CLKCLK

Replaced my front driver side tonight. It took me 2hr and a half. I was spending the most time on trying to put the Arnott back in. I finally managed to put it back in. Thanks a lot for the detail instructions :

numismatic

Glad to hear everything worked out for you.
How long did it take you to do the swap? My right front just failed on Friday and Arnott delivered the part today. I plan on doing the replacement myself tonight. Also, did Arnott ship the strut compressed or expanded? If expanded, did you use the battery hookup trick to compress it?

PewterGreyBenz

Forget about the battery trick, I did mine 4 months back, and it took me a total of 2hr total. Just get your front end up on jack stands, take off wheels, and do one side at time. what made it easy to get the part back in was to loosen the a arm and the shock goes back in smoothly.

numismatic

Gotcha. Thanks for the tip, PewterGreyBenz. I'll let y'all know how it went tomorrow.

Tremek

Doing my right front today - on the 21mm lower bolt/nut, what torque spec should those be tightened to w/ a torque wrench? "Tight" doesn't feel like a good idea to do on suspension bits.

PewterGreyBenz

I did not use torque specs, i just tightened it really good, when i took it to my local indy to double check, he said Dam! you sure torque that thing good

BenzKiddAMG

So all I do is jack it up normal enough to get both tires off the ground and just start removing the bolts?

gaspam

i did this 2 days ago and was pretty easy except for getting the orginal strut out... unless you have a helper that can push down really hard with prybar on lower control arm while you shimmy the strut out, it seems next to impossible to get the strut out an in on your own without separating the upper control arm from the steering knuckle..

once i separated the upper control arm ball joint from knuckle it was much easier to get the old strut out and new one in, though still tight squeeze for doing it without helper since you got to hold the heavy azz strut in with on hand and push down on the lower control arm with other hand to get the strut over the lower control arm



i also installed new upper control arm bushing while i was in there since mine was a little worn and its only a $50 part

still totally worth it as i got the front arnott for $396 after core refund from advanced auto

guapa2012

im having that same issue front left shock on a cls 55 amg i was going to replace both but dayummmmmm i spoke to a mechanic that told me most people aim to replace both but sometimes u can fix the leaking one yes fix it and its good to go he sounded veryknowledgeable about the ways to beat the expense of new ones am in downey ca if anyone ever needs his number i have a mechanic that does side workf for mercedes and a mechanic that works our of his house good mechanics

vettdvr

Don't attempt to repair a blown/leaking air bag. The rubber has aged/cracked. It will fail again and leave you stranded. Use the arnott

AgSilver

Don't do that!

5spd97

I ran off of a low curb last Sunday night with my right front tire. Didn't seem like much of anything at the time but the next morning I had the red "car too low" message. I was pretty bummed out until my search landed on this thread. I ended up ordering a new strut from Advance which was something like $410 before using a $50 coupon code that included free shipping. I decided to expedite which added $42, so the final delivered cost was about $400.

I wasn't tracking the shipment but decided to go ahead and take the old strut off anyway since it was a nice day. Just as I pulled the old strut free I heard a voice say "excuse me". It was the UPS delivery driver with my new strut. Lol,what timing!

Anyway, the whole job took about 5 hrs start to finish, which wasn't too bad considering I was fighting my ADD. Probably an hour of that was spent getting the car properly in the air and getting the wheel off. I ended up taking the 3 bolts out of the upper ball joint bracket in order to get the new strut in place on the lower mount, but overall the whole thing went pretty smoothly and now I'm back in business. I want to thank Yacht Master for his great step by step and everyone else who contributed to this thread. Saved me a boatload of money.

AAlfarah

Hi, I had the front right strut replaced to an arnott (airmatic suspension), after the replacement, we waited a couple of minutes so the pump fills the new strut with air and lowered it, the car looked fine, but as soon as I left the shop, I had the red stop car on dash and both right and left wheels touching the fenders. Please help!!!!

Pharoe33

Hello everyone, I've read a lot of post regarding airmatic malfunctionand have a lot of knowledge. I’m really needing advice or possible experienceas I’m currently having airmatic problems with my car.

Here are the currents of events:

4/28/14 - I noticed my car making vibration noises from the drivers side fender. I looked through the screen of my grille the airmatic pump moving and going crazy. I unplugged then replugged the battery and it stopped. Once I drove the car again, stopped and turn the car off the problem repeats.

4/30/14 – I took the car to the dearlership and was told the airmatic compressor was blown so I had it and the relay replaced.

5/2/14 – No issues but got a check engine light and a airmatic malfuntion warning.

5/3/14 – Airmatic compressor repeats the initial issue by not turning off once the car is off. I had to pull the battery again to get it to stop. Usually 10 minutes of no battery juice gets it to stop but the moment I drive and park the turn off the engine the compressor continues to run.

5/5/14 – T take the car back to the dealership, I get a call later that day and told the new pump that was put on had blown also. The dealership kept the car overnight, took out my Carlsson Lowering Module and replaced the airmatic compressor and relay again.

5/6/14 – I pick the car up drive home, shut the engine off and guess what; the airmatic compressor is still running.

I ended up taking the car right back to the dealership. I’m clueless as to what’s going on with my car, when the dealership runs the diagnostic everything checks out fine. They even removed my lowering module because they thought it may have been an issue. I have no leaks in my system according to the dealership and the airmatic system checks out as running to MB standards. Anyone have a clue as to what could be the problem?? I'm stressed beyond measure and the cost are starting to stack up.


5/7/14 - Service manager calls and says he thinks it's the relay, he claimed he had replaced the relay along with the pump three times and the relays had initially been fine. Now feeling the relay is the problem he replaced it and told me to come get the car because it was good to go. I picked the car up and drove home, so far no issues but Im nervous as hell.

efiftyfizzle

Just did this last night with a whole lot of help from Ahmad... mostly followed the instructions that come with the Arnott shock. Here are a few tips:

1) Go to Advance Auto and rent their front-end suspension toolkit. It costs about $110 and you get your full money back upon return. Remove the upper control arm ball joint like it says in the instructions with the tools you rent. This makes everything a whole lot easier and you do not have to deflate the strut.

2) Disconnecting the ADS plug is a pain and you will most likely have to break that clip. I tried prying it out with a screwdriver, but it's fragile and stubborn so it breaks. No big deal, no major harm done.

3) An extra set of hands definitely helps. Maneuvering the strut in and out of the wheel well is easier when you have someone else adjusting the wheel hub and then tightening the nuts up top in the engine bay to have it sit there.

bzliteyear

hi all,

i recently had "visit workshop" on my 2006 R500, and after replacing it w/ rebuilt strut and it working for 2 months, the error message is occasionally there. Further, when i shut off the engine, i heard leaking sound from the front right wheel well. However, whatever is causing it obviously stops at some point as there's no sag at all.

Yesterday I thought it was leaky strut(despite no sag) and replaced the strut w/ another airmatic strut. Unfortunately the same thing occurs. Further, now there's the "visit workshop" message is on continuously AND the comfort/sport and raise/lower buttons no longer work.
Any help would be appreciated.
PL

SoftwareHollis

I just wanted to express my sincere and deep appreciation to so many members of this forum - who have collectively saved me thousands of dollars. More importantly, I've managed to avoid the mental anguish of having been screwed (as I haven't had to take any of my cars into the dealership for at least 5 years).

In this particular instance, Yacht Master and his writeup on the front right airmatic strut are my heroes. I pulled the strut yesterday (that 21mm bolt was a b*tch) and thanks to some other great members, went with an Arnott from ShockWarehouse.com (seemed to have the best price by far).

And yes, I broke that stupid clip too.

jaikrishnan

Thanks for the wonderful writeup and pics !

alexxE63

I am new... the write up is the same for the e55 and e63?? My passenger side front droops down and I hear a leak.

poohlvhun

I am installing the drivers side and am finding this very very helpful. Thanks to you guys, I am tackling stuff that I would otherwise not dare touch at all!

I am stuck on installing the air line tho, do you guys cut off the copper flange on the tip of the air line? I just cannot thread the airline into the new arnott strut at all??

Thanks in advance!

BagMan

I pried the flange apart with pliers and removed it from the line. Tossed it and the old lock nut and just inserted the bare line into the Arnott strut which should have a lock nut already installed. Push the line all the way in and give it a little tug to make sure it's locked in.

You could probably cut the line to get the flange off, but you probably don't need to.

poohlvhun

Hmmm. I got the new ones not rebuilt ones.
I had contacted arnott about it and said that it looks like there was no extra milling for the brass nipple at the end of the tube so the bolt sticks way out to be threaded.
I will see if they can help me out

poohlvhun

So a couple of phone calls and emails with the friendly arnott technical supervisor solved the problem.
Turns out I need to trim back the tube to less than 3mm from the brass nipple.
problem solved!

djhudson

Well, after 3 years of ownership my 2004 E55 has started to exhibit symptoms very similar to what you are describing. The last few weeks it has been intermittently dropping on the rear driver's side. It generally pumps back up fairly quickly after I turn the car on, but sits so low at first that the red "car too low!" warning illuminates on the dash.
Diagnosing the issue has been a challenge. My indie said that the vast majority of the time it's because of a leak in the rear air springs, quoted me about $1,600 installed out the door (for both sides). I dropped the car off and of course, they could not replicate the issue - all tests passed with flying colors, the car cycled through all height settings multiple times, no apparent leaks, no sagging. He said that the rear springs looked "brand new" and asked if I'd had them replaced. To my knowledge they are original but I appreciated his honesty and the fact that he wasn't going to just throw parts at it without a way to diagnose the issue for certain.
After picking the car back up there were no issues at all for a few days, but now it has begun to intermittently sag again. I've not been able to determine any pattern to it, and when the height is appropriate it seems to hold for several days without issue.
If the spring was leaking, why would it only be leaking part of the time? Similarly, if the compressor was going out, why would it still quickly pump up the rear corner? It doesn't seem to be operating loudly or staying on longer than it should.
In any case I went ahead and purchased 2 Arnott rear air springs for $690 shipped. They should be here within a week and I will investigate further. Hopefully that will fix the issue, but it's frustrating not knowing exactly what is causing it.

StarvingArtist

Sounds like the valve block, but I'm no expert--I just read a lot of posts.