Sorry to give this dead horse another kick, but I haven't been able to find much info about people who's struts never failed. The poll carried out about a year and a half ago was helpful in seeing what mileage they failed but didn't give an option for no failure which would have been nice. Forums can be great but at the same time possibly overstate a problem. no ones logging on and making a new thread to say my god damn air suspension is working flawlessly still. So is there anyone who's experienced no failure in their E55?

The reason i ask is because i'm interested in a car ('05 E55) on the stock suspension @ 83k and the seller isn't really budging because to him if it works fine now, there's no reason to believe it's definitely going to be an issue.

Thanks for any help guys. i'm pumped to finally get my *** in a drivers seat of one of these beasts but i wanna make sure i understand any issues fully before making a purchase

 

Yes, failure is inevitable. When is unknown. It could happen at 90K or 150K miles. It's an inflated rubber bladder that is constantly flexing while driving and the rubber ages. The components are now 13 years old; you can expect some deterioration to have occurred. Just be prepared for the expenses to own one of these puppies. I have a post out there describing the maintenance items you will want to check on an E55.

 

thanks! i've starred your response to a newbie.

 

If you're worried about Airmatic failure you can always swap it out for a coil over setup.

 

all things that wear out are bound to fail. since certain mercedes vehicles use air or hydraulic assisted suspension's their repair could be rather costly.

 

I have owned my E55 for 13 years and never had any airmatic issues whatsoever, thank you. by the way I have a 2004.

 

You just have to be prepared to own one of these cars. Stuff fails, it might fail tomorrow or not at all in your ownership, it costs more than most other cars to fix. You need to be prepared to possibly pay for all four strut replacement, new airmatic compressor, pulley, belt and bearing replacements, very soon most people will be covering their own fuel pump assembly replacement (15 year extended warranty in USA only), you didn't post your location but if outside the USA you will be covering your new SBC unit also. I a pretty sure my struts are original but I only have 28,000 miles at this stage.

 

Airmatic is cheap and easy to replace. Thank your lucky stars you don't have to deal with an ABC suspension.

 

I'm a newbie here. I looked for an E55 for several months before pulling the trigger in May on a 2006 with 97k miles and some maintenance records (not all).

The airmatic suspension worked fine when I bought the car. I also looked at the car for a second time (it was in a crowded garage so pretty clearly hadn't moved in the week since I'd last looked) and the suspension wasn't sagging or anything.

I put about 3k miles on the car before a front strut went out. I was prepared for costs like this but yea, not the best feeling for sure.

All this to echo what others have said...who knows when those struts may fail. There don't appear to be many warning signs.

And, despite this setback I have no regrets and absolutely love this car (coming from a 2008 BMW M3 manual, so quite a change).

Good luck to you!

 

I am confused, I thought 'airmatic' was ABC. I have both an E55 and an SL55. They have different suspension systems? Cheers.

 

Found it. E55 has airmatic, SL55 has ABC

 

Yes they are different things. Airmatic is annoying. ABC is pain and suffering. Airmatic is an air system. ABC uses power steering fluid in a separate system but still using the same power steering pump to create a hydraulic suspension.

 

all suspension in every vehicle is inevitably going to fail.

airmatic just fails sooner, more often, and usually costs more. but it's actually a pretty easy DIY to fix. working on the airmatic in my E55 is much simpler and faster work than on my w202 or w124

 

 

Amen, Brother! Sing it loud! Praise the Lord and pass the hydraulic fluid!

 

Happy to. It was at a small dealership in los angeles. They were asking $15,500 and we agreed on $13,000. Two owner car, no accidents, very clean, needed front brakes. I may have overpaid a bit, honestly.

 

Mileage?

 

Hard to say if you've over/underpaid without seeing the car; but even after the suspension failure and new brakes, I'd say you're alright!

 

been looking at an S 55, that has the ABC suspension?

 

Yes. They can be reliable with regular fluid changes but that ship has long sailed for a lot of cars at this age. Repairs are not cheap and nowhere near as DIY as airmatic. Some models don't have swaybars so doing a coilover conversion isn't straightforward.

 

seems like a pretty solid price. I'd like to get this guy down somewhere around 14K depending on what service history he comes back with for me

 

My 2006 E55 with 97k has had all 4 corners replaced. Rear bags were replaced at around 82k by prior owner at Benz dealership (under USAA warranty). My front passenger blew while it was sitting in my garage, so I replaced both fronts with new Bilstein OEM units from FCP Euro. So I have a lifetime warranty on the fronts. As mentioned earlier, replacing is a fairly easy DIY if you know how to work on cars/have done any suspension work at all before. Parts only cost is still hundreds of dollar, so I wouldnt necessarily consider it 'cheap". Howeer, you can offset some of the cost by selling the blown strut for ~$80 (rebuilders buy them) and a non leaking used OEM airmatic for E55's gets you around $250 to $300 on ebay. (If I had it to do over again, I'd proactively replace my non leaking fronts at 90k with new Bilsteins from FCP, then sell the used ones for over $500 total on ebay).

Even the actual air compressor itself is easy to access (behind drivers side front bumper cover) and not super pricey. I actually love the stock Airmatic suspension on these cars as it gives what I consider a great ride quality to performance/handling balance.

Also, another easy inspection item is the water pump. Examine closely for any telltale signs of leakage/drip marks down the front. My internal seal on the original pump failed at about 95k. Pulley froze, taking out the belt and the pulley tensioner. Not a drastic event (happened 1 block from home, so was able to drive it and park it in the garage) and was able to take my time over a couple of days and repair/replace. If I had to do it over? I'd have replaced the voltage regulator (the brushes wear down over use/time) proactively at the same time as the alternator is very easy to get to with the pump/belts off.

 

Not my experience at all. My SL had regular fluid changes and still had ABC pump failure. Same with my CL but it went through multiple new dealer installed pumps in a few years. It went through ABC pumps like it ate tires.

 

I think the key word is "can" be reliable. I haven't owned an ABC car, this is just reading other owners experiences and thoughts. It seems the ones that had regular changes on average had far fewer failures. Anyone with an S, SL, CL etc hopefully has the finances to back it up. I know you can do coilovers on some SL's as they had non-ABC options so have sway bar mounts to take advantage of. Don't know about the other models. I would love a non-ABC SL one day.

 

Me too, however I am planning to replace all 4 corners with Arnotts soon. Quite frankly, after 14 years, I'm getting a bit nervous - - - sort of like a Christian Scientist with an appendicitis, I suppose.