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2001 S500 - Strangest Airmatic Problem - Please Help

40K views 30 replies 4 participants last post by  eric242340 
#1 · (Edited)
I've read just about all of the Airmatic problems on Google and here but I have yet to find anything on this one.

Most Airmatic issues I have been able to find we're about dropping or not going up, front or rear dropping, pump not running....etc.

My problem has nothing to do with leakage. Quite the opposite. It used to be when I parked the car and walked away the car would drop 2 inches and it would be fine.

Now... I park the car and within a few hours car raises all the way up. I open any door or the trunk lid and the car drops back down to normal. Once I do that, it will stay leveled and not go up on it's own till next time I drive and park it.

Sometimes the whole car would raise, sometimes only the rear.... when the rear raises, the left/rear seems to be higher than the right/rear.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for responding Eric. Unfortunately, you’re right ! I kind of knew that codes would be the first thing I need. Being a GM Dealership Tech for over 20 years, I should have known better, but I was hoping that someone here has had or heard of that problem. When I was a Tech, I already knew or had an idea what was wrong just by reading the complaint on the R/O, specially if it was a common problem. Kind of like if I would have said that the Right Front drops over night...... the first thing everyone here would say...... check the top of the shock for leaks. lol

Taking it to the dealer I’m afraid that they will charge me more than the car is worth to diagnose it, never the less to repair it. I was trying to take a common sense approach. Perhaps if I knew what all the Airmatic Components are and what they do, I might be able to narrow it down.

Obviously, there are 4 shocks, a valve, a pump, a relay, a reservoir, front and rear level sensors and a module. Am I missing anything ??? We know that if any of the shocks were leaking, it would not cause the car to go up over night, we know that a pump would not make it go up (since it’s not running), the relay controls the pump, so that would not be it.

Would it be possible that if one of the solenoids in the valve block is stuck or not sealing that the air in the canister would be transferred to the shocks and pump them up over night ?? It seems that the rear is jacked all the way up in the morning more so than the front. Is it possible that the rear level sensor has gone bad ?? The reason I’m asking that is because I’ve noticed in the past if I jacked up one wheel the whole car would go up.

I know that when the car is shut off, all the modules go to sleep. When I open a door, everything wakes up. Which is when the car drops and levels to normal height. So, I’m thinking it would either be a bad module or a bad rear level sensor or a valve block. Any of the three that you could eliminate given the symptoms ??
 
#4 ·
Your way of doing diagnostics is to be admired sir, but alas this system is around 10 x more complex than you understand and given the symptoms it leaves me with 50 x the possible causes.

Codes are the real key to narrowing this down. There are plenty of specialist workshops that will simply read the codes for you at a small price. Check the lists out here;

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/recommended-repair-shops/
 
#6 ·
Hello Eric,

Sorry I took so long to get back. I ended up buying MB Star C3. Great tool !! I love it !!

Anyway, here's what it came up with:

C1121-002 Fault in Component B24/3 (Left front body acceleration sensor).

Replaced it and Voila !! Problem solved !
 
#21 ·
Sorry for my fast post with bad engish.
This is relay for air suspension compressor.If my relay is bad comressor maybe work long time and maybe generate error in airmatic and when turn off and engine no any noise from compressor.I will buy valve block and test. I think that problem is there
 
#23 ·
I have a 2006 cls500 and the rear drivers side raises up but then sags. I heard some air leaking under the car near the middle of the trunk. I hit a pothole a couple of days before this started happening. I came out one morning and it was sagging. I hit the airmatic button to raise it up and it did raise and stayed up with no problems for a week. Could this be a simple fix?
 
#30 ·
It happen to be the front strut and rear airbag. Fixed that a 3 days ago. Now I have another issue. ABS and ESP and display malfunction is showing up on the info screen. Steering is stiff and so is the suspension. Speedo doesn't work, map lights doesn't work...cruise control doesn't work and the controls for the sunroof aren't working like it should. Check wngine light and ABS light on too. I had the car washed...under carriage too. Code coming up is P0600. I'm so frustated....like now what? Btw car has 74000 miles on it
 
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