Lycan

Hopefully I'm not over-reacting to this, but I am starting to notice that my driver-side rear suspension seems to be about 1/2 inch lower than the passenger-side rear. Since I have the P30 suspension on my 2008 E63 it already sits pretty low. By low I mean that I can't get two fingers (about 1.5 inches) between either tire and fender. The suspension raises and lowers just fine when I push the ride-height adjuster (for snow & chains). But, that drivers-side rear is really bugging me. I've setup an appointment with my local MB Dealer (Germantown Euromotor Cars) to get it checked out. It's still under warranty.

But, my big question is does the Airmatic suspension on these cars offer a lot of trouble? I was told by (Yuille-William) to watch for any "sagging" as a sign to early problems. I've tested the car on different surfaces to account for elevation and slant of my garage and driveway. I know I can't go wrong with getting it checked under warranty, but down the road should I be worried about problems with the Airmatic?

Regards,
John

TopEndS62

maybe you need the height settings to be re-calibrated on the sds...

GT-ER

Height measurements can only be conducted on a 100% level surface which is not very easy to find and thus should be done on an alignment rack. Regardless, being slightly lower on one side ALL THE TIMES would just require a hight adjustment. Being perfectly level during use and then drop one side after not using the car for a day is a problem.

Yuille36

John,

It could also be the ride height sensor, but this type of suspension can cause problems as the car ages, but tends to occur when the car is no longer under warranty but your doing the right thing in taking it in.

William

skratch77

My car is the same but the drivers side sits a little lower.I just put links on it and will adjust it some more today.

citylightva

Oh yes, it can definitely cause problems down the road. I replaced my driver rear spring and shock at 35K when it would drop about 2 inches overnight. Warrantied of course, but now I have a clunking in my front suspension. I need to get it up and look around before I freak out though.

TopEndS62

one sensor controls both sides in the rear. so if it were the sensor both sides would drop... just my opinion.

220S

That's correct.

To the OP: mine was acting the same way from the day I bought it (new with 8 miles on it.) After 10k miles later I went ahead and had it checked out by the dealer on SDS. It has to be done on the alignment rack and using SDS and a Romess tool. The Romess is used to set height on all Airmatic and ABC suspensions.

Mine seemed to sit about 1/4 off in the driver's rear compared to the passenger side. But after the dealer went through everything they said it sat fine ("within specs") on the rack and tested fine under SDS. They had it for four days to see if it would go lower over time, etc..

After that I talked about it with my Indy. The bottom line is that it's not possible to judge correctly on a surface that might be slightly off and that the valving in the Airmatic is not precisely the same in each strut. But an inch or more, then there is an issue.

Anyway at 22k miles later, everything is fine. And it's still off slightly at 1/4 inch while sitting in my garage. On the road and parked elsewhere it appears to sit fine.

citylightva

And I didn't mean that it will definitely cause problems. Just something to keep in your brain. I also have HORRIBLE roads around me. Im amazed my rims actually roll out...

Lycan

Thanks guys. I'll post next week and let you know what the issue was for future members. I've been digging through old posts and catching up on Airmatic issues.

Lycan

Dealer checked it out and it was within spec. They explained the whole "Airmatic" thing to me and told me not to panic. The techs explained that when the car sits for several days it can settle a bit until driven.

TheVazha

I had the same thing, nothing to be worried about if you have a good warranty. I noticed mine started acting up after constantly rotating wheel sizes (18's to 20's to 19's back to 20 etc).
Also the roads here are all jacked up as well. The constant abuse on these components cant be good for them.

OK55

Lycan, I agree with your dealer. Panic not. These heights vary all the time depending on where you parked etc. Yes, the airmatics will fail eventually but it will take some time and, unlike some other cars, you can usually drive your car to the workshop, albeit slowly and carefully...