jubie

Just want a little help on what my problem might be and how much it MAY cost.
just bought a 2000 s500 , loved the Designo interior and had to have it , after about a month I had the Airmatic , stop car is too low come up , I started to notice that the passenger side front sat very low when parked , when I started the car up it raised , when I would drive the " Airmatic stop car too low " would come on and off , there where times it would not come on at all , and times it would come on and off, but every time the car was parked it would get very low on the Passenger side front, and sometimes on the driver side, I was told that the pump was replaced last year , the other day I drove the car and the red airmatic car too low came on and DID NOT go off, the car was soo low that the tires hit the wheel well when turning , can anyone give me any ideas on what it could be and how much this may cost , I am about to take it to get fixed ,what is the best case and would would be the worst ????? and I read many different things it could be , shocks , struts , strut leaks, pump , bad valve blocks etc etc

corkshoppe

it is your airmatic shock, probably the front pass. side. arnott sells the for about 400 and if your hande you can do it yourself.

DNA47

Hi,
sorry that you're having troubles with your S500. I have the same problem on my designo. First, you should try to locate the problem. Did you try using water and soap on yours shocks? just pour some on the "head" of the shock, then hit the rise button and see if there's any bubbles forming, if so, then try to see if changing the "C-ring" fixes your problem, or if you could patch the leak with some epoxy or something (that's just a temporary fix, you'll have to change the shock at some point). Or you could change that shock for a new one (dealer quoted me 1600 CAD...) or a used one that have no leak. You could also convert the whole system for arnotts "conventional" shocks like said earlier.

If there's no bubbles, then maybe the compressor is going bad, or is leaking, or there's a leak somewhere else in the system.

You could also check the 40amp relay, but if your compressor is working (can you hear it? it's on the front passenger side behind the wheel)then i doubt it's the relay, but I've heard that a relay going bad can act up, so i could be wrong.

anyway, good luck, and there's a lot of threads on here on airmatics issues, you should take a look.

(BTW, i'm in no way a "pro" so don't take what i said for granted)

tusabes

Sound like you had a leaking shock , which over stressed the compressor to fill it all the time and now the compressor had burnt out too

You likely have multiple failure parts now by igniting the problem

mb_21

I've owned three w220s 02 S500, 03 S430, and 05 S55 amg! Both the 2002 and 2003 had this issue, luckily the 2002 s500 had warranty and was covered @ $1500 per wheel! But sadly the 2003 s430 didn't have warranty so instead of paying that much I completely changed the suspension on aftermarket ones! The ride wasn't the same but I didn't have to deal with the car looking like a low rider and my front bumper scraping any incline!

If I were you I would look into a aftermarket suspension. It will save you a ton of $$$$$!

Just my .02 good luck I hope everything works out!