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I just bought a 1999 W220 S320. I'm sure this has been asked before but I have a couple of questions regarding the Airmatic suspension.
The previous owner said he always had the car raised. I tried both rising it and lowering it. When lowered. the front seems a bit TOO low. i.e. The side panel (not sure what's called) it's covering the top of the tyre so that I can't see the tread standing from the side.
Is this normal?
Maybe someone has a picture of what it should look like with the car raised and lowered?
What setting do you normally drive in?
I'm not getting any malfunction lights of notifications on the dash, so I assume/hope the system is working as it should.
I slightly suspect that there is a leak in the front right strut (drive's point of view). A couple of times when I exit the vehicle I hear the sound of air being released, combined with the fact that the front of the car is lower than what I would expect.
There are no error messages on the instrument panel. When I push the button to raise the car the car does indeed raise. When the car is parked overnight it is not "flat on the ground" the next morning. The height of the front/rear is the same as it was last night.
Am I being paranoid?
If there is a leaky strut, does it mean that that the leaky corner will be flat on the ground when the car is not running?
" A couple of times when I exit the vehicle I hear the sound of air being released..."
That is a completely normal operation, not an indication of a problem. When weight is removed from the car, the system releases a little air pressure to maintain the programmed ride height.
"If there is a leaky strut, does it mean that that the leaky corner will be flat on the ground when the car is not running?"
A small leak will eventually lower that corner of the car, a bad leak will drop that corner overnight. The car will maintain normal ride height while running if the leak is small enough that the compressor can make up for the leakage - but that is tough on the compressor.
It sounds like your car is completely normal , it is normal for the car to hiss air when you get out and sometimes even when you unlock the car to get in
post some pics of what you consider to be too Low. Note that if You park on an unlevel surface the car will try to level itself
Here are two photos. First is with suspension lowered. Second is raised. The lowered setting definitely looks very low to me. Both sides are consistent however. If I leave the car for 2 days on the RAISED setting, it does not sink back down.
Even the RAISED setting seems a bit too for me. It could be that as someone suggested above the car has been previously lowered.
Last edited by mkqq; Sep 23, 2021 at 12:14 PM.
Reason: More comments
The front suspension appears to have definitely been lowered, whether purposefully or accidentally. You might start by finding several photos of the standard appearance of the front ride height sensors, and comparing yours to the photos.
It certainly looks much lower than it should be. That's why I was concerned.
That's also probably why the previous owner said he drove it all the time in RAISED mode. He said it was because he liked the ride better when raised, but I suspected that there was another reason.
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