I'm getting sick of the repairs on the ABC system on my S500.
Does anybody have any experience replacing their ABC with AirMatic and getting everything to work error-free?
Any links to write-ups or video's are highly appreciated also.

 

Knowing its not the same MB chassis, I would recommend checking for educational purposes the R230 forums for ABC conversions to coil overs. W221 have similar ABC design (All R230s have ABC standard) and perhaps some components as well, not sure. Forums have loads of expertise on the challenges, suppliers, successes and failues in the adventure. Note: I have ABC in my SL and Airmatic in Sclass, both have been very kind to me so far.

 

My guess is this would be next to impossible, and even if so incredibly complex. BTW, I've been studying up on part availability for ABC parts. Several things such as lines are now NLA. I've been buying up some spares on Ebay for NLA parts to have for backups. You all might want to do the same if you plan to keep the car long term like I do.

 

Totally possible, but it would be a standalone system (not a big deal, lots of '69 Impalas have them) and you'd have to code out a bunch of stuff related to the ABC system to keep the car from complaining.

 

I don't think you should swap to air tragic - it's awful - go to real springs and dampers like proper cars used to have - better handling, better ride, no reliability issues

all we get is loads of pointless features no one needed to market the idea this costly buggy and unreliable change was something you needed / wanted

 

I thought about that as well but decided against it. Rubber parts age, especially ones that are not in use. If the hoses go, I would rather have them remade by a hydraulic shop with new parts. As far as the struts and pump, there are Chinese alternatives out for 1/4 of the price of OEM parts. Reviews seem to be good so far so we may be in luck.

As far as swapping from ABC to air...would it be possible and expensive? Yes. Would it be smart and provide advantages? No. Maintain ABC or go to coilovers...or do an aftermarket air setup if you need the height options.

 

Yep, a good hydraulic shop will have more than what is needed to take care of an ABC car. I've even had a hydraulic shop make bespoke AC high side and low side lines/hoses with connections for an engine swap in my 2003 Nissan Maxima. They've got all the hoses, connections, tubing, tubing benders, welders, brazing/soldering capability, crimpers, etc.. Wouldn't be a problem at all to keep an ABC system on par without any factory parts.

 

Yup, the other thing I forgot to mention is that there are several spots that remanufacture ABC struts at roughly 600 a pop. So, if you're scared of the Chinese ABC struts you have other options.

Also, no, the ride on coilovers is not on par with ABC, not even close, no matter how many Youtube videos say otherwise. Plus driving a car with no sway bars seems really stupid. I know you can swap the front one from a W220...but is there an option for the rear?

I for one will try to keep ABC going on both my CLs until it makes me homeless so wish me luck .

 

ABC in 221 cars is hugely improved compared with 220 chassis.

What is so wrong in your car that has you pondering what will prove a fool’s errand?

 

When i got the car i had the garage replace the accumulators and the pulsation dampers + flush + filter.
Then the ABC pump seized and the belt left rubber deposits all over the pulleys and destroyed 1.
And now an ABC hose is starting to leak (and i guess the others may be bad too)

So it's a no on the AirMatic.
Not a big fan of the coilovers because of the harsh ride and the inevitable errors in the car looking for ABC sensors and such.
This sucks.

 

plenty of car ride and handle properly with steel springs and dampers - all cars had it till some halfwit invented the rubbish we suffer today

are we really saying no anti-roll bars on ABC cars ? find that quite shocking, Whats the big deal fitting them if thats the case - its not like they made the body shell differently there must be far more 221 in the scrap yard than on the road....

 

ABC pump seized? That’s one I have not seen before. So replace the pump. I would fit a used OEM pump before trying out Chinese trash.

Hose leaking? Which hose? Not common in 221s. My 221 chassis S65 went 150,000 miles without a pump or hose failure. Just got to do the pulsation dampener that threads into the ABC pump (twice) and change fluid + filter. I also got to wipe off a L/F strut every time it was in the air. It would drip at full droop on the hoist. No leak while driving or with weight on the car.

 

Airmatic cars got sway bars. ABC cars used ABC... Active Body Control.... to eliminate body roll via hydraulic fluid delivered to struts to counter act the forces that make body roll. Not having left and right sides of the car tied together with sway bars makes for much improved ride and handling. Ripping out ABC to fit coil overs and sway bars just stinks of taking on a project that won’t get finished... or if it does get finished will net an end result that is much less enjoyable to drive than with operational ABC.

 

the first two cars I test drove had ABC - at the time I had no idea it was an option or that it existed - (caveat of course a test drive with the guy from the garage beside, is not the same as living with a car for a month) - at the time they both drove like a car. Neither stood out as having anything remotely interesting, special or indeed different to an ordinary car. I did not come away thinking the suspension was anything other than it was there. Months later I can across the one I have now, with half the mileage and twice the condition of the two I'd looked at but this one had many more options I was after.

Maybe because it was months later but I didn't notice a single thing different about the way it drove in comparison to the two other ABC cars. Years in to the experience, I can tell you air tragic is an utter joke - this was the first and last car I'll own with air suspension. It is utter garbage - being both a squidgy mess and a brittle incompetent disaster all at once - which is what air suspension is.

Earlier this year I took my 18" wheel air tragic car to be tested by a local indy who's daily driver is a very similar spec immaculate 221 V12 with ABC. But he has 19" wheels - after a test thrash without me in it, he came back and said ride comfort in mine is light and day different to his - mine is MUCH softer

I have a mate with an immaculate CL500 (550 to USA guys) with std ABC and 19" wheels - all he does is have servicing done on his ABC, weeping, noisy pumps, popped hoses or struts that have failed. Or he's driving the car to wheel repair shops to have them replaced due to cracking or trying to make uncracked ones look round again

for 50 years all cars I worked on, or drove had steel springs and dampers - many of these were the best cars for either ride or handling available at the time - yes, you don't tend to have both (unless it says Jaguar on the boot - and then they have other issues where they forgot to try and use quality components - in many ways just ahead of where Merc have taken their brand !) - but a crooked back, cracked wheels and paying for 11" wide tyres isn't my idea of a sophisticated compromise either

There is new tech coming out on car suspension but its not air tragic or ABC... like triple stage adaptive dampers with NO electronics are becoming normal - and 25 years late independent rear wheel steering
(by the way the company they try to mention is ZED F (Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen a German technology manufacturing company))
I have no idea how successful or reliable active anti-roll bars are - but been out around 8 years or more - where they decouple the mess when there are no corners - ought to be brilliant

 

I went to three different hydraulic shops where I live. All advertised they would do any and all makes and all types of hydraulic work. All said no thank you to working on my car. I don't know why--it seems like a hydraulic hose would be pretty doable for a shop. Maybe if I lived in a larger metro I would have more options. This was when I started sourcing some spares.

I have investigated going to springs, but decided to try to keep my ABC system alive. I've looked at the Chinese parts which seem to have pretty good reviews at 1/4 the price as someone else said. If anyone has gone with this option, please let us know how it went.

BTW, I'm finding some really cheap prices on spares. Some sellers are charging like 3/4 of list price for the lines, but others are charging junk yard like prices. I got a bunch of lines out of a 52,000 mile car for a fraction of their original cost. So look around if you are shopping.

 

I went with China front shocks on my s55 220. They were better than the rebuild experience I had, and seemed the exact same as stock. Brand new arnott were leaking new out of the box (old stock sitting in a basement) and arnott was NO help. The warranty and the price are not what they used to be. Arnott is a case of bigger is not always better for the customer.

For the poster that said the hydraulic shop would not work on their car, did you just take them a line and they refused? That’s awfully lazy of them. I do understand if they did not want to removed or replace anything from the catr.

 

Present the hydraulic shop with a line well away from the car and it is just a hose. Mention MB and they may get squeamish.... but at the end of the day it is a hydraulic hose. They fix them for all manner of equipment all day every day.

Botus..... ABC in an AMG S-65 is very different from ABC in an S600. S-600 is all about being quiet, smooth serene. The AMG car is for savages like me. I want to hear the engine and expect firmer more responsive handling that it delivers in spades.... while not beating me to death. The sport setting in the AMG car with ABC tightens up suspension a lot.

 

Sway bars make a huge difference on cars in turns and for overall stability. I've yet to see any tests of how these ABC platforms handle without sway bars and on coilovers. I bet it's outright dangerous in certain situations, like emergency obstacle avoidance.

Seeing how you couldn't tell the difference between cars with ABC and cars without, this is my experience:

ABC: car stays planted in turns, car feels much smaller and nimbler than it really is, comfort setting absorbs potholes and road imperfections, ability to raise and lower the car to promote handling/stabilitiy or comfort.

Coilovers: car feels like a heavy brick riding on stiff suspension, adaptive dampening is gone - you feel all road imperfections, unknown handling in performance/emergency situations. Yes, you can get out/remove interior panels and adjust your coilovers for stiffness but the range is usually minimal, compared to ABC. It's usually between mega - hard and somewhat mega - hard . ABC goes between mega - hard and 60's Cadillac boat status.

Keeping ABC working is not rocket science if you address issues as they come up. If one of your hydraulic hoses has been wet for months and you run it another 10k miles, yes, you're going to get stranded. Same goes for the shocks - if they're leaking get them rebuilt. Not that hard to swap some seals.

As far as cracking wheels - that's unrelated to suspension. Get better wheels, on learn how to avoid the potholes.

To each their own, but people shouldn't act like removing a very sophisticated suspension system and replacing some of the components with inferior ones, while totally forgetting to add missing components will make their car handle the same or better. It won't.

 

We I think that needs a response

How they cope without Anti-roll bars is an interesting point, fully agree they are on a normal car an important integral part of making it safe and to behave correctly
Do I think ABC is very sophisticated - nope not even slightly - just a bunch of high pressure lines and a few spheres of nothingness
Cracking wheels is entirely a result of car's suspension inability to cope with the roads... USA have had class action law suits against both BMW and Mercedes - somehow the latter slipped off the hook
Of course a cheap mismatched bunch of rubbish set up by a halfwit - won't compete with a decent suspension set up - that applies regardless of which components are chosen

 

happy to hear from those that have pulled it apart - from the limited bits I have uncovered seems most of the over-complication of ABC was really just a hydraulic mess up trying to catch up with a steel anti-roll bar

first came out in 1991 and evolved with a 2006 step change and it lasted till 2013 when they tried to do something remotely interesting on the V8 222s using a stereo camera looking at the bumps and even that was overhauled in 2014
whilst I'm sure ABC provided a small benefit in certain areas - if it really were any good we'd now see it in many other iterations across multiple brands - we don't - it was just a costly unreliable attempt to resolve an issue much of the world wasn't having

 

Well I guess if ABC is not sophisticated then regular suspension tech, invented in the 40’s is what…Stone Age tech? It’s also strange that hydropneumatic suspension was literally invented to handle rough terrain and is used in military vehicles that must handle rough terrain. I guess it doesn’t work though?

No the suspension has nothing to do with somebody hitting a crater at 50mph and expecting nothing to happen, especially with low profile tires. No surprise nothing came of it.

Yes, I’m aware of a slew of YouTubers claiming removing suspension components makes cars handle better. Let’s see some cones and obstacle avoidance at 50mph. Bet those coil overs and no sway bars will get you spun around in no time.

Like I said, customize all you want but let’s not pretend Mercedes are idiots and a guy in Kansas removed half the suspension components and made the cars better. That’s infantile.

The camera ABC combo was a great idea. Shame Mercedes gives up on tech quite easily, especially when it’s so complex and not easy to develop. I guess they need the next cool thing to make you buy a new car.

 

Rocket science its not - 25 year old bosch servo motor - no pathetic fluid leaks and 60 year old Jag style real wishbones all with very low unsprung weight

 

All I have to say is yikes! Good luck with that...... it would be easier to sell the car you have and get one with "Air Tragic" (As BOTUS likes to call it).

If you've got the extra time and money to dump into it for fun or an expensive & frustrating learning experience then more power to you!

Good luck!