Hi Guys

This may be a stupid question but my wifes SL500 drops the front right side suspension if parked for over an hour or so and i assumed that something must be wrong with the air suspension (pump or seal etc ) but after looking through the forum i am confused as to whether it has air suspension or hydraulic?? once the car is started and moved a couple of metres the ride height comes back up and the car drives as normal, however over the weekend she said she could hear a clicking noise from the car and the suspension went very hard and the ABC warning came on and told her to "drive carefully" (that would be a 1st!!]) so she stopped turned the engine off and back on again and it was all fine..... our local Mercedes stealer is a nightmare so before i take it in there i wondered if anybody has any ideas??

Thanks

 

None of these cars have air suspension -- Mercedes' "Airmatic". They all have either conventional springs or active suspension -- "Automatic Body Control" (ABC).

The car drops when left sitting because of a leak either internal or external. If external, then you will likely see a puddle of fluid under the car, and this problem should probably be corrected. If the leak is internal, then I believe you may choose to simply live with it. Mercedes states that it is normal for the car to drop, albeit after a period of days and not one hour.

It's possible that simply filtering the ABC hydraulic fluid will correct the problem; if not, then the solution is to replace the valve block that controls fluid to the front struts.

If the ABC controller detects certain faults, then the ABC is shutdown. This is apparently what recently happened to your wife over a weekend. Turning-off the car and restarting allows the system to work again until another fault is detected. It's possible that a momentary glitch from a sensor shutdown your car, and possibly it will never happen again.

 

Thanks Bobterry99.

I think i will get our local garage to have a look at the ABC fluid before i go near the Merc dealer...hope its nothing too drastic!

 

Well it has just come back from the local specialist who say the front valve block has gone and the rear actuator also needs replacing! They tried changing the filter and flushing the system but that hasn't helped and now they reckon its about 2000 euros worth of parts plus the labour!! Anybody know of any cheap parts suppliers??