Hey fellow W211 AMG owners, can anyone share your experiences with the factory suspension on their cars? I'm a (pretty new) 2008 E63 owner; 80K milees. Overall, loving the car, except for the suspension. The ride seems rough and bouncy compared to my W211 E550. It's actually to the extent of being uncomfortable. I'm wondering if it's normal for these cars, or if there might be some components that need to be replaced. Haven't had any issues with ride height or sagging. Any pointers would be appreciated.

 

My 2007 E63 rides much, much "rougher" than my boss's 2006 E350 did. I wouldn't call it uncomfortable at all even in Sport 2, plus mine is lowered. I'm not a fan of soft suspensions.

 

I'm starting to think it's just the nature of the beast. I don't mind feeling the road a little bit, but the ride on my E63 is just not what I'd expect out of a Mercedes. I hate that I am enjoying my E550 more than my E63. I feel like if I could combine the two cars I would have the perfect specimen of W211.

 

Please describe this rough ride in more detail. I've owned (3) W211's, (2) E63 and a E350. And to me, my E63 rides way smoother then my E350, due to its air suspension.
I think maybe you have some bad bushings, ball joints etc. Are you running low profile tires? What size rims does your car have? I'm running 19", and yes that ride is a little rougher then with the factory 18" wheels.
Have someone else verify this, to confirm your findings. My girlfriend has always told me,that the E63 rides smooth. maybe I'm biased.

 

the wheels and tires along with airmatic do ride a little harsher and sportier than say...an E500/E550 with coil and shock combo as i have driven one of those. i'm sure sway bars are also smaller with a non E63 or E55 model as well.

 

I could be mistaken, but isn't the 2009 E550 on the same airmatic suspension? I feel like other than feeling a little firmer, the ride should be somewhat comparable.

 

you are correct...the E550 does come with airmatic. The one I did drive was converted using the Strutmaster kit and rode much softer and more comfortable. The wheels and tires on the E550 did aid to this as well. Airmatic in my opinion rides nicer on smoother roads, but on bumpy roads you'll have better absorption with a coil and shock configuration. This could also mean you have more sway and bounce though.

airbags inherently do not have the same linear or progressive rate as a spring. as an airbag compresses it will push back harder and at a point will become stiff. factory airbag cars are designed to have better response to this but still generally never as soft as a coil spring could be without negatively impacting performance.

 

Like others have said, the wheel and tire combo can really effect ride quality. There is no difference that i am aware of between E550 and E63 airmatic suspension. The subframe, suspension arms and bushings are all the same.

 

Oh to the contrary. While the E500 and E550 had the standard Mercedes Airmatic DC suspension with adaptive damping, the E63 AMG had the AMG-tuned Airmatic suspension which with the stability control turned off gave it far better driving dynamics than its non-AMG predecessors.

 

Good to know! I will have to look a little further in to this. Thank you

 

My lowered W210 wagon (cut H&R springs from a W210 E55 w/ Bilstein sport shocks for an E430) rides better than the E63 does.

 

I haven't owned W211 E550, but owned W212 E550 with Airmatic. Also have owned W211 E350.

I would say that my current W211 E63 rides the same as my W212 E550 did, and rides much better than E350. I have all stock wheels and suspension. I wouldn't call any of the 3 Mercedeses I had uncomfortable though. None rode like Lexus LS, but you wouldn't want that soft of a suspension on AMG.

 

Thanks for sharing, interesting that it was comparable in ride to your W212 E550. Makes me think that maybe my E63 just needs upgraded suspension parts. I'll have my mechanic take a look.

 

In addition, cars that require XL (Extra Load) tires will ride rougher since their structure is reinforced to support heavier loads. This in turn directly changes the way a car absorbs all changes in road variations.

 

Hello, I just got done with my 2007 E63 having rebuilt the entire rear end starting with the Rear Main Seal, all new rear Subframe Bushings, Control Arm Bushings (K-Mac), UPD Toe Arms, OEM Torque Arms and rubber bushing, Drive Shaft Discs & Intermediate Bearing, 3.06 Gears & LSD, RMT Rebuilt AirSprings and New OEM Rear ADS Shocks, Hubs, Rotors, Brakes. I broke the rear Harness Mount, so I replaced it with new. All new bolts were used as they are mostly one time use. I’ve driven it a couple times before I got it aligned today only to find that most likely one of my front tires is out of true as swapping them side to side caused a pronounced pull to the right. New tires come in this week.

But that’s NOT the Problem! It appears my Adaptive Damping is somehow not working! While I was putting in the hours under the car this past weekend measuring axle angles to make sure the alignment guy wouldn’t have to calibrate it only to drive and with my efforts at trying to notice a pull one way or another, it was only today that it dawned on me that my ADS is somehow faulty! Small bumps in the road are magnified, even though the Airmatic constantly adjusts ride height during driving as it should ( as noticed by driving with Xentry hooked up on Laptop in Suspension Level Mode). Surely I have disconnected/reconnected all the wires over the months and made certain they are connected properly, yet this dilemma rears it’s ugly head.

Digging through Xentry troubleshooting one finds all the sensors listed. After testing all of them, I found interestingly that the “Acceleration Sensors”, those are the ones located up front next to each strut tower in the engine bay as well as in the passenger rear wheel well, showed Voltage for each YET apparently there was an issue with the power as it read “Not OK”? There are 3 modes of testing for each of the sensors where the first either tells you the “actual value”. This is when it tells you that there is an actual value, which is not so obvious until you load up the second which states the “prerequisite to use this test only when an “Actual Value” is NOT present and then requires you to attach a breakout box after switching off the ignition flowed by switching it back On. So in fact, my Power was OK after all, since there was an “Actual Value in step 1. The second tests for Power ( to be used only when “ Actual Value” is NOT “OK”) where it also requires that Box but below it will show a measure of power as well as a range between which the measure should fall, and for you to Confirm Y or N. The third tests for Voltage, which also shows a measure of voltage it registered (if step one “Actual Value is present and “OK”) along with the range between it should fall and, in my case, all were “OK”?

When you use WIS, under “Contents, Function Description, Airmatic>Survey of System Components of Airmatic, location, task, design, function> “ you’ll see a list of systems involved with Airmatic in general and each of their corresponding fuses/relays as referenced in the wiring diagram, and further to the right the hyperlink to each. The list contains all the items you would see in Xentry >Chassis>Suspension>Guided Tests, but if you were to go instead to Suspension>Full list of fault codes and events, you’ll see at the end other peripheral systems involved with Airmatic at the end of the list including: a) Event 5040 - speed signal from control module N47-5 ESP,SPS, BAS Control Unit. b) Event 5041-Check Component N49 ( Steering Angle Sensor) c) Event 5042, Steering Angle Sensor is not initialized , and others. Back in WIS “Airmatic Level Adjustment, function>Pressure Supply>Airmatic W/ADS, you again see peripheral systems which comprise the ADS present on W211 & W240 w/Code 489a (semi-active air suspension-as is present on the 07-09 E63). At the bottom of the list is “Steering Angle Sensor,location/task/design/function, here it states that “After an interruption of power supply (Terminal 30), the steering angle sensor must be re-initialized” by turning the steering wheel lock- to- lock “presumably in Xentry”. Moreover, WIS>Airmatic w/ADS Control Module, function- states that the task of the “safety circuit” is to identify erroneous signals from the sensors and the faults in the control module/wiring system and when a fault is detected, the system switches OFF! It says a message will be displayed, but it wasn’t in my case. Further, it states “the damper valves for ADS are no longer controlled and remain set to the “hard” damping level (driving safety level- ie “Safety Mode”). Well, I had removed my steering wheel in order for it to be redone with new leather, thus I had disconnected the connector from the steering clock to the airbag. It was was disconnected for about a month while I was installing a new Compressor, Condenser, drier, Radiator, Heater Controller Valve, and A/C Expansion Valve and I had disconnected from the battery multiple times not to mention many other times in the many months since I started back in late April 2020. I didn’t see any code related to Airmatic but when you go to Xentry/DAS> Airmatic >“Functions caused by more than one Control Unit>Chassis/Chassis>ESP/ABS> SCM (Steering Control Module), there it will guide you through the “test” to synchronize that system that, if not synchronized, will put the ADS into “Safety Mode” whereby it hardens up both the Compression and Rebound to limit the struts loosing air during for safety apparently, which is what I definitely seemed to have experienced! So whether it was required or not, I went through Airmatic tests for both level sensors and acceleration sensors confirming positively for each test as well as enabling the valves for the damping and confirming each within Xentry/DAS, but it wasn’t until I went through the “test” for the Steering Angle Sensor (ie-lock to lock) and confirmed it that I went for another drive and finally could feel the difference when activating the different stiffness levels via the ADS button in front of the gearshift!!!!! Yeah Baby!

 

This thread is about rough idle... But I have a few suggestions to make. Firstly, the ADS is on the strut as much as I know. Your remanufactured units might be faulty. Secondly, the acceleration sensors are weird. I was getting intermittent airmatic error on the dash. The scanner showed it was the acceleration or G sensor. I reset it and the error hasn’t come back since long ago. But now I am noticing that the airmatic is living its own life. Sometimes it lowers the car when in S or S2. Other times it doesn’t lower although it says S2 on the dash. I am pretty sure the sensor is acting up. I have ordered replacement parts. Luckily they’re not expensive.

 

Locatioon of the right rear accelerator sensor:

 

Hey Rovel,

This thread is not about idle, but a rough Ride resulting from the gentleman’s Suspension. Notice the first sentence of this thread:

“Hey fellow W211 AMG owners, can anyone share your experiences with the factory suspension on their cars? I'm a (pretty new) 2008 E63 owner; 80K milees. Overall, loving the car, except for the suspension. The ride seems rough and bouncy compared to my W211 E550. It's actually to the extent of being uncomfortable. I'm wondering if it's normal for these cars, or if there might be some components that need to be replaced. Haven't had any issues with ride height or sagging. Any pointers would be appreciated.”

So I proceeded to provide current real world experience as it pertains to my 2007 E63 to correct the “ Airmatic Safety Mode” problem stemming from my having done months of rear suspension repair/replacement which resulted in the same issue. In fact, it seems my thought process was posted, even before I had officially “saved” the post as evidenced by yours and machild’s reference to script I had written on my iPad but not yet saved? No-ones fault, just an observation. But if you read my post again, you’ll see I answered my own questions by digging deep in WIS and Xentry and then wrote down what I did to fix my issue, which just may help others.

 

Most likely the bouncing he's experiencing is coming from worn out rear shocks.

 

Check rear shocks for oil covering them. If they are all dirty and oily, they are bad and are causing your ride issue at the rear. Happened to mine.