Hello,

I've had a s430 for a while and put a USED airmatic pump.

I turned on the car, car rises very slowly, and twice it released a burst of air from the area of the pump. It did that twice.

Im thinking maybe it's a safety valve because the pressure got high. It would indicate my pump is not worn and I have to look elsewere. The car sat, and maybe it's rising slowly because the valves do not open fully.

Or, alternatively, the pump may have a bad cylinder ring. I bought the pump used. That would make the car rise slowly, but wouldn't explain the air release. It does sound like the air brake purge of trucks when they blow out the water

I'm still very happy to see the car stay up without wood blocks underneat

 

Hello all,
I have a 2000 s500 and I am having problems with "drum roll" airmatic. (AIRMATIC- VISIT WORKSHOP). One of my rear corners sits very high and the ride is tough. The fault code goes off the minute I turn the car off and it will drive without fault code/warning for almost 15 to 20 miles before comes back. I can't hear the pump work at all whether I try to lift the car or when the car is off. The ride hight has not changed and is stuck in the current position. I asked the dealership for a diagnose quote and was told $168.50 +tax to begin with and if it goes over an hour they will call before they continue with the diagnosis. I know for a fact that the relay works because I swapped it with an exact one in the same bay and nothing has changed . I checked the 40 amp fuse as well and everything looks fine. I see airmatic pumps/compressors on internet for as low as $120 dollars ( I will buy an original/oem part) and I am wondering if spending the money for the diagnosis is a good investment. I am pretty handy when it comes to getting my hands dirty with some grease(if it will take a pro 25 min to change the pump, it might take me 1.5 hours due to lack of a lift and specific tools). I am just wondering if any of you has come across something like this and what steps/action did you take and the outcome of such actions/steps. Anything helps. I thank you.
Respectfully,
Al

 

Hard to pinpoint without a diagnosis. Those system give a lot of informations. Since one rear is high, we could guess that either 1- The sensor is reporting too low so the car tries to lift it back to normal. Since the sensor is bad, system is unable to see correct value and thus the malfunction message. Or 2- The car is unable to lower it back down even if it tries to. This could be a bad distribution block or a pinched line.

Try to find someone local to read the code. Any shop with high end scanner would do to pinpoint the malfunction reason