I usually drive my car every day or every other day, but recently I had almost 4 days of sitting in the garage and when I went to drive it last night, the front end was all the way down, wheels up in fenders. When I turned car on, it quickly raised back up to level height. I tested the raised mode and cycling back to normal height and it all worked fine.

After sitting overnight, the front is again almost all the way down while the rear is still normal height. It's getting close to the 4-5 year life of struts, or at least that's what I read was the time before they could fail.

So from searches, it should either be a small leak in air system or one of the struts, correct?

I assume with the rear remaining unaffected that the front and rear systems must be separate or do they use same compressor?


How long do I have before I can risk burning up compressor or any other damage, days, weeks, a few months?


If it is the front struts, is it best to change both?


Also, I live in New Orleans and seems only one trustworthy guy qualified to do these repairs, about how much is an average labor job to replace both struts?


Thanks for any input, I can't do anything till shop opens tomorrow, but want to get a little more educated before I call and bring in for repair.

 

I had a local shop change one only charged 2 hours labor. one year later almost to the day I took it to bentley dealer and they replaced both.. as they only wanted to do them in pairs. you have one shock going bad. its usually the right front one that goes first.

 

That's interesting you said the right one because it seems the front right is just slightly lower. Any idea on time frame to do this before risking damage to compressor? Just seeing if I can put it off a week to week and a half

 

if it is going down overnight slowly i would not worry about waiting a week,its when it falls after a couple of hours and then you could damage not just the compressor but also the control module. also as they are air springs it is ok to do them one at a time,changing both has no meaning due to being air . 3 hours is a fair time and usually no need for alignment .

 

I drove mines awhile until it failed.. when it fails the car will be low in the front but lower on the right side as though the wheel is tucked in the fender and it will rub on sharp turns. you have options on shocks. foley bentley i can get new for $1,900. i believe retail for them is $2,300 @ foley. Most charge $2,900. ther are also rebuilt units
that can be had for alot less.. I would consider rebuilt but not used. The shocks are like a slow leak in a tire. my compressor never ran all the time i guess it will turn off until needed again.

 

see arnottindustries.com for rebuilt struts. i bought 2 fronts 1 1/2 year ago and all is well

 

Wow, great price Larry and thanks for link! Looks like they also come with a better warranty than factory units too! Here is a direct link.


www.arnottindustries.com/part_BENTLEY_yid27_pid177_gid727.html

 

FYI i have also purchased bentley parts at discounted prices(and excellent service and product knowledge) from steve foley bentley in northbrook,IL

 

Thanks for all the responses. It turned out to be a small leak on right front strut as suspected. Based on what I read here I decided to go with the Arnott stuts. My shop said it wasn't necessary to replace both, so I am just replacing the one side for now. I may purchase the other side in a month or two as a precaution, but need to recoup from all the self employment income taxes I had to pay this month.

One thing I was pretty blown away by is the fact the strut comes with a lifetime warranty and will replace it if it fails as long as I assume it didn't fail as a result of damage from an accident or something intentional. That means I basically will never have to buy another one, and it appears to be the same or slightly better quality than what came on the car, so it's a win.

The price on the company website was $989.43, and I was able to find a 10% off code up to $75 on a Mercedes forum, so it was $914.43. The code is MBSAVE12. It was posted on MB forum by Arnott this past Nov, so not sure how much longer it will still work.