Excessive rear jiggle on 500E
 

Hi,

I am getting excessive rear jiggle on my 94 E500 (58k). Vehicle is fitted with new 245/45/17 S03s.

When cornering, the car seems to bounce from side to side in the back upsetting its balance. This is particularly noticeable on a windy undulating road. I replaced the rear sway bar bushings and dealer says that suspension links and alignment are fine.

There appears to be no difference in rear damping characteristics from passenger to driver side, which leads me to belive that the problem might be the self-leveling system.

The rear shocks and spheres were replaced under Starmark just over a year ago (6-8k miles) by Rahal in Pittsburgh. However, the spheres recently failed again. Dealer (MB of Devon) provided no explaination for failure and replaced them. Devon has been absolutely lousy on a long string of separate repairs on this occasion left the SLS fluid at only 25% full after completion of the repair. I topped off the fluid to the correct level.

Since I am loathe to belive that the spheres/ shocks are malfunctioning, could air in the SLS fluid lines be a possible cause ? Would it explain the underdamping? Also, how easy is it to simply flush the fluid system?

Thanks for any help.
farrukh

As a general rule, the SLS system should be flushed every two years....I found that out the hardway. It is not a well documented maintenance item.

The power steering pump may be a factor in the problems you are experiencing?

If the nitro cells have failed, you would feel it...very harsh going over things like Railroad tracks...I had a hydraulic ram fail and it was very noticable over washboard roads.

Get it in and take advantage of the warranty situation.