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"Stop, Car Too Low" - Help

178K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  aquadump69 
#1 ·
Hello,

The "Stop, Car too Low" message is on in my car. The rear seems at the proper height, but both front fenders are very low, maybe one inch above the tires. So it is not all four corners that are low, but the front.

I've searched the forum and see "relay, air pump and fuse" and "leaks" but am not sure how to trouble shoot this without buying each part and doing trial and error? I don't see any leaks on the floor in my garage.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,
Todd
 
#2 ·
It is difficult to detect air leaks on the garage floor. Do you mean you have a gap of one inch from the top of the front tyre to the fender?

Can you make the car raise/lower from the Airmatic raised level button? Can you hear the airmatic pump working (not easy to hear from the cabin if the engine is running).

Can you check the protective bellows of the front struts?

If you can lift the car, you could check the Airmatic pump wiring plus the wiring to the pressure valve. I think someone posted photos to ease you finding the location. The pump anyway is behind the front bumper, at the left, at the bottom of the engine compartment space.
 
#5 ·
I believe the car raised slightly when I pushed the suspension button. Could not hear it working with the engine on, but I saw the fender raise a little bit.

The front fenders are basically almost sitting on the tires (1"-2" of space there). The rear height looks fine.

I guess I plan to drop it off at the dealer for a diagnosis. I found Arnottindustries.com with the cheapest struts ($400 each).

Is the front suspension controlled separately from the rear? I am wondering if one front strut goes bad, does it lower the whole front and not the rear?
 
#13 ·
I guess I plan to drop it off at the dealer for a diagnosis. I found Arnottindustries.com with the cheapest struts ($400 each).
Has anyone tried the air shocks from Arnott? I'm very interested to know about their customer service, products, etc. The shocks are refurbished but at $400 each, it's worth the risk (?)

My 2003 E500 also had the "car too low" red light come on a month ago after it hadn't been used for a few days, I had it towed to my mechanic, he reset the computer and the car raised to the normal level! But 3 weeks later (last weekend), the message "(airmatic symbol) visit workshop" came on again. The front height is still okay. My mechanic will check for leaks this time. In case I need to replace the shocks, I hope I can use the Arnott's ones (I mean I can trust them.) Please share any experience you have.

Also, can you replace just 1 front shock? Someone told me if one is leaky, both have to be replaced, I'm not so sure. Thanks in advance!
 
#11 ·
DALE.M: You won´t see any leaks on the floor as this is air suspension not fluid suspension. As already explained by Diesel Benz, pump Your car up with vehicle rising button to the max, take a shover bottle with soapy water and spray around the air bag, linings, hoses and so on. If there is an air leakage You will see significant bubble play. I believe the system lost its pressure quickly and the weight of engine and tranny puts the front end to the ground on both sides. I believe both front and rear ends are independent although supplied from one central reservoir. In case my rear air spring was broken, the front stayed pretty up and the rear went down on both sides, with an inch lower on the damaged side. The car was let say twisted.

I´m really interested in the AUX battery issues as well, did You get the message when the engine is off? Because when the engine is running, it is the alternator which supplies the right voltage and must be corrected by a voltage regulator.
 
#12 ·
It wasn't me looking for leaks...warning light for aux battery when car is shut off, key in position 2...I don't recall if I tried to reset it or just changed the battery. the suspension too low warning stays on til the car raises which can occur if it sits too long..my E 500 is parked for 5 months a year
 
#14 ·
i would think that you could replace only one, it doesn't make sense to change something that isnt broken... and if you should need to replace both, oem can go to ebay for a bigger profit than returning it to arnott as they do ask you to send them your broken one to them for refurbishing and reselling.
 
#17 ·
Ok. I had this problem in January.
In early december there was a huge stone on the street that I didnt see in time and ran over it. I thought I damaged something but the first visual ( right after i ran over that thing ) everything looked fine...it was dark though. The next day, my tire was flat. Turned out there was a little dent in the rim. I got that replaced. A month later ( January ) i get the message "Stop, car too low". I noticed that only one corner of the car was too low ( the side/wheel which i ran over the stone ). The day before I got the message, I tried raising the vehicle with that button by the shifter next to the suspension W/S button.

I believe those were the factors that caused my airmatic to fail. I brought it to the mechanic to get it checked out and fixed...I'll write off what it was and what was done.
- Replace Ride Height Sensor ( Part 0025426918 )
- Oem Suspension Strut. Front Suspension - Shock Absorber - with active Suspension - Left ( Part 2113205513 )
- OEM Control arm - Front suspension - lower control arm - left ( Part 2113308107 )
- OEM Ball Joint - Replace - Front Suspension - Upper Ball Joint - One Side ( 2113300235 )

Alltogether with labor it cost me a little over $2,700. 2,000 in parts and 700 in labor.

I hope this helped a little.
 
#18 ·
The shocks arrived on Monday and they had been installed on my car. The compressor was also dead and I just got it from the dealer since the saving from buying from Arnott is insignificant. The suspension is working fine. One little bizarre problem: the ABS light came on and won't go off. My mechanic used his Launch X431 to scan it and couldn't pick up any codes, he also took it to another shop who claimed to have a better computer but got the same result. He checked all mechanical parts and sensors and assured me everything is fine. He advised me to take it to the dealer and just a diagnosis, sometimes the dealer's computer is capable of resetting the code. Anyone has the same experience? It's really strange.

Now I have to find out how much it'll cost me to ship the cores back to Arnott for the $100 deposit (each shock). If the shipping costs close to $100, it's not worth it. BTW, I'm shipping from Toronto to Florida.
 
#19 ·
Now I have to find out how much it'll cost me to ship the cores back to Arnott for the $100 deposit (each shock). If the shipping costs close to $100, it's not worth it. BTW, I'm shipping from Toronto to Florida.

Well here is some good advice for you - - - Arnott gives you the shipping labels for return, so you just put the old struts back in the box, and stick the new UPS shipping labels on that Arnott provided. My labels were mixed in with the receipt. So it is free (or prepaid if you will) to ship cores back.

I just shipped my cores back today. And the new struts are doing fine.

Also, maybe unrelated, but they may have disconnected some of the brake connectors when disconnecting the strut connector in the fender well (they should have reconnected them though). There are three connectors together in there, two brakes and one strut. I disconnected all in trying to replace strut, and then got brake warnings when I started it up. But then I reconnected all the connectors and they went away. Does not sound like the same issue though.

Thanks,
Todd
 
#21 ·
My car is getting weirder and weirder everyday. The ABS had been on since the front shocks were replaced. Yesterday "ESP defective" came on the dash and the "ESP OFF" button did not respond at all. This morning, with the ABS light still on, I pushed "ESP OFF" and it worked - the yellow triangular (!) light came on. I drove the car for about 5 mins with both lights on, and all of a sudden, both went off! And the ABS light hasn't come back since (xing fingers). I have a funny car, but I'm not laughing.
 
#23 ·
I drove the car for almost 300km today and everything's fine. I don't know too much about cars so I'll just chalk that up to finicky electronics for now. I have been driving the car for over 3 years and (knocking on wood) this is the first problem. The car still drives beautifully. As an aside, I asked Arnott why they don't make rear air shocks. They say because the design is completely different but they plan on making them next year.
 
#24 ·
Hello everyone, what an amazing history of troubleshooting going on here, so let me tell you a bit about this pretty cls 500, 2004 couple of months ago started to get this crazy errors on the screen last one was EPS light on at the dashboard, after that the car stuck up high which is I hadn't raise it so I guess the car made it by itself. Last month wasn't heavy snow and I did not move the car almost for three weeks and just out of sudden the car very low from the back both sides and I can't raise the car either I can hear the sound of the comprosser

Also it isn't very interesting about the battry possibility. I had before Lexus IS 300 and when the bettery is low don't surprise if you saw Japanese on your dashboard!!

Any advise would be appreciated, thank you
 
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