air cell replacement
 

I will be replacing the air cells on my 91 560 SEL soon, and I was reading some posts at the mercedes coupe website, and some people were talking about replacing a "set of rubber spacers for the shaft on the hydraulic rams inside the rear springs" at the same time.

Can anyone comment on this? first time for me to hear this. any other parts that I should consider replacing while I am replacing the air cells?

thx
emmy

The W126 don't have air cells, they are fluid based. If you do a search here you should find the part number for new bushes for the shocks which is what people are referring to.

Matt.

I am referring to the self leveling accumulators. Of course they do have on 560SEL.

The self levelling system on W126's is fluid based rather than air. The accumulators are charged with nitrogen.

Matt.

Mattman:
I am sorry but I am confused with your responses. The self leveling suspension system on my 560sel has both nitrogen and fluid invovled. You have a euro, you should know...

Semanitics.

Air cells, nitrogen cells, accumulators, all are refering to the same thing and you are right the system is hydraulic over nitrogen unless the celss are bad and then its hydraulic over hydraulic.

stevebfl

so, would you please address my original question?

can you comment on the spring spacers that the W126 coupe site are talking about? Do I have these spring spacers that I need to replace along with the air cells? I think they are also referred to as shims or pads...Are these easily replaced once the air cells are removed?

thank you.....

The struts have mountings at both ends that can cause clunking sounds over light undulations. There is really very little overlap of job operations. The air cell replacement doesn't require removing the struts and the system self bleeds.

Replace the cells and if their demise has beat out any of the rest of the system evaluate it after the system works again.

stevebfl

thanks for the quick response....

emmy
 

do a search on nitrogen cells or accumulators.i'm not sure but you may just need to bleed your system and possibly change the accum's.heed the clearance warnings:eek:

By all means, try the search function.

I struggle with it sometimes, but try entering something basic, like "nitrogen", or "nitrogen cells", or even "self leveling suspension".

You'll get some hits that don't apply to your car, but believe me, there are a ton of threads that deal with your issue.

guys, thx for all your inputs, but it is not the air cells that i have a question about...i guess the title of my original post was misleading...

read my original post if you would....

I am asking about spring pads or spring shims, or spring spacers for the self leveling suspension - whether it is a valid maintenance item to replace such spring pads during the time the air cells are being replaced.

sorry for the confusion, but i hope i have made myself clear!!!!

There are spring pads which are rubber like shims that sit on the springs, I don't believe anyone has ever had to replace them due to wear. What you probably have read at the mbcoupes site is the replacement of the shock bushes at the rear. If you have any noise in the rear suspension such as a clunking then it is likely to be the shock bushes. These are specific to the self levelling suspension.

Matt.

The problem with answering questions like this is that we have no idea what they were talking about. What seems more important is your current needs and any consequential work that would be considered proper to do at the same time.

As I pointed out, the cell replacement is easy and requires no other equipment removal. it will not be any benefit to do any other work at the same time.

IF, you have an issue left to deal with, there is no advantage to trying to find it at this moment. Fix the system so that it functions properly, which the cells likely will accomplish.

It's possible that you are talking about considerations of original spring height. The hydraulic support is only supposed to lift so much. The steel springs should maintain a certain height. This used to be a problem with the hydropneumatic compensator struts. I don't think its much of a concern in an SEL; unless you expect to carry heavy loads.

I just want to report that I finally have replaced the air cells. The bouncy rears has been solved - what a difference it makes.

Lessons learned:
1. The MB cd mentions 11 mm as the tools needed. In reality I needed 13 mm for the (3) mounting bolts; 11 mm flair for the line from valve to air cell and 17 mm flair for the line from air cell to shocks.
2. There was an adapter between the aircell and the hose to the shocks. This adapter had a copper washer which I did not have. I had to reuse the copper washer. I would have replaced it with a new washer had I known...
3. Space very limited with my back on the garage floor, but was doable.

The old air cells that I replaced are MB parts with the MB logo. If I am not mistaken, these are the original air cells back in 1991, basing on a marking that reads "03 1"....