Quote:
Originally Posted by JFawcett
It doesn't appear that the car has air suspension....not mentioned in the manual. It doesn't have the adaptive suspension.
Is there an easy way to determine?
Thanks
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Air suspension was not offered on the W140. The options were a normal spring with shock suspension all around or a self-levelling rear suspension using hydropneumatic struts in the rear. I can't remember if the owner's manual specifically discusses the self-levelling suspension. I'll have to read mine to see.
The other possibility is ADS (adaptive damping system) added on to the self-levelling suspension.
There are a couple of ways to determine if you have the self-levelling suspension. You can look for the parts: accumulators (spheres) in the rear with metal lines going between them and a valve mounted under the car that is attached to the rear sway bar by a linkage and then lines running to the struts, and also a reservoir of hydraulic fluid just behind the left side headlamp. Or you can enter your VIN in the Russian VIN decoder site and see if the options listed for your car include the self-levelling rear suspension (and possibly ADS).
If you have the self-levelling suspension, your stiff rear suspension could be caused by failed accumulators. Usually, people describe the ride from failed accumulators as "bouncy" since the accumulators are part of the spring in the system and when they fail, it's as if the spring in the suspension became a rigid connection. The other possibility is that you have ADS and it is switched in firm mode or has defaulted to firm mode because of a fault in the ADS system. You will have a dash switch for ADS if you have this option, which should be covered in the owner's manual. If the ADS has a fault, you will have a dash warning light to tell you.
Or, it could just be that the ride in the Mercedes is firmer than you're used to. I don't know what you're comparing to.
Brett