Hi,

For all S600 owners. Do you have trouble maintaining Active Body Control suspension? Based on research I know it was a nightmare on w220 and w215. It's been revised on w221. How many times did you jave to replace burst hoses or accumulators ?
Thank you in advance.

About 2 years ago, mine had a vacuum hose replaced and a new pulsation dampener on ABC pump installed due to the ABC dampener being kinda noisy. That was with under 30k miles on the clock. But I have a feeling it had more to do with age than mileage since my car is an '07. Never any burst hoses or accumulators though....knock on wood.

I have a 2008 S65 and replaced the pulsation damper on the pump at 82K miles and the other accumulators at 122K miles. The pulsation damper made the 1500 RPM whine and I developed an intermittent whine at all RPM which was solved by replacing the front accumulator (I did the rear because I'm sure it was weak too). Sometimes you would hear the whine and sometimes not - was kind of strange that it wasn't always an issue. The accumulators and pulsation damper should be considered wear items and replaced at reasonable intervals. No other ABC issues. I change oil every 5K miles and at the same time suck the hydraulic fluid from the reservoir and replace with fresh (approx 1.25 quarts). Every now and then I replace the filter. I have been told the fluid lubricates the system and will lose some of its lubricating properties over time and also that if the fluid smells burned it should be replaced.

Randy

The second gen ABC system on the 221 is far superior to the early cars. It's very reliable, and we rarely see cars in the shop with leaks/failures, just noises and the occasional wear issues like accumulators, but in general they are more reliable than the airmatic cars once you get out of the 215/220 range.