grantwoodtx

My E55 has 64000 miles on it with no airmatic issues yet.. My wife's E500 had the front left go out. I ordered a remanufactured strut from a comapny in Florida. http://www.arnottindustries.com/ it was $399 plus shipping. An has a better than new warranty. Also reading the previous threads on Parts.com I guess they've cleaned their act up as I've had nothing but GREAT service from them.

emoving

Nice find! Man these cars are getting a little more affordable by the minute!

ryan0

yeah... happened to me 2 months after getting a CPO car.. dealer said 'mechanical failure'.. replaced under warranty.

took a week to get em from germany.

citylightva

Damn a week..?? I'm taking mine in Monday for my driver rear. It reflates every time I start it, but it is also the only corner going low, which means my car isn't levelling...

vettdvr

My guess driver rear is the airspring. Think $$$$

To do the job correctly the differential/rear suspension is pulled from the car for the replacement. I checked when they were doing mine and "we pulled everything from behind the transmission to do yours".

citylightva

Warranty

930chas

Just came out of work, drove about 5 minutes to a store, came out and the rear of the car was dumped. Set it to comfort mode and the rear went back to my normal ride height. Will it still adjust like that if there is a failure? Normally I ride with Renntech LM set to 6 in the rear and my ride set to sport, so the car is pretty low.

vettdvr

It will continue to adjust but exceed the duty cycle on the compressor and burn out the compressor. Then you will have double failure. Remember it will leak all the time until leak repaired. The only way it can reach "normal" height if to replace the air leaking out. This is what makes the compressor run longer.

930chas

Thank you for the prompt answer...of course it is not the answer I wanted. lol. I do have a Chrysler warranty, but absolutely hate taking my car to the dealer. I guess I better schedule an appointment, though. Thanks again.

citylightva

Took mine in this morning, and my right rear shock was leaking. Replaced under warranty. The part should be here and installed tomorrow sometime.!!

vettdvr

How did they know it was leaking. I assume this is not really the air spring but the shock.

citylightva

The shock...I'm assuming they run a pressure test..?? I told them my driver rear was deflating overnight, so my SA called me back and said it was leaking and they ordered a new one to go one.

pimpjuice

How do I check this? I have some creakin in the front end when backing out the garage and every now and then I here the compressor coming on when the car is running. Is this normal or do I need to start looking for a leaking shock? How do i check them? The car seems pretty level all the time.

vettdvr

A leaking shock should not creak. However if you are hearing this noise on the front end I would look really close at the ball joints.

dpavid

Careful, I broke mines too. The plastic was brittle.

dpavid

This part was a *****! Took me about 30 minutes to figure it out. Let me try to explain it in more detail.

I installed the strut to the top and bolted in 2 of the 3 nuts at the top loosely. The strut will be pressurized like yachtmaster said so there's no way its going over the lower arm extended. Connect the top electrical harness to the strut, not the air line. Connect the battery, start the car and set the ride height to the lowest setting, sport 2. You'll start the hear the air dumping out of the strut. Leave the car jacked up so the sensors think the ride height is too high. This will try to dump air from the strut to lower the vehicle.

I then took a 2X4 block, wedged it under the bottom of the strut, took another car jack under the 2X4, and started jacking up the strut to compress the air out until there was enough clearance to get the bottom over the lower arm. Slowly start to relaese the height from th jack as you push and wiggle it over the lower arm. Eventually, the 2X4 block will fall out and the strut will straddle the lower arm to put the bolt back in.

Continue with Yachmasters DIY...

If there was an easier way to compress the strut, please share it here.

Todds911

Thanks for the DIY instructions! My front struts should arrive this Friday, and I hope to get both on this weekend. Dealer wanted $3300 to do both front struts.

Regards,
Todd

Todds911

Right now I am stuck.

Can anyone tell me how to get my old strut over the axle for removal? All bolts etc have been removed, it's just getting the old strut out of there now. I've tried everything, including jacking the strut up, but the strut seems to bottom out, leaving me an inch short to get the strut over the axle. Any suggestions? I even tried to hook the electric system back up to see of the computer would retract the strut, but no luck.

Everything is unhooked and unbolted, just need to retract the strut enough to get it over the axle and out.

Help!

Thanks,
Todd

dpavid

I used 2 jacks. One to hold the car up and the other to jack the arm up compressing the air out of the strut. When I relased the jack, the strut remained compressed and I could take it off.

NorseWagon

My ride is @ the dealer for dual front strut replacement as we speak.
Waiting for parts from Germany.
I thought the S.A. said $3.3K each, but he must have meant total...
Aftermarket warranty is picking up the tab...Money well invested last year.

Todds911

Update: I took the car to the local yocal shop. They told me I had the wrong struts, as they were 6"'s too long. I told them they come fully compressed and you have to use the car computer to trick them into retracting. Then I realized I probably knew more than they did, and then I called myself stupid for taking it there in the first place, then went and picked the car up and drove it to the dealership. Now I have a loaner, and asked the dealer to install the remanufactured struts that I purchased. So stay tuned.

The company I bought the shocks from told me that I needed to remove three bolts which connect ball joints to control arm, in order to pull the control arm down enough to remove the strut. I started to do this, but then said to myself "how the heck am I going to get this all back together??" So, unlike me, I called enough enough, and now car is at the dealership. The mechanic at the dealer told me that it is a tough job to do at home - without the Mercedes Master Computer, which they use to compress the shock automatically. He chuckled when I told him I was trying to do this myself at home.

I would have done this easily, as I had it all apart, etc, if I just could have gotten the strut over the control arm and out. I hope at the end of this that I can at least say I saved considerably on the struts.

Todd
2004 E500 2wd airmatic

NorseWagon

No warranty Todd...?

If you are going to keep the car, spring for warranty.
3/36 cost me $3K last year...Piece of mind plus you get a well maintained car for it.

Todds911

No warranty - expired. I bought the car CPO three years ago.

I assume you are talking about an Aftermarket Warranty? I will inquire at the dealership though, since the struts alone are over $3k.

Thanks

mekantor

Front-right failed for me on Saturday, I'm about to order the Arnott strut and will do the replacement this week.

In the MB strut-replacement instructions they say to disconnect the top ball joint during the replacement. That might help when installing a fully extended strut, although I wonder if you could put the ball joint back on without compressing it a bit.

Todds911

Well, my ordeal is over. I ordered the Arnott struts, and had Mercedes install them. Arnott told me also that I had to remove the bolts that connect ball joint to control arm. I started to do this, but then in the process called enough enough. In fact, Mercedes broke both ball joints when installing the struts, so who knows where I would have gotten with it (maybe an extra tow bill??).

Just picked up the car and the struts seem fine. So I paid $400 for each strut with a lifetime warranty, and $450 for the labor (plus $93 x 2 for the ball joints). Dealer original quote was $3300 for the two struts and labor, so I am happy that I saved over a grand.

Based on one day of use so far with the new struts, and their customer service, I would recommend Arnott.

Todd
04 E500 2wd Airmatic