Do I need new rear shocks?
 

1990 300te
120,000 miles

Took it out today and I immediately noticed a bouncy-ness from the rear end with every little bump in the road. Stopped by Home Depot to pick up 3 large bags of topsoil and by the time I got home, the rear end on the driver's side was all the way down. Tried to bounce it by pushing down on the car, but it was bottomed out. Visual inspection and I don't see any fluid on the hydroponic shock and springs looked OK. Car has 120k miles and shocks are original. Accumulators were replaced about 3 months ago and leveling system was working fine up till today.

Do the shocks on this car help support the weight of the car at rest, or does the car sit only on the springs?

Do I need new shocks or should I be looking at somethings else? (I would hate to spend $800+ to find out that I should have replaced something else first).

You probably need the nitrogen spheres. There are one each for the left and right rear. When they go bad, the car will ride rough and low.

I meant to say that the replaced spheres could be defective(if they were rebuilt ones).

Accumulators were new, not rebuilt.

You could have a air bubble in the system due to a restricted filter/or low fluid. Steve Brotherton wrote a great post about getting a non operative system to work using no parts and a certain bleeding/priming procedure. I wish I could remember when he posted it.

If you know Steve's screen name, I can do a seach of his posts.

Glad to, his screen name is: "stevebfl". I think he is a moderator on the tech forum.

Just a random thought, but I wonder if the shop used the correct fluid? The incorrect fluid will sometimes cause the problems you are having.

I used the correct MB fluid when I flushed the system.

I ran a few more tests. I adjusted the rod. The hydraulic system operates fine lifting the car. The problem now is the driver side is 2.5 inches lower than the passenger side.

Time for new shocks or could the control valve be favoring one side over the other??

When my spheres went, the car road at normal hight but hard as a rock. Shook a few fillings worth so in my opinion, it does not sound like it is them. Did you loosen the lines going into the shocks to see if there is any pressure?

I have not loosened the lines going into the shocks. There should be sufficient pressure going into both shocks since when I move the control valve manually both sides of the car rise up. The only thing is that the driver side is lower.

I'm tempted to just replace both shocks since my car has 120,000 miles, but at $800 for the pair I have to take a gulp first. If this is what the control value does when it's failing, that would be an easier fix at about $300.