orange57

Hey guys,

I have a 2000 S500, and I know one of the air shocks on the rear has a bad leak. I have had the car parked for a few weeks now, going to order shocks soon. What I have noticed, is on the same side of the car the front now also has lowered. The other side both struts appear to be holding air. Would the front strut lower because of the leveling system? Or is this more indicative of a leak in that strut as well?

Thanks,

Matt

Jack_88

Start with the rear one and see how it goes. Might be related to the valve block allowing leakby from the front to the leaky rear.

mercy-me

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, start with the rear strut the known leaker. The front strut could have a slight leak around the top where the hose plugs in. This is a known issue and there are fixes short of replacing the whole strut. Do a search on this forum as well as Benzworld. Be sure to check the encyclopedia in the stickies, in both forums, "W220 Owners start here".

Good luck,

Bob

orange57

Thanks guys. I plan on doing both rears. The car has 110k on it. I don't have the history on the air struts. My uncle bought the car new in 2000, I know he took very good care of it, but the service records were lost before the car made it to me.

I have been lurking here and other benz sites for a while. I am leaning towards Arnott new struts instead of remanufactured units. Need to pull the trigger already.

tusabes

Don't change a good working strut . It may last 50k miles more
Air struts either work or they don't . Giving the factory ride quality till they leak
They don't "wear out" and become bouncy or less effective like traditional struts do , they work like new until they leak

arnottdoug

Thank you for considering the Arnott designed new rear strut for your W220. We have had a great response from customers on that product.

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*Max savings $75 per order, not valid with any other offer or on compressors, shipping, taxes or core deposits (if any).

orange57

I may not understand them. I thought the air bag is essentially the spring, and there is still a separate damper in the unit. Do those not wear out?

Jack_88

Not that I've heard.

tusabes

There is an oil Filled damper in the strut and it too works like new , unless it fails and leaks
These failures are much more rare than the airbag bladder failure . I think I've only seen two reported oil damper leaks posted in the 8 years I've been here , compared to hundreds of air bladder failure posts

wallyp

There may be another factor here...

Most of us have apparently replaced failed struts with Arnott rebuilt struts. In this case, the rebuilt strut that we receive will likely have had somewhat similar usage as the one that is being replaced, and therefore about the same usage as the other struts on the car. Makes sense to me to replace only the strut that failed.

If you are replacing a failed strut with a newly-built, newly-designed Arnott strut, I think that there might well be a discernible difference in ride and handling, so it would seem that the best thing to do is replace the struts in pairs (both rears or both fronts).

Jack_88

I don't know, Wally. I'd replace just the one, and see if I can tell a difference first, then maybe the other one.

orange57

Thanks everyone for the input. I just ordered a rebuilt Arnott unit. Should be here this week sometime. I may be able to get it swapped out next weekend depending on how the toddlers treat me