Just bought an S55 with 178k miles..... I don't know if that was a mistake but I think I'll find out in the coming (enter any period of time)..BUT it has a Designo Mocha interior. I had to have it. I used to have a C32 and a Designo ML55 that I dearly miss. Not trouble-free but not unreliable. The important things (drivetrain, AC, windows, doors/locks,radio) worked. Everything else I could tolerate living without. But then again S55 is a whole different beast. I scanned it during the inspection prior to purchasing and so many codes for so many little things but nothing for the most important stuff.

Anyway...

It still has ABC. One friend says "SWAP IT ASAP AND SELL THE WORKING SYSTEM"; my other friend says "RIDE THAT **** OUT". I'm going with the latter.

I plan on doing a conversion to coilovers when it craps out BUT, I'm confused about which kit is best. I have read that strutmasters is the go to BUT I've also read that its not that great. I haven't seen much about ceika and yellowspeed is seems to be the most common but also people have mentioned it not lasting or being that great. Anyone here still rocking any of these setups for an extended period of time (2 years+)? Can you share some insight in late July of 2024 what you would have gone with? Maybe you're really happy with one of the brands or maybe you've tried them all and can shed some insight on what is actually the best option.

Maybe you still have ABC and you found a way to keep it going aside from fluid and filter changes?

Are you DIY? tips?

Also, is it possible to install coilover setups from non ABC airmatic as long as you swap the control arms or what needs else needs to be swapped? I've been scouring the forum posts but they always seem to stop when it gets good or leave out minor things. I want to be able to make a solid post where I can try to explain most of what it takes to do a proper swap (DIY) with few corners cut and if possible on a budget.


Lastly, I was reading about how running the stock powersteering pump with dry lines that power the hydraulic system will basically wear out your pump, does having the line plugs counter this or does swapping to an S500 power steering setup solve this?

I plan on doing very minor healthy mods to this car to keep it going for a while like split cooling (an unfortunate issue that plagued my C32 and SLK32) and ..really thats it maybe some cooling mods. '

Anyway, I hope I can get some love from you guys even though most of this has already been covered. I hope you guys can drop some links and really give me some details so that in the future I can write a post that will help others get it done like I did in the C32/C55 community.

Anyway, heres my new ..car? whip? baby? Benz.

(Put my old custom plates from my C32 onto it for now)

 

Cooling - Replace OEM Inter-cooler pump with upgraded Bosch 010 pump. That's it. S55's don't seem to suffer the overheating issue.
Coil Overs - Don't know much about them but it's said you'll need sway bars to combat body roll.

 

Read PhillyJoe's Build Thread here -- https://mbworld.org/forums/s55-amg-s...ld-thread.html

Most of what you need to know is there and it's pretty new, I think less than a year old.

GL and Enjoy!

Cheers,

maw

 

here is my opinion based on my experience with s55 with ABC VS coilovers
i own S55 2004 with ABC, my car has 252,000KM
i drive mine daily to work and back about 55km per day)
i have a friend with S55 who bought his car with coil overs ( was swapped prior to him buying it )

i drove both and from a driving experience , i will take the ABC all year long....

now lets talk issues and maintenance:
- mine needed 2 accumulators ( the front and the back one ) cost for both 250$ ( the reason for changing them is ABC red warning shows for a fraction of a second when i drive above 100km/h over an air pocket on the road) that is it..
- 2 hydraulic pipes between the front and back valve body exploded and had to be compressed with new special pipes and connection to handle up to 300 bar of pressure
never had any other issue with the car
- i change my ABC oil + filter every 30,000KM with 9L of oil every time ( the full system takes 11L of oil ) ( cost is 100$) and 30 minutes of my time.

my advice is drive this system and enjoy it while you can... it is in my opinion, the best compromise between comfort and sporty.

 

^^^THIS!!!

It's literally not a real question IMO.

maw

 

That will be my first step outside of ABC maintenance. Thanks for the advice. I think I will be sticking with ABC for now

 

Thank you my friend. Will just be sticking with the ABC setup and pay for parts when necessary since I am mechanically inclined enough. I appreciate the link. So cool how much owners delve into issues. I hope I can do the same when necessary.

 

Yeah I posted on a FB group and the common replies were to stick with it. I looked into it more and honestly the system is pretty straight forward. I will keep the coilovers in the back of my mind but as long its budgetable, I will be maintaining the ABC. I appreciate the insight. I'd like to drive one with coilovers to compare. I can't imagine it'll be even close to factory.

 

You will need to do the ABC fluid, filters and accumulators if you can't see they've already been done. Fluid and filters every 30k thereafter, accumulators every 10y/100k miles thereafter.

The reason the Sonderklasse don't have the cooling issues that the E class have is because the S, CL and SL all have a second heat exchanger. That got nixed in the smaller engine bay of the E.

GL and enjoy!

maw

 

I think most will agree that's the way to go. If it's operable now, you should strongly consider doing a flush and installing a new filter straight away. Don't forget the power steering reservoir and its filter too. They're separate systems run by the same pump. Read somewhere it was developed in Formula 1. No harm in doing it second time after a couple thousand miles either. (The cleaner the fluid is kept the better). After that monitor the fluid levels and appearance and refresh the fluid and filters every 20k miles. It's well worth the trouble. In fact, I install new filters every 5k miles. (Of course, I'm **** and give my S55 more attention than I give my wife)
Good luck

 

Hey Josh, Welcome Aboard!

Beautiful car and color combo, i'm jealous of that interior. You'll remember i was the "Joe" who responded to your Facebook post with the Accumulator video, however I'm glad you found your way over to the forums. Theres a ton of guys in here with a wealth of helpful information, and they don't get too bothered about topics being brought up more then once (Which is nice).

Take a deep dive through the system and get a good understanding for it. Once you familiarize yourself you'll understand why the old timers and myself included are so hell bent on ABC. It's a great system and far superior then coilovers.

Good luck and post back some progress. It's always enjoyable having a fresh take in the W220 community.

- Joe

 

Thanks man. So far its been solid. Just waiting on the first fix lol I want to make it sound good cause its real quiet right now. Any suggestions?

 

It all depends on how loud you want to go and how much you want to cut up. The older I get the more quiet i like it.

Hop on eBay and type in "W220 fox exhaust". German company who sells a bolt on kit and they sell both the mufflers as well as the mid section. It's a little pricey but i rather pay the extra dime to know i can bolt back up the stock exhaust at anytime.

Theres a few different options to gradually increase the growl, however i'll be honest i haven't gone down that rabbit hole just yet. I was looking at the fox kit as a solid option.

- Joe

 

Turn on ABC Sport, turn off traction control, hold the wheel with both hands and put your foot into her ... she'll bark at you alright.

But no, these cars aren't to make noise around town doing stoplight derbys.

Keep in mind a pulley and tune will give you more boost and therefore more bark.

But Dodge Chargers, BMW M and Corvettes these are not. They announce their presence with silence.

maw

 

I'll have owned mine two years come October 6th. and haven't hit the kickdown switch in 18 months. No need. I know what it can do and the only car that's ever "challenged" me was an Ohio State Hi-Way Patrolman having a little fun. Pulled alongside me @ 80 in a 70 zone, gave me a thumbs up and a grin, then punched his Charger so I could hear it roaring off into the distance, lights a blinkin'. What was I gonna' do, chase him down? Hell no. I got the message. Fact is I've had one speeding ticket my entire life. Happened about two weeks into owning the car and I got tagged by one of those freakin' cameras. Going 36 in a 25 zone. Gotta tell ya', that really PISSED ME OFF! First real high-performance car I've ever owned, and I'm stuck paying a $145.00 speeding ticket for going 36 MPH. AARRGH!

 

I remember playing around with a W221 S63 on I-75S on my way to FL... kids were in the back asleep except my son (always awake back then) who spotted out his rear passenger window, "AMG!"

Two families having fun in the family limos on the way to Christmas vacation.

These things are fast and nimble at any speed.

maw

 

The only silver lining to my most recent ABC leak is that it was just an o-ring. The 3 breakdowns that I've had in the past 2 years and only 6k miles of ownership have all been ABC related. These were all after performing the typical preventative maintenance.

The first was a cracked pulsation damper (PO induced).

The second was the tandem pump on its way out.

Most recent was an o-ring failure.

I haven’t had a hose or strut failure yet and I’m growing tired of working on it, so I can sympathize why people go for the conversion. My car is not pristine, nor a complete turd so I’ve contemplated it myself.

 

We need someone to make a decent set of coilovers for this car.

 

No we just need people to belly up to the system maintenance or not buy the car.

maw

 

I would have very much liked a higher end set from someone like KW as opposed to an off the wall Taiwanese company.

 

Make sure you clean off all connecting points before working on anything to do with the ABC system. Particles that get into the system can cause failures down the road. It is very sensitive to this from what I've heard. Even when flushing the system, clean the port very well before draining and refilling. ABC ride is definitely worth the headache though. The ride is very, very nice even by modern standards. As far as reliability, it also just depends on the car. Some cars are total nightmares when it comes to their ABC system, other cars are pretty trouble-free.

Gorgeous car btw that interior is stunning!

 

^^^^^ 1,000,000x This!!! People pay Civic money for an S-Class and then cry when they have an S-Class service bill. I'll never understand...

 

I understand your frustration at times, but there are plenty of companies that make coilovers for our cars. However thats not the issue, its the ride quality, no sway bars, not designed originally for a system like that.

The ABC system i agree can be cumbersome to work on, however once its properly sorted you shouldn't have a single issue with it for 100K miles. Simple flushes and accumulator replacements at intervals should keep the system working flawlessly.

- Joe

 

I use sway bars with coilovers.

The previous owners had the car(s) and neglected the system hence all the threads in here all the time with the same questions.

I've worked on cars for over two decades and have owned other Mercedes but I was unaware of how this system worked. So yeah, jokes on me because I didn't know everything about the car I was purchasing to make sure I could have the spare finances, time, etc. to repair something somebody else decided to throw in the towel on.

 

Far too few of these produced for people to be futzing around on the aftermarket. Be glad you have pulleys and tunes that actually work. Nothing else really needs changing anyway. AMG did their work here. These are not BMW M3 where they made tens of thousands of them. Notice there aren't tons of cheap chinesium downpipes, fartcan mufflers and other cheap trinkets and trash for these cars.

They are Sonderklasse for a reason.

maw