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I have been trying to undetstand the construction of the front struts (Arnott or OEM) generally. We have two E500s Wagon04/Sedan06 and when the Wagon struts were replaced by shop I asked to keep the oem struts (foregoing the recycle rebate)...to be able play with them. I am replying to thank all in the thread for the helpful comments and E55Greasemonkey for the prior post. The photos, suggestions ans details are amazingly helpful. I have noted that one can purchase the valve head portion separately (made in China) perhaps. I have yet to find (and bookmark or save) an explanation for remove the valve head portion from the rest of the strut assembly. I find the construction of the valve head fascinating. Those who land on this thread interested in investigating the W211 airmatic parts in detail should consider yandex.ru. I will ediy or reply with decent search terms. The videos are a riot...dark workshops, funny translations of expression in Russian...loys of personifying the system...and clearly some drinking on the job! Nonetheless...they contain some great insights for those digging for details.
[QUOTE=E55Greasemonkey;8075685]Old thread but I just went through this with my new Arnott struts and completely rebuilt front end. After Arnott sent me a second new strut under warranty, it was still making the knocking sound when turning, only on the right side for whatever reason. Long story short, the strut does twist slightly when turning. The screwdriver is pointing the the 2 parts that move, and the source of the noise..noise....]
My Arnotts are making the same exact knocking noise still after basically replacing my entire front suspension chasing this noise 🙄 Arnott refuses to warranty cause I can not find a proof or purchase.
So does anyone feel this is strictly am Arnott related issue? Does anyone have these knocking issues with the OEM struts?
Yes, I feel this is Arnott related. When my OEM stuts failed, I replaced them with the Arnott brand. I noticed the knocking noise once I installed them. I even sent one back because of the issue and the new one did the same thing.
Yes, I feel this is Arnott related. When my OEM stuts failed, I replaced them with the Arnott brand. I noticed the knocking noise once I installed them. I even sent one back because of the issue and the new one did the same thing.
My strut (Arnott) was binding under the boot and making a popping noise when turning slowly and moving - like when parking. I slid the boot down and sprayed the shaft with Wurth grease. It's been quiet for many months now.
Did you have to release the iar from the strut? Cause it looks like there is not air in the lower portion under the dust boot.
I too was getting an aweful noise when I turned the wheel. I assumed it was ball joint and control arms and replaced everything myself, yet the noise was still there. Turns out it was the struts making the noise. I didn't try the grease trick and wound up ordering RMT remanufactured struts and they seemed to resolve the knocking noise when I turned. However after a day or two the car sounded like a lowered Honda civic going over small bumps and speed bumps. The car sounded terrible. well lucky I didn't send my Arnott struts in as a core and decided to try the grease trick. I deflated the air struts ony workbench using a 9 volt battery and some wire and pushed back the dust boot and pushed up the plastic portion pictured and applied some automotive grease fairly liberally.You have to make sure every last drop of air is out of them. I sealed it all back up and removed the RMTs which are going back for a full refund. With the Arnotts back in the car and greased I get no more noise and much less noise going over bumps. I read somewhere that the Arnotts make noise due to design flaw and nothing they can do about it..
On a side note, I'll never buy remanufactured struts again for this car, when the Arnotts fail I'm going with OEM ones. I learned that RMT doesn't rebuild the strut portion at all and just the air portion. Which means theoretically I can have a "rebuilt" strut from them that has 300,000 miles on it with a fresh coat of paint and a new spring..
07-01-2021, 01:33 PM
