Hey guys, just did the upper and lower control arms as well as tie rods, lower ball joint, and thrust arms. I had to remove the air line and disconnect the struts to let them down for access to upper control arm bolts.

Got everything back back together and ready to go, I pull out of my driveway and realize the car is not correcting its ride height and traction control kicks on every time I try to accelerate, so I’m going probably 5mph.

I reset the battery, started the car and let idle and rechecked all the lines and connections and it won’t increase the air in the front struts. I have no idea if I’m missing something? Anyone else had any issues like this?

Try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. If the system detects a large leak (ie. when you had a line disconnected), it will shut down to protect the compressor.

Is the level sensor somewhere around there? I don't know if that is worth exploring.

I would also try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. I had my suspension act funny when I first replace the front struts and it only lasted about 2 days then it sorted itself out. The traction control issue you're also having sounds weird though. And maybe make sure all the electrical clips for the struts are back in and you didn't miss any.

So, bbirdwell was nice enough to come out with STAR and look it over. Having a low voltage reading for left front leveling sensor, so pretty confident that is the culprit. However I read The last post here:https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ng-sensor.html and am thinking I might have a similar issue. Will update as I find out.

Update: set wood blocks between upper control arms and chassis to have the car towed in. Insurance sent me a tow truck, the guy towed it with the rear wheels up and front wheels on the ground (backwards) 27 miles to the shop. This resulted in bending the upper control arms. After replacing them, the level sensor was within spec and everything good.

I also had both speed sensors acting up. Apparently their orientation was incorrect even though they only go into the spindle one way. They were astounded by it and had never seen it, but they didn’t explain it well to me so I’m still not sure how that happened.

Anyhow, car is back together and driving great. Very stable and composed with new control arms and tie rods.

You just can’t win with Airmatic, Jake! I had mine towed on a flatbed without any blocks. Loading onto the flatbed the front bumper cracked in half (the lower fascia) and one fender was rubbed down to the metal where a tire was contacting. I’d rather have had bent control arms .

Man! It’s such a bummer. I have debated going coilovers but with my wife and newborn I don’t think I can commit to that yet haha.

There's 5 electrical connectors in close proximity when removing the airmatic struts, including the nest of 4 where they all come together (the lower wire for the strut plugs in there), and the two that run to the brake caliper. Sounds like you disturbed all the electronic connections. Check them over carefully.

As an addendum, you can eliminate quite a bit of diagnostics on this with STAR by using a floor jack to check the body height of the car and whether the voltage of the level sensors is in range (or if you disturbed them somehow). You can also check the pressure in the struts to make sure you didn't damage the airbags/seals during reinstall, and verify that the Airmatic computer hasn't lost the calibration ride height. Also, verify you hear your Airmatic pump running at all.

Air matic is a real pain in the ***.