Car was fine on the drive down to my sisters in NJ from MA. No prior problems with air suspension. Got to NJ, parked the car and it settled and when I wen t drive it a few hours later I noticed Passenger Side front strut wasn't extending all the way up. It'd go up and when we watch it it seems to hover and recycle or something. The center dash goes red, says car is too low, and then when I push the suspension button it goes off and it says the car is rising.

I can hear the compressor behind and under the driver's side headlight area. It cycles fine, actually runs and then shuts down when it thinks there's enough air pressure in the system, but while the car goes up... its about 1/2" to 3/4" less than the drivers side.

We did a little googling on the topic, and one suggestion was to unplug the connector on the top of the strut and try to get the strut solenoid or sensor to reset itself. Unfortunately, the poster never mentioned whether you should unplug while the engine was on/off. I tried it with the ignition off and it did nothing. There's also a second plug about 2" forward of the center and I don't know what that one does or if I should pull both.

Needless to say, I will bring the car to my mechanic and see what he can figure out. One poster said that there's a short air hose that runs from the compressor to a block, about 10" long and it sometimes rubs on the fender liner and it wears through. The replacement hose from Mercedes supposedly comes with a padded shield so this doesn't happen again.

What is baffling is that all the cases we read about seem to happen on the passenger side front strut, not the rest. Why would the right front develop problems and the rest of the three struts be OK? My BIL said that you can buy a rebuilt front strut as he was surfing and looking while I was.

Any other "home remedies" that I can check would be greatly appreciated, but beyond the simple stuff... it'll go in the shop ASAP as I know something is screwed up. I was hoping I could find a manual override of some kind so I don't mess up anything on the ride home.

Mike

 

What car do you have? i recommend going to a benz dealer to get it checked out. most other shops dont have the proper equipment to diagnose and reset the system. not sure what car you have some cars the struts can be fixed fairly cheaply by resealing the strut tops. sometimes the strut needs replacement.