Hi guys, any airmatic gurus out there?

Up till now I've considered myself a pretty experienced weekend home mechanic. After quite a bit of online research into parts & process I decided to tackle DIY replacement of my faulty rear air springs (MY05 E500 4matic wagon).

Well after a long weekend wrenching and cursing under this car, I'm still struggling to lower the rear subframe, and I'm up against a couple issues:

How do I manually depressurize the rear air springs? I don't have a full-pro SCAN tool. just an icarsoft MBii. so I can't figure out how to deflate the rear airsprings for removal. The driver's side one has error codes for both internal valve controllers, but neither spring has a full-out leak. So far all the DIY info I've found for this project assumes you have either flat airbags already and/or a dealer-grade SCAN tool to manually deflate, but I have neither. Please help with any suggestions.


I also can't seem to get the diff totally free from the driveshaft. The 3 bolts are off the flexdisc, and the main 4 subframe mounts are removed as well but as I try to lower it, the subframe seems stubbornly 'hung up' along the forward edge some place(s). Driveshaft, fuel tank, heat shields and/or something else I'm missing. Any ideas?

Pics below.