PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

lkchris · #5 11-11-2023, 03:07 PM

The air springs with Airmatic are simply limited life items, same as tires, wiper blades, serpentine belts.

The fact they eventually leak is not a failure, it's simply a fact of life.

So many people want to look first at other system components which are much less likely to fail. If it leaks once, what's with "wait and see?"

All cars have both springs and shock absorbers. At GL front the two are combined into a single unit called a strut. At rear, they are separate items.

It's my experience shock absorbers have about the same life as Airmatic springs. My rear shocks were putting oil on the ground about the same time my rear springs were collapsing.

It's expensive, but the intelligent approach is to renew the entire suspension at the same time. Front struts, rear springs, rear shocks.

If you do allow the compressor to continue to attempt to inflate the universe, you will soon require a new compressor. These are not cheap either.

Discussion: there is much psychological anxiety regarding Mercedes Airmatic. Mercedes are very expensive luxury cars and when new cost a lot of money. They can be a bit "flavor of the month" and when they get older they depreciate quite a bit. That means you can purchase a used one at a fairly reasonable price. It DOES NOT mean it will be a car that's cheap to run and it DOES NOT mean inevitable and required periodic renewal of the special suspension is going to be cheap. I've read somewhere the average American can't come up with $500 for an emergency. Imagine the stress when your Mercedes requires a $3000 suspension renewal.

So, often under this financial stress, people badmouth Mercedes and the Airmatic system and sometimes make the ridiculous decision to convert to steel springs, severely handicapping the vehicle and imho converting its resale value to zero.

Don't get stars in your eyes!