Found my 4.8is with slammed driver front 2 times in one week. Advice?
 

Should I sell the stupid shit or fix it.



hahahah, kiddding.

My question. I am going with Arnott re-manufactured replacements.

Should I replace both fronts at the same time?

Do we have any discount codes.

Thanks guys in advance.

P.S. I know I am asking for trouble for going on a 100 mile each way trip, but I ain't taking the stupid F150. 3 day trip. Tell me I am screwing myself. Only seems to deflate overnight and not always.

Yes do both Slick, the Arnotts are lifetime warrantied, if one is leaking the other isn't far behind (age wise of the rubber)

There used to be a 10% discount code floating around on the Benz World forums, but I can't find it right now. I'd just get the remanufactured struts, drop them both in, ship your cores back, done. I had my remanufactured front Arnotts since January 2012 and they are wonderful.

Just be wary of the 3 day trip or driving the X too much while the bags are leaking. You don't want to overwork the compressor, then you'll have to buy the repair kit for that as well because it won't be working "within spec"


My 2 cents.



Lol for a second there I saw your first post sentence and was waiting for the obligatory "GOD I HATE AIR SUSPENSION CAN'T I JUST CHANGE IT TO REGULAR SHOCKS AND SPRINGS AND CODE THE EHC MODULE OUT OF THE CAR SO THE ERROR DOESNT SHOW UP ANYMORE" haha


If you pay attention to air suspension problems quick enough they aren't so bad. Let me know how you do or if you need help man!

Yea definitely going with the complete reman unit. I don't even want to bother trying to separate this up. Plus the shock must be abused by now as well, especially NYC roads.

Yea the compressor will have to take a beating. I will probably pull the fuses for it overnight, just to save it some labor till it hits sleep mode.

I found the benz code, and every other code, but they don't seem to work, or don't work for these parts.

Thanks for the help. Should be easy peasy I think.

Good news is that there is a fix now for the compressor, some guy sells a new Teflon seal kit on UK ebay which basically takes care of the seal on the pump that takes a beating if the cars are leaking bad, I don't think a couple days will do much but if you let it go for a month I would be worried.

Good luck man hope all else is well with the X and the baby!

Babies (2). Yea all good there getting bigger, thank god, lol. X is a beast. Love it still just as much. Ordered the units. Should be here Friday. Will install sunday, or next thursday, if sunday falls through.

Yea I saw the teflon rebuild kits. Shocking how simple the fix is.

Only thing to do is figure out how to de-pressurize the system. I am thinking ice pick into the bag.

Cmon man I know you're a rough and tough builder, utility knife that shit! I mean you could loosen the air line but who goes through that trouble?

Now we getting places. I was thinking about utility knife, but got a bit concerned about it exploding or something. I guess I'll put on my boots or something before I do that.

I can also shoot a 22ga nail through it. Thoughts? Might be to slow a leak though. Yea knife idea is best.

Brad nailer is looking into it too much, I'd just insert knife opposite of my face and wheel well and poke hole, then slice a bit downwards. Air will be out in 2 seconds that way. Don't forget safety goggles lol!

Why not pull the hose off the air tank to drain?

I did this on my driver reservoir easy peasy empty.

Lower the car to lowest setting, that would create less pressure than higher settings. A step in the right direction anyway. I think the instructions that comes with the new reman struts should tell you how to depressurize.

We were kidding around guys. I know it isn't rocket science, but instructions say to puncture hole. lol. I don't know, didn't get them yet. Tuesday.

So some strange shit happened. First day in Poconos, my driver front deflated again over night.

So I have to keep driving locally for random trips. All day its all good in the hood. At night, I decide to pull the two air fuses. I come to the car in the morning, it is not deflated.

I place fuses in, nothing changes, drive around all good. IT HAS NOT LOWERED ITSELF SINCE THAT DAY. WTF? Air ride fully functional, as I decided to off road a bit on the 5 mile dirt road, then a bit of rock crawling, till I realized that 20"s are not good. So I cut it off there. Some passes were quite interesting, knowing the contis would be rags if I proceed. But I was raising and lowering the car at will, with no ill effects or noises.

I pulled out INPA, no codes. WTFx2?

Pulled out DIS, no codes. WTFx3?

My left rear did pretty much exactly what you describe. I went out from work to lunch it was down. Drove, came back 2 days no issues (ordered bags day 1) deflated once a little 4-5 days later. When I got it out it had damage at the fold so I guess it was folded on the holes when it held.

Good luck hope you don't have any more issues.

Yea I am thinking along the same lines, the hole is covered up somewhere. And the off roading made it cover the hole up. I don't get it exactly, but I know that shit deflated 4 times now.

UPDATE:

Boy was I relieved to find the car slammed on the drivers side front today. Whew, back on track, hole in bag.

I know how you feel. I just went through it & when it was staying I was thinking might be something else. Scary.

Yeah with the driving its possible the "leaky section" got covered up somehow and held, but sure enough, if you are losing pressure overnight, its definitely leaking, whether its slow or fast. Looking forward to hearing about you changing them out Slick!

Well shit, now I can't drive the X at all. the bag is fully shot. Soft as a sponge. Tomorrow I will stay home and do the swap.

Holy crap the the replacement assembly is heavy. Gonna have a worker help me out, don't want to drop that shit while removing the line. I guess I don't have to worry about puncturing a hole in it now.

told you to be careful about driving on a leaky bag my dude! :)

It managed to handle the trip to Poconos and back, and then some city driving. Car feels like shit now. So unstable, wobbly, can't wait to get my X back on the road. I can't stand the F150 when I don't need to use it. I will post back tomorrow.

Ok did it.

The kit from Arnott is pretty cool. Even comes with a new line connector. Pretty easy to swap out. Pull out the compression ring with a pick, and pull off the tip.

Few things to make is easier. CNC did his youtube vid with removing the two 22mm shock bolts, but that makes it so that the assembly hangs off the top 3 while you try to the the line disconnected. When I did the pass side, i took off the top 3 13mm, and that dropped the whole unit, letting me disconnect the air line much easier. Also nothing has a chance of falling. It took 45 min for the pass side, a bit over an hour for the drivers. Car went from floor with popped air bags to back down on the floor in about 2:20 min. Air tools deff make this job stupid easy, and I am very glad I have them.

And I got the air out of the second working spring, by just loosening the line. It really is not dramatic at all.

So yup, X back in action.

Quick update, job is all good. I am now a pro suspension fixer. Car height did not change at all since swap.

Awesome to hear Denis, I'm sure you feel better mentally as well, knowing your X has new rubber on the corners (and I don't mean the tires) :thumbup:

Made me feel better when mine were replaced, nothing more I hate than aged rubber, be it bushings, tires, etc!


Enjoy the fresh ride, and the lifetime warranty from Arnott!

So you didn't remove the two 22mm bolts at all, just the top three 13MM and that dropped the unit low enough to remove the air line & bag? I bought just the bag as my car has semi-low miles...was gonna do mine tomorrow am. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks, Mark

No i purchased the whole unit. With shock. Price from Arnott is not much more over just the bag. I didnt have to remove the 22 in the middle.

Yea put a jack under the rotor of the one you will remove and lower the whole unit. That way you will be able to remove airline without worrying about anything falling.

Make sure you get both wheels in the air, as you will need to remove the sway bar links. And you will need a thin bicycle 18mm to hold sway bar nut without tearing the boot. I used an impact and didnt have to hold shit, so that was a plus. And i grinded a regular 18mm wrench down to propper thickness last time, so I still had that just in case.

When ordering my new air shock, my parts source said the X WILL need another alignment (had this done 2 months ago with a front-end control arm replacement (all 4).

IF I drop the entire assembly from the top then I won't be effecting the alignment..this is good!

Mark

No thats where the problem is. You might need a new allignment. My replacement 13mm studs didnt line up exactly as the original no matter what i did. I plan on another alignment anyway, after I check my height calibrations.

Also, once you remove the air line, you will still need to take it out. I hear its a pain in the ass swapping the bag alone. Don't worry, the bottom two bolts are non aligning, so removing the unit wont throw it off alingment.

I would think any alignment adjustment would be the top 3 13mm bolts on the shock tower, as opposed to the bottom 22mm bolts on the spindle.

I think its good practice to get an alignment after changing the struts out regardless.

So I decided to whip out the tape measure last night. Crap, 720mm up front. Dropped it in 3 min with INPA. Now gotta do the rear. I didn't have time yesterday, and now driving a racked truck lol. Don't know who messed with my car before, but this is definitely too high.

I found that my car was sitting 1.5" too high (40 mm or so) earlier this year, and I had my front Arnotts replaced January of 2012, im guessing with any air strut/bag work that you need to recalibrate the ride heights to be proper. Not bad though you were only a 1/2" high or so.

Rear right had to be dropped 13mm, rear left 2mm. Driving it a few hundred miles before I do alignment. Want to check the heights a few more times.

Well. It looks like my Arnot spring took a shit. Car slams down after 1 days of standing. Only from drivers side though. Seems the bag it always softer than the other side too.

Anyone have any advice before I call them. I mean I am going to call them anyway, but anything I should watch out for?

Idk they supposedly have a lifetime warranty. You also can get NEW units from them as well, instead of remanufactured (check their website)

So I haven't called them yet, hoping for some sort of a fluke. Car did dame shit again. I lifted it up. Sprayed soap water all over the spring, no bubbles. On the floor, can't see all of the spring, but still don't see bubbles. So I'm worried it is not spring. But it did work fine for a long time. So maybe it is the spring, just can't see it.

What else can I check?

Leave it in off-road height see if it leaks down overnight.

When i was replacing my front right strut, i ordered an arnott strut. Installed it and shit was leaking,

Where it was coming from was up top by the piston nut (remove the black cap in engine bay around the 3 strut mount bolts and check around there. They overnighted me another unit and this one worked good.

Rick. Yea deff goes down. Def that shock. Car is tilted now.

4.8, yea I checked there too. Can't find damn leak. I don't get it. Going to unbolt it from top and go that route. Check again before I remove.

It's prob a slow leak from the bottom then. At least you can call Arnott now and get them to send you a replacement