Airmatic higher on passenger side.
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Newbie
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 4
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From: Northeast England
2001 w220 S320L
Airmatic higher on passenger side.
I know there's lots of info about the airmatic suspension on the forum, but I thought I'd share my recent experience anyway, it might be helpful to someone.
Last weekend I took the family camping in the lake district where the roads are narrow and very bumpy.After a couple of days of "enjoying" said roads the dreaded 'Airmatic failure,visit workshop' message appeared.
Once stopped I noticed that the passenger side was now sitting in the raised position,40mm higher than the drivers side which was at its normal height.Pressing & depressing the suspension raise button failed to do anything, although the pump would work for a short burst nothing happened.Luckily the car was still drivable so we got back home without any further problems.
Back home and straight onto the forum for advice, but most symptoms were either the back dropping all of the way down,or the front doing so.Couldn't find much about the whole side of a car raising/dropping.
First I checked fuses & relay which were fine,so following my gut I removed the front drivers side wheel and sure enough there lay the problem. Mounted on the inner wing behind strut is the height position sensor, which is connected to the upper wishbone via a connecting rod.The little bracket which holds the connecting rod to the wishbone had snapped,probably due to exuberant driving on bumpy roads.A few cable ties to hold the bracket in position on the wishbone and the car now sits level,raises & lowers.I'll make a new bracket out of thicker steel.
I'm so glad it turned out to be a simple,cheap fix the thought of buying a new airmatic pump for a 100k miles luxury car got me pi**ed.
Sorry for the length of this post, I hope this helps someone out there.
Last weekend I took the family camping in the lake district where the roads are narrow and very bumpy.After a couple of days of "enjoying" said roads the dreaded 'Airmatic failure,visit workshop' message appeared.
Once stopped I noticed that the passenger side was now sitting in the raised position,40mm higher than the drivers side which was at its normal height.Pressing & depressing the suspension raise button failed to do anything, although the pump would work for a short burst nothing happened.Luckily the car was still drivable so we got back home without any further problems.Back home and straight onto the forum for advice, but most symptoms were either the back dropping all of the way down,or the front doing so.Couldn't find much about the whole side of a car raising/dropping.
First I checked fuses & relay which were fine,so following my gut I removed the front drivers side wheel and sure enough there lay the problem. Mounted on the inner wing behind strut is the height position sensor, which is connected to the upper wishbone via a connecting rod.The little bracket which holds the connecting rod to the wishbone had snapped,probably due to exuberant driving on bumpy roads.A few cable ties to hold the bracket in position on the wishbone and the car now sits level,raises & lowers.I'll make a new bracket out of thicker steel.
I'm so glad it turned out to be a simple,cheap fix the thought of buying a new airmatic pump for a 100k miles luxury car got me pi**ed.
Sorry for the length of this post, I hope this helps someone out there.
