Good day,
i know that problems about airmatic are posted everywhere. I have to say that ive read many threads and used search tool alot, but i didnt really find the answer to my problem, so ive decided to create an account and post my problem here.
Im one of those guys who likes dyi things, so i always try to find and eliminate ptoblems by myself. This time ive hit the brick wall.
One beautiful saturday morning ive decided to balance my tires as me and my wife were planing to go on a little vacation for the weekend. Drove to local mechanics, they balanced my tires, bought 2 new ones for the rear. As they lowered my mercedes off the pneumatic jacks, ive noticed that my rear struts were all the way down, tires were touching the arch. Turned the engine on, was hearing the compressor working, but the car wont go up. Somehow ive managed to drive my car to back to my garage, thought it was the valve block, because the car wouldnt rise when the rise button was pressed. So instead of going to vacation we went to buy me a spare valve block part. My wife wasnt too happy about the way things turned out lol.
So ive got the part, changed it, when changing the part, front wheels also went down. Turned the engine on, the car didnt rise. Then i started to check everything from scratch. Took out the compressor, piston is ok, solenoid is working. Relays and fuses are changed. Tested the valve block, solenoids on this thing work, valves are opening and closing. Compressor managed to emit around 6bar of preassure ( could be more because i hadnt had a proper gear at the time to connect hoses properly, so some of the air escaped ). When lifting my front left side of the vehicle with a jack, i heard the air escaping. Ive noticed, that the rubber shield on the strut is cracked, heard the air hissing.upon further inspection it looks like the strut has a little round hole in it. Can the strut be broken like that? ( Ill post the picture as soon as i can ). I also tried to leave my car overnight with the battery disconnected with no avail.
There are so many questions, for example why rear didnt rise? Does leveling sensors have anything to do about it? Did mechanics do something wrong? Can the strut be repaired? Maybe the computer is messing something up and resetting it may help?
Any help or tips are welcome.
Have a great day.
Tautvydas.

 

if the strut has a hole in it and that’s where air is escaping then that’s the issue .

 

Shouldnt other struts be rising, even for a slight difference? They are standing still

 

It would be helpful to know where you live.

First thing to check would be the rear leveling sensor. There is only one sensor for the rear, mounted near the center of the car, with linkage to the anti-sway bar. It is not too uncommon (especially in rust-prone areas for the linkage to rust and fail. Jacking the rear to change the tires would move the linkage more than usual, possibly causing failure.

Air leaking means that the front strut has to be replaced.

The system pressurizes only one strut at a time, which might explain some of your problems.

https://w220.ee/Airmatic

 

Just a quick update.
After several days of searching and trying ive found the problem.
Turns out that all of the 4 struts are in decent shape and they dont let the air out. The problem was just a compressor relay.. it got too hot too quick, so the compressor wasnt able to produce required preassure to fill the struts. Ive also ordered compressor repair kit, because as i meassured the preassure produced by compressor i could only get around 6bars, thats why the vehicle raises up so slow, and also as i press the rise up button the vehicle doesnt rise much ( demanded preassure to raise the vehicle higher is bigger than the compressor can produce because of worn out, worn out piston etc. )
I hope that my research could help someone as i dismantled the whole airmatic just to find out that it was the relay lol )
Have a good day