 Navy) told me to try heat first. Took me about 5 min to heat it up then a squirt of WD40 and it turned out with a manual allen wrench by hand with very little resistance. I did not think of paint thinner. I would think that the penetrant would do the same thing if it could get to the threads. The heat/cool opened up the threads so that the penetrant could get in there.

tower

The heat breaks down the locktite more than the rust unless you really heat it up. Personally I don't think a penetrant (transmission fluid/acetone or pb blaster) would do a d**m thing with a locktite'd connection in place because locktite, being an anaerobic activated binder, would effectively seal solid once activated.

biggb1991

same problem in mine, it was the black bellows above the strut and below the mounted air line. I filled the bellow with epoxy. its fixed. new struts are rarely necessary unless they separate at the rubber. The leak in not in the system. it is above.
The dealerships use the epoxy with some success. They normally put struts in and use epoxy. Once again I don't believe both struts need replaced. Seen w220's with 200000 miles and struts are fine as long as no leaks.

kcscout

Wow I had a very fortunate turn of events after replacing my struts with the Arnott conversion kit. First thanks to you guy on this forum for introducing me to Arnott Industries, they are great to work with. They were out of stock on the kit I needed but I found it on eBay for under $1500 and the seller (Am Auto Parts) did not request a core charge. After taking my old struts off I was going to throw them away when I remembered that Arnott listed a core charge. I contacted them to see If they wanted my old airmatic struts. I was willing to give them away, but they offered me $75 each for them. I just got a check in the mail for $300 today. That reduced the cost of my conversion to under $1200. I consider that a great deal, especially since I considered the airmatic system a waste of engineering and will not ever have to worry about another failure again.