I am a recent new owner of a 99 SL600. I have a few other V12 cars (36 cyl worth), so the V12 is not scary to me and I find it one of the best motors on earth in both benz and bmw. I just became owner of a 99 white/grey with 40K miles, mainly because I love the lower than dirt price these things have come too, and simply love the car! I was actually tryin to sell the car for a friend for 6 months and just bought it myself as the market is shot on these cars. I have waited patiently for the market to bring these things to their knees on pricing. Its there! Damn shame for the previous owners, but that is Mercedes in a nutshell.... You could not lose that much money in vegas if you tried, and in the stock market, you at least have a chance! Anyway, this is not about the worse than terrible economics of buying a new mercedes for 120K and dumping it for low 30's in 4 years with very little use, its about the mercedes hydropnumatic suspension, that I am new too.
My cars hydralic suspension does what I am guessing it is supposed to, it raises/lowers on all 3 settings, and the "stiffening" switch does the job too, the trouble light is not on, etc. I am however experiencing a bit of bouncing in the front, equally from both sides. Rear is fine. I would gather it is just like worn out shocks on a normal car, but these are different shocks of course. They are not leaking or losing fluid, and they seem to do what I am guessing they are supposed to, but just bounce a bit too much compared to the other SL600s I have driven over the years.
Before I go out and buy two new front hydropnumatic shocks, I am looking for any fixes/advice on this problem that may be something a little less drastic that I may be missing or ignorant too. I am confident I can tackel this job myself if I am pointed in the right direction from someone that has been down this road, and taking it to the dealer is not an option for a guy like me, as this is my hobby.
Once I get this problem tackled, my plans are to re-bumper this car to the sport package and add the AMG wheels. Cant wait!
The bouncing you are describing seems to be the same as the experience I had when I had the suspension on the higher level on a bumpy road. Felt like the shocks were bad. I am sure that you had already made sure the setting was on low but I just thought I would throw that out there.
Yes, that is exactly the problem I am experiencing. I have tried the switch and it makes it stiffer, only with more bounce. It is definatly a pretty bad problem on my car and I still have not had a good answer to what it may be. It is just the front, rear is fine. It is equal between both front shocks as I disconnected the sway bar just to make sure as a test to make sure I was not dealing with a troubled shock. Possibly both are troubled, but I would doudt that as the car is relitivly low miles and is a mint kept car, but that still may be the issue. It is like the front is "too stiff" and causing the bouncing like when the car is lifted all the way up using the raise switch. I am wondering if there is a sensor that tells the system where the front is sitting? Possibly this is not working right causing more pressure on the front shocks, but I dont know yet. I figured the hydralic light would have come on if a sensor was bad, but again, this is really my first time messing with this hydraulic system and I am in the learning mode. Any advice is appreciated!
I stopped in at my local MB dealer lastweek (where I was a mechanic about 10 years ago) to get a valete key made and to order another remote key for my car. The thought of giving my only key to the valete people at Harrah's scares me. So I finally got around to getting another set. While I was there I was able to get one of the guys in the shop to do a diagnostic readout on my suspension, becuase my light was comming on intermitently. turns out I was low on fluid and that I have a bad lateral accelleration sensor on the left side. He also mentioned to me that it seemed rather bouncy and that it is usualy related to the "canon balls" as he called them. What they are in acualty are preasure accumulators. It appears they are filled with gas and are used to balance the rebound of the struts in combination with preasure valves that are mounted seperately. Mercedes reccomends that they are replaced in pairs. Needless to say I topped off the hydraulic fluid and banged on the sensor with a screw driver handle ( what's the worst that could happend it was already broke) and the light hasn't come on in 2 days. Go figure.
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Nobody Poses with their toaster!
1997 SL600
1990 300e
1988 924s
1998 Durango
1993 740i
Your problem are most likley the accumulators,
the actual shocks in the front are only acting as pistons and don't handle any shock absorbing, this is done by the external "bombs". They are filled half with gas and half with oil, seperated by a membrane. Over time this membrane rips and the oil fills the part completely, this results in bouncing of the front end.
The damping light will not come on if they are shot.
They are located behind the inner front fender and connected to the hydraulic suspension system via 2 lines. I just replaced those on my 97sl600, not too difficult and no special tools required, took about 3 hours for both sides.
The parts are $200 each at MB, you can get aftermarket cheaper but I went with the original ones just to be sure, there are different versions out there and I wanted to make sure to get the right ones from the start.
You also need 1 quart of hydraulic fluid to refill the system.
Here the steps:
Lock the suspension system (press big red button next to the light switch)
Put the rollbar up before lifting the car (it might trigger it when you crank up only one side of the car)
Take off the wheel
Inside the fender take off the small plastic cover to the rear of the car (no need to remove the complete inner fender)
behind it you'll see the accumulator (the location is pretty much behind the V12 sign on the side of the car)
loosen the 2 hydraulic lines, have a bucket handy as you will lose about a quart of hydraulic fluid (for both sides)
The accumulator itself is fastened with 3 screws, you might have to loosen the mounting plate where it sit's on in order to get behind it, it's pretty tight in there
remove the valve nut from the old accumulator and mount it on the new one
mount the new accumulator but don't tighten all the screws, it helps to have some movement when you reattach the hydraulic lines, be careful not to ruin the threads
reassembly is as easy as taking it apart, all you need is a regular metric wrench set and one INBUS to counter the mounting screws.
Once both sides are changed and the car is back on its feed unlock the suspension and fill the reservoir tank, it's in the left ftont of the engine compartment right next to the washer fluid tank.
You'll need about one quart
press the ride height button a couple of times so the system can pump out any air
I stopped in at my local MB dealer lastweek (where I was a mechanic about 10 years ago) to get a valete key made and to order another remote key for my car. The thought of giving my only key to the valete people at Harrah's scares me. So I finally got around to getting another set. While I was there I was able to get one of the guys in the shop to do a diagnostic readout on my suspension, becuase my light was comming on intermitently. turns out I was low on fluid and that I have a bad lateral accelleration sensor on the left side. He also mentioned to me that it seemed rather bouncy and that it is usualy related to the "canon balls" as he called them. What they are in acualty are preasure accumulators. It appears they are filled with gas and are used to balance the rebound of the struts in combination with preasure valves that are mounted seperately. Mercedes reccomends that they are replaced in pairs. Needless to say I topped off the hydraulic fluid and banged on the sensor with a screw driver handle ( what's the worst that could happend it was already broke) and the light hasn't come on in 2 days. Go figure.
Hey Jim, how much did the dealer charge you for the key? Mine told me they couldn't do the valet key (only could do the big remote key for $190+) [?]
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