khuongoikhuong

My local shop told me they have the equipment to mess with my S500 computer so that it lowered upto 4 inches all using software. He said I can also push the raised button to bring the car back to normal height anytime.

My questions:

1. Is this reasonably safe to do?
2. How fast can the airmatic raise or lower after you push the button?
3. Does anyone know how to do this right for less $$, he wanted to charge $500 - 1000

How many levels of height does the airmatic of 2000 S500 has? just normal and raised (2) ?

I'd like to know more about this so if you have any infomation please share

mbfan67

"4 inches with software only"! wow, love to see that. i have airmatic on w211 and i just got it lowered using bracket to trick the sensor to lower the car. there's a lot of posting on this subject. most of the airmatic is pretty much the same.

roadsleeper

Well, the manual is probably not going answer any of those questions you listed...

First off, the original W220s had 3 levels of adjustability: the normal setting (with none of the indicator lights on), raised (with one light on), and raised even more (with both lights on). Not sure of the exact height measurements, sorry. Also not sure if it is adaptive by speed...

As for lowering the ride height by 4"... that's a lot, considering the stock ride height is reasonably low as it is. I do know that tuners like Brabus change the vehicle ride hieghts of the Airmatic equipped cars by recalibrating the settings in the car's computer, so he's not pulling your leg if that's what you're asking. I think he means they will set one of the raised heights to be the normal setting on stock cars.

To answer your questions:

One of our current cars is a facelift S350 (MY2004), which replaced a MY1999.5 S500. The reason it was replaced was because the Airmatic failed twice. By failing I mean the suspension bottomed out to the point where it was not driveable... I should have taken a picture, but imagine a black S500 with the 18" 5 spoke rims ("Style-F") dropped with less than a 1" gap between the fender and the rim (not the rubber). Everytime the car went over a bump the wheel would hit the wheel well with a loud screech and thump. The repair ran about US$1300 (per corner) the first time, and the second time the car was unceremoniously booted for a quick replacement (hence the choice of the 350, it was the only one in stock with a decent color combo). Long story short: is it safe? Let's put it this way, this was not the only bottomed out W220 I have seen... The design was in its infancy when the first W220s came out, so reliability is questionable. Point is, I would be careful adding unnecessary stress to the suspension.

Without a stopwatch, it takes less than five seconds for the system to raise the car to the desired height; obviously lowering is quicker thanks to gravity.

Have no idea about the price... since it's fiddling with the control module for the suspension (i.e.: a couple of mouse clicks, if you will), it ought not to cost that much, in theory. But since we're dealing with MBs and the lowering process involves incense, voodoo and much chanting, of course the tab will run up a couple of additional zeroes... I would imagine it should not cost outside of US$500 to do this, but that's an honest guess.

Hope that helps.

khuongoikhuong

Thanks for the informative response, I'm actually disappointed, but it's too good to not do it.

I will try it and let you guys know.

One more thing, my button to raise the vehicle always turn on to level 2 (2 light on) how do I set it to level 1 raised?

Thanks,

dtxmob

I lowered my 2000 S430 at Topline Automobile. It came out fine with the agressive drop to it. I had them drop it down with about close to one finger gap. I can raise the car with a push of the button up to about 1.5-2.0 inches for those speed bumps. The ride quality is still great! I will try to post pics!

e-fivehundred

Just use the Carlsson ABC Module. It's the only one to trust. I like the Carlsson module because it allows to adjust rake. =)

khuongoikhuong

Hey DTXMod,

Please post pics!!

Sounds like it works out good for you, I'm glad. How far ahead of the speed bump do you have to press the raise button for the vehicle to raise in time?

Do you have 2 levels or 3 levels ?

Thanks!

dtxmob

The car clears all speed bumps easily going over slowly. There is no need to raise the suspension for that it you angle your vehicle slightly when coming upon a speed bump. As for the levels I'm not sure what 2 or 3 it is , the car raises about 1.5-2.0 inches on command! I'm going to take pics later and post for everyone to see.

khuongoikhuong

I just realized I have a friend who owns a car repair shops and he has the computer to hook up to the S500!!

I remember seeing instruction on how to change your default airmatic settings in the S500 somewhere on this website. Can someone point me to it please?? I'd love to do this myself

Thanks,

esntrk1

I bought the TWS kit. The hardware is worth about $50. at best, but you pay for the knowledge right? Anyway, the front lowered fine, but the back was all of a sudden too high. So I took it to Nelson of MB Auto service in Miami. He connected a computer to the car and lowered the back with no problem. He also calibrated the front. The right side was 2mm lower than the left. We tweaked it for about an hour and finally got it perfect: 1 finger on all four corners. In my opinion the sofware mod is hands down better than the hardware mod because you can tweak the height down to the millimeter.

Thericker

For those Bi-xenons! I wrote the seller early in the auction "What his buy it now price was" and he said he would go for $1200. I was going to do it but he wouldn't except Paypal.
I was just wondering if you had any problems w/the sale or did you receive everything as promised buy the seller? I was a bit leary of him because he wouldn't except Paypal, I hope it worked out for you. Post some new pic's.

esntrk1

Yea I think he is an imposter. I may have to retract the bid. I've contacted him a couple of times and he seems to take his time about responding. He sent me a name and address for the money order. I cross checked the address and the name does not match. I asked him for a home phone number and he did not respond. Plus he stated in his email that he was sending from work but his address ends with .edu. I have the name, address and phone number of one of his neighbors. If they cannot verify his identity, I'm out of the deal.

khuongoikhuong

Hey I was in on that bid too, that's too high for no warranty and scratches, you can get a brand new set for $2K!!

Well I already paid for deposit for Peter Leon to install it for me next week, will let you guys know!

Hey Esntrk, how low did you lower the car and did you take advantage of the raise mode? I want to have it 1.25" drop on RAISED mode and 2.5" drop in standard mode, what do you think?

esntrk1

Yea speaking of that auction, the guy won't even give up his home phone number. I'm surely retracting my bid.

How much did it cost to go with Peter Leon? Post pics when you are done.

I'm not sure if you can adjust the NORMAL and RAISED modes seperately. But then again, we didn't try that. I do know there is more than the rumored .5" range available in the settings. Nelson would know how much for sure.