s500 still lowers in the cold
 

Around November, the car began to sit lower in the colder weather in Minnesota but only on the front 2 wheels, So in December, my 2 front struts completely failed. They had large cracks in them and I got them replaced. However the car still sat through towards the end of December, but now usually on all 4. To test it, i put it in the garage of where i worked for a few days, and although it lowered itself a bit, it wasn't as bad as one day in the cold. the mechanic that replaced my struts said their was like sand type material in the valves and lines that go from the air pump to the struts, and said I needed to replace the release valve and a few other parts. I drove it back to NJ with the car sitting pretty high since the valves I assume did not want to release air while the car was moving. When i got back the NJ the compressor failed and the car sat through again. Not as bad as before, but it did not want to lift itself up. I got the compressor replaced and now the car does not show any error messages on the dash, however with some colder temperatures still, after a day of sitting outside, the front sits through more than the rear. Once you start the car up, it raises itself pretty quickly and all is well. However, i dont want the compressor to keep working like that every time i have to start the car. Do you guys know what could still be causing the car to lower itself while its just sitting there?

The sand material is the dessicant which is to trap the water in the system

Sounds like you may have dessicant throughout the your system , it's only supposed to be in the pump

the water is what freezes in the cold causing the airmatic valves to stick open

that makes more sense to me, but would explain the front lowering more than the rear?

Yes, depends where the water is trapped and freezing


there are some good pics of the dessicant and pump here
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w220-s-class/2788641-airmatic-my-learnings-over-time.html