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Hit rock and now car drifts, airmatic warning light goes on episodically
I just had my annual service a month ago and got new tires with alignment at the same time. The car drove smoother and straighter than it ever did. Then about 11 days ago I ran over a rock or object with my left tire on the road at night while going 55 mph. Did not see it until it was too late. My car immediately started to drift to the right and later the yellow Airmatic malfunction light went on. I was not happy about this. I called my Mercedes dealer who said the earliest they could fit me in was in 19 days (almost 3 weeks) which I took. The service advisor said that it would be safe to drive. I asked about the cost and was told it would be likely be about $150 to run diagnostics and then a few thousand to fix. It is still pulling to the right, sometimes more than usual, and I am concerned this may affect my new and expensive tires or something else. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I be driving the car and any suggestions?
I just had my annual service a month ago and got new tires with alignment at the same time. The car drove smoother and straighter than it ever did. Then about 11 days ago I ran over a rock or object with my left tire on the road at night while going 55 mph. Did not see it until it was too late. My car immediately started to drift to the right and later the yellow Airmatic malfunction light went on. I was not happy about this. I called my Mercedes dealer who said the earliest they could fit me in was in 19 days (almost 3 weeks) which I took. The service advisor said that it would be safe to drive. I asked about the cost and was told it would be likely be about $150 to run diagnostics and then a few thousand to fix. It is still pulling to the right, sometimes more than usual, and I am concerned this may affect my new and expensive tires or something else. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I be driving the car and any suggestions?
Take it to any shop and have them see what the issue is. If the car is pulling to any side then yes, your tires will definitely be affected. I would stop driving it till damage is assessed.
Of course the dealer thinks it’s safe to drive because they’ll get to fix any additional damage you do by driving it.
I just had my annual service a month ago and got new tires with alignment at the same time. The car drove smoother and straighter than it ever did. Then about 11 days ago I ran over a rock or object with my left tire on the road at night while going 55 mph. Did not see it until it was too late. My car immediately started to drift to the right and later the yellow Airmatic malfunction light went on. I was not happy about this. I called my Mercedes dealer who said the earliest they could fit me in was in 19 days (almost 3 weeks) which I took. The service advisor said that it would be safe to drive. I asked about the cost and was told it would be likely be about $150 to run diagnostics and then a few thousand to fix. It is still pulling to the right, sometimes more than usual, and I am concerned this may affect my new and expensive tires or something else. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I be driving the car and any suggestions?
I have the same year S550 as yours and a strange thing happened to me. I had all the driving aids to malfunction and the CEL came on. I scanned the car modules with the iCarsoft MB II scanner and all modules including the engine control module had an error for left front wheel speed sensor. Together with all these malfunctions also the steering felt harder than normal.
As all indicated problem with the speed sensor I replaced it, cleared all error codes and the car has been fine since.
If I was you I would get a scanner for that $150 and scan the errors myself. As the CEL is on you can go to ECM and see what causes the light to be on. If it is the wheel speed sensor (that could have been damaged during the hit) you can change it yourself. Very easy job.
Then reset the error codes and see how it drives.
Im posting this as I noticed the errors somehow messed with the electronic power steering so this could be the reason your car doesn’t track straight. The power steering could be pulling it to right and you need to “fight” it back.
If this speed sensor is not the culprit a scanner is not wasted money. You need it for the car you have anyway and the iCarsoft MB II is not the best scanner to have. There are others way better but they normally cost more too.
Anyway, this scanner will tell you what causes the CEL to be on.
serviced - yes but are all three airmatic level sensor link rods seized - I expect so, no one looks,
they have enough flex in the set up that "normal" suspension movement just flexes the link and its brackets a bit, but anything more exciting can cause the thing to work too hard and pop a fuse and or make it sit odd till they snap - then you know about it
I have the same year S550 as yours and a strange thing happened to me. I had all the driving aids to malfunction and the CEL came on. I scanned the car modules with the iCarsoft MB II scanner and all modules including the engine control module had an error for left front wheel speed sensor. Together with all these malfunctions also the steering felt harder than normal.
As all indicated problem with the speed sensor I replaced it, cleared all error codes and the car has been fine since.
If I was you I would get a scanner for that $150 and scan the errors myself. As the CEL is on you can go to ECM and see what causes the light to be on. If it is the wheel speed sensor (that could have been damaged during the hit) you can change it yourself. Very easy job.
Then reset the error codes and see how it drives.
Im posting this as I noticed the errors somehow messed with the electronic power steering so this could be the reason your car doesn’t track straight. The power steering could be pulling it to right and you need to “fight” it back.
If this speed sensor is not the culprit a scanner is not wasted money. You need it for the car you have anyway and the iCarsoft MB II is not the best scanner to have. There are others way better but they normally cost more too.
Anyway, this scanner will tell you what causes the CEL to be on.
..
After reading BOTUS's post I realize I understood the OP had the CEL on when he says it is the yellow AirMatic warning. I have not seen anything else yellow as a warning light in my car that the CEL so I thought that was it. For AirMatic I get get text warnings, not yellow light.
make sure you do the updates on the gadget, often not much happens till you get later iterations
might be a big ask to get high level comms on all modules - and they don't fix stuff they give a clue if you know what you are looking at - that said for an S class any help you can get is worth while....
a $3000 snap on one with current updates doesn't do any telematics stuff - seems if it drives they support it otherwise got to hell
rather a poor show as my autel cheapy at $800 will talk and clear on any of the 50 modules on mine, rather than only 43 snap on support (even with a 1k a year update subscription !!!!)
got the device tonight. In meantime local mechanic was contacted who felt that I did not have a sensor issue. He felt that I likely bent something on steering suspension and needs to on a rack and have alignment checked. said damaged wheel sensor would not pull like that. He felt maybe bent tie rod , knocked camber out, lower control arm bent, toe issue.... He recommended not driving it and having it towed to dealer. Car is leaning to one side when parked - see attached picture. When discussed more with service advisor he said I could drive it in if I wanted but no longer wanted to send someone out to pick up for me. I ran some diagnostics before updated device and got following codes : 5285: Recovery time during filling of air suspension too long, C146 No CAN data was received from control module CGW. It is rather late and will need to update diagnostic
tool later.... Deciding if I should keep Diagnostic tool or return it.
if u run Mercs keep the tool and take with you on every single drive - you'll need it most trips
if you hit anything big enough to bend an arm, I would expect you to have a damaged wheel and tyre too
and you won't normally get a warning light come on....
sitting a bit odd is common and can be lots of stuff - often goes with a seized sensor but usually an unrecognised element of the fun
it has 3 on airmatic. The single rear is very hard to get at and check.
At 50 k miles on mine the one rear totally seized, no movement at all, two fronts partially seized - they are cheap (and the front easy to do) but the breakdown when you don't a right nightmare. It could easily cost your life if going quick and 3k if try and drive it to a garage
the steering rack arm is pathetic for the size of car so it could bend...
oh had a thought..... the air pump can pop its fuse (a 40amp orange one in the box under the bonnet) - but if ambient temps, ambient pressure and car use quite normal - you might never know for 6 months as it stays level and so doesn't need to do anything (especially if the sensors are part seized sending little or slow info about how to react). Then when something dramatic happens, the sensor info can be big enough to register and the systems dumps air and or wants to level up a side and when it can't, then it starts to realise the pump isn't responding.
mine did exactly this - the raise button or sport had made NO change for months - but I had no lights and no codes and it drove the same so forgot about it..... then 6 months on I put 300kg in the back of the car and it went all odd, drove home took the weight out and it levelled up. Went out and it seemed OK, but the next day I guess it now wanted to get the right ride height but couldn't and threw the light.... it was the fuse - diagnostics said locked out due to error (what it meant was can't read the module the fuse has blown) we put a pump on it - but knowing what I know now, jut fit a fuse and don't stress - so the pump was a bit lazy and didn't reach merc pressure threshold in 30 second but it did in 2 mins . The whole set up is so average - its just $600 u can waste if you like that sort of thing
When you start the car do you hear the airmatic pump running?
Does the car level out?
Do you hear air leaking?
You very well can have bent suspension components.
If this air shock doesn't level out it can also cause the pulling to one side.
In addition to any hard parts being damaged, I suspect something in your air suspension was damaged and is leaking.
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