My 2003 mb e500 sport is equipped with the airmatic suspension. Without warning the rear suspension completely failed and dropped the rear end of the vehicle all the way down to the frame 2 inches from the asphalt. My small child was in the back seat of the vehicle at the time and would have bounced up to the ceiling if he had not been secured in his carseat. The car is not operational at this time and repair estimates exceed $3,000.00.
2003 Mercedes Benz E500 suspension complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 19 of 19, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Front and rear end suspension are down to the ground ,,and a error code on dash: stop car to low, car is not drive-ablea.
Both front and rear air shocks went within 2000 miles of each other 64000 and 66000 miles. These shocks are thousands of dollars and are a major problem with these cars. They were not engineered properly or they should have lasted much longer. Mercedes will do nothing about..
Airmatic suspension leak caused call to pull to one side. Could have pulled me left of center, luckily, on a side street at failure point. No warning at all. Car depicted "stop, vehicle too low" as warning in dash after the failure. Car required towing. Vehicle has 61000 miles on it. Friends at work have similar car and most have experienced this failure.
I was traveling on I-65 from lafayette to indianapolis in my 2003 e-500 mercedes- benz. Driving at highway's posted 70 MPH speed the car suddenly pulled from the fast, left line that I was traveling into the right line casing the other vehicle traveling on the right line to turn into an emergency shoulder and consequently in to the ditch in collision avoidance maneuver. The reason for my vehicle's sudden change in steering and handling characteristic was an unexpected, instantaneous failure of an air strut on the front/right side of the vehicle. My on board computer never indicated any malfunctions until the moment of an actual incident. My car is well, dealer maintained 2003 mercedes e-500 with only 36,000 original miles. The m-b dealer never indicated a need to replace air shocks for any reasons. After the near collision experience I have researched an internet and learned that the premature air shocks failure is a very frequent occurrence among the owners of mb vehicles with air suspension. I'm an original owner of e-500 and after this traumatic experience I have lost a confidence in safety of this particular vehicle because the other shocks/struts could suddenly fail the same way the first one did. Are the air struts are having a design/manufacturing defect? The vehicle is out of warranty and local dealer is asking over $ 1800 to replace a strut. Thank you.
2003 e500 with 64000mls, my front air suspension strut bottomed out failed wile driving at normal speed.took the car to mercedes and it was out of warranty; we replaced the 2 front shocks and compressor but 3 weeks later my back shocks failed to. Total cost o repairs $3500 and still not driving alright harsh driving and lots of vibration.
Driving on city surface street. Came to four way stop. Heard a pop like that of a tire or balloon. Car stared to make whistling noise. Pulled over and saw left front air suspension strut bottomed out. Towed to dealer and advised that left front airmatic hydropnematic struct had failed. That air bladder had blown. Further that airmatic compressor was burned out. I had driven a total of 50 yards from blow out. Total parts and labor over $2,500.00 from mercedes benz of walnut creek.
My car (2003 mercedes e500) has had 3 of the 4 airmatic shocks fail in 50k miles. Each time, the car is not drivable and must be towed. Two of the failures occurred while driving. The front wheels cannot be turned when this occurs without damage to the fender a dangerous situation. 1 of the repairs was performed under warranty. The other two repairs cost $3000. Calls to the dealer and mercedes benz of north america to request a warranty repair were refused. Review of online forums for mb owners indicates many owners experience the same problem.
Mercedes benz e500 airmatic strut collapse. Low mileage: 43000 at time of failure. Driving at highway speed when strut failed. Car leaned to right & made an emergency stop. Mercedes benz charged $1100 for replacement part, I installed. It appears to be a design flaw: protective bellows fails & contaminates air bag.
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