unknownwanderer

Hello,

Everytime I go over a bump I hear a burst of air escaping escaping from my rear drivers side. What would be the best way to fix it?

Thanks in advance

wallyp

Replace the Airmatic strut.

You will usually get more replies, and much better replies, if you tell us the exact model and year, and if you tell us where you live...

unknownwanderer

Sorry, I wanted to post before going to work. I’m in California, and it is a 2005 S430

wallyp

If you do your own work, using an Arnott rebuilt strut is the usual answer. Reasonable cost, lifetime warranty. Sometimes, Rock Auto has the struts for a reasonable cost, no idea what the warranty would be. If you have to pay to have the work done, you probably are stuck with what your mechanic wants to use.

unknownwanderer

Thank you very much WallyP for the info. Do I have to replace both struts, or can I get away with with only replacing the one?

wallyp

My policy is to replace the strut that has failed.

I have replaced the left rear strut on my 2003 S430 twice, but AFAIK, the right rear is still the factory strut.

unknownwanderer

Perfect!! Thank you very much for the help

MrZoom

My 2000 S-500 finally dropped to a point where I had to replace both rear airmatic struts. All malfunctions were displaying, etc.

First, I replaced all wheel speed sensors and break pad wear sensors.

Then I bought a pair of airmatic oem's on Amazon for $269.00. I replaced them myself. Easy job. I watched a few YouTube videos and went to work. It took me a day on the first side and like 2.5 hours on the second one.

She now rides like new again! All malfunctions cleared themselves!

cowboyt

@unknownwanderer, is your car a 4Matic or a 2WD?

unknownwanderer

2WD

cowboyt

In that case, either an Arnott or a new Bilstein would do very well. I don't know if Rock Auto still has the Bilsteins, but you might do well to have a look, because the prices are pretty good.

arnottdoug

Shameless Plug: Here is a quick video that looks at how Arnott remanufactures air suspension struts for the W220. We are able to recharge them with new high-performance shock oil and we replace some of the worn internal parts. It is an expensive and time consuming process - I'm not sure any other air suspension re-manufacturing company can do the same (I haven't seen proof of it at least).

wallyp

Doug,
Thank you for the information. There are several of us who have wondered if you did any work on the dampening system of the struts. To me, that increases the value of your products...

tusabes

Doug ,
why is there such a high failure rate of your rebuilt units ? I understand you stand by the warranty but it requires double labor when we buy your struts and they are duds right out of the box

cowboyt

@arnottdoug, I've used Arnott struts on all of our three AIRmatic W220's. So far, every strut has been good. There was one time where I thought the strut had a problem. The car itself, the wife's 2000 S500, was actually riding just fine, but I was getting a code for the Y52y2 solenoid in SDS and an "AIRMATIC VISIT WORKSHOP" dashboard message. I called your tech support #, explained what I was seeing, you sent me out another one, and...same exact error in SDS. Now I believe it's the wiring. I'll bet that first strut was just fine.

That said, tusabes has run into issues, so his question does seem appropriate.

arnottdoug

I don't think we have that high of a failure rate (by percentage) on our W220 remanufactured struts. If there are more mentions of those failing it may be because they are one of our most popular remanufactured struts (We reman these every week). Only the GMT 700 & 800 (Escalade / Suburban) rear air assisted shocks sell more (We reman these every day). Or it may just be because the stock struts. After all - some are over 19 years old and we don't know how many miles are on them. I think it is also important to understand that we sell a lot because the OE struts failed a lot. In Mercedes support - the W220 was one of the first vehicles they added air struts to and it was a learning experience for them. While we made many improvements to the OE like better seals, new sealing cap as opposed to the epoxy filled tops, and stronger rubber air springs - the strut still has issues such as the bottom isolator seal which often blows out. Arnott remanufactured OE W220 struts are tested, cleaned, sand blasted and then repainted before we recharge the damper with new high-performance shock oil and replace the seal pack, piston, etc. Then Arnott rebuilds each with longer lasting seals; a multi-ply ContiTech air bladder, heavy duty OE quality crimping rings, new air line and coil connectors, bump stop and more.

They certainly shouldn't be "duds right out of the box". They are quality tested throughout the build process. From initial inspection during tear down to dyno testing the damper to assure proper functionality to computer testing the OE coil (which is reused but has a new wiring harness) to pressure testing the air spring to multiple quality assurance inspections all along they way - these struts should be ready for the road right from the box.

You may also wish to consider Arnott designed new passive struts which would be more reliable because they are 100% new but you do lose the factory semi-active damping.

Arnott designed passive NEW struts feature a brand new shock damper which was custom tuned for the S-Class and has zero miles. The new damper provides an excellent ride for your 13-19+ year old vehicle. The new strut does not include the active damping characteristics which often wear out in older 10+ year old OE units but the Arnott strut still maintains your vehicle’s load leveling capabilities along with the comfort of air springs. The top is machined in our CNC machine shop from aircraft quality aluminum which is stronger than the pressed steel OE top. We add the same multi-ply ContiTech air bladder, crimping rings, longer lasting seals and connectors as in the reman but replace the bottom isolator seal which is often subject to failure in the OE.

Both the Arnott new and remanufactured OE units are backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty in North America and come with a 30-Day satisfaction guarantee.

I grabbed a page out of our 2016 Catalog which highlights both the new (AS-2605) and reman (AS-2193)

cowboyt

The Arnott new-manufacture ones do look appealing. You mentioned to me before that the comfort setting in these is essentially, "Sport 1". I happen to like Sport 1, as it's a good all-around setting, and all of our AIRmatic cars are set to that.