I recently changed the rear airmatic struts to new Arnott's and drove probably for a month with no problems. I had changed them because the rear struts were making noise, like air was being released in spurts and the "bowling ball in the trunk" sound. After replacing them these noises went away.
Yesterday I got the Airmatic Visit Workshop message and no lowering of the car was visible. It could have been my imagination but it could have felt more stiff too.
I ran the codes with iCarsoft under suspension and got:
P132201 (the fault code is not found in the database)
P132200 (the fault code is not found in the database)
I looked these up and didn't find much other an Audi TSB that called it "DTC P132200 (Knock Sensor 3 Signal Too High)" - ??? unrelated to suspension.
No other codes came up under suspension.
A couple other points
- I have long heard a subtle rattle from the left front suspension. I changed every component in the front suspension other than the strut, and that was next on my list.
- The vehicle maintained its level overnight
I plan on doing the soapy water around the top of the rear struts, check the relay and double check the connections of the wires of the rear struts.
Any additional insights or ideas would be appreciated. I will also write Arnott asking if they know what these codes are - that's what I am most curious about.
I went through something similar to this over the course of a few weeks and 3 struts later.
What I had to do was equalize the air pressure. I know it sounds crazy, but my passenger side would not lower more than 2 inches above the tire while the other 3 corners would. I basically emptied out all the air in the front two struts and them filled them at the same time. This allowed the car to raise and lower as it was intended. What I think is going on is the voltage is either too high or too low for the ride level sensors. (Needs to be between 2.0V to 3.0V) So when you hit certain speeds the car tries to lower or level itself, but can't as it's voltage is out of range. (Speculations of course as your situation may not be the same thing) You would really need either SDS or Launch or Idiag or Easydiag to find out the true codes. They have more of manufacture level access to the cars components.
This is what I was referring too. This will also throw off the ride quality and make the car seem like it's in race car suspension mode all the time. And can make steering seem like it has a mind of it's own.
Well color me wrong!! I did not know that it did that. Thank you for proving me wrong.
So this is looking better.
It will let you pull a data stream, but will it let you manually or auto adjust it? Like let it do an auto level from 8/12/16mm to roughly 0/0/0mm?
Then look at the voltage and see if it's still between 2.0 and 3.0
I'm not sure what the level settings are on yours, but it should say something like the picture I posted about the ranges it should be in.
Edit 2.18 is within reason, but this depends on how high or low your car is already sitting. remember. if it's low already and you start climbing to 80 mph then it may hit the visit workshop because at that point it will be out of range.
I don't believe I can set the levels manually, but I'll check again.
Do you think it would be a leap to change the front strut? It was my final component from the noise (everything else replaced and torqued to spec, and I was able to least feel play where the strut connected to the control arm, I tightened it once and it came back.
I'm going to inspect the boot and if there are any tears that'll do it.
Lily has 147k miles and this very well might be the original, so if I change it and the message doesn't go away I won't be too upset but curious if you think that is a premature step and what further diagnosis you could think about - thanks!
1: Open the hood.
2: ( This is going with your visual inspection) Get close enough to hear the top of the air spring. Now push down on the fender like 4 to 6 good times while listening. If you hear any type of clicking or banging type of noise, then it's time to replace also.
It means that something in the top portion of the strut is broken. <---- This is what started me on swapping out my passenger air spring. And from there I got Visit workshop over time.
I bought another cheapy and then an Arnott. And still the visit workshop came back. It wasn't until I was able to equalized the air pressure that this problem finally went away and I had the smooth quiet and comfortable ride feeling back.
How I new something was wrong was because the new passenger air spring (3rd 1 top of the line was doing the exact same things as the 160.00 dollar ones) would not lower as low as the other 3 and it cause a failure in the suspension. And no amount of me trying to level it with SDS was working. But once i removed all the air and let the car fillup in sync. I was able to clear the codes and get my ride quality back.
Here is a picture of what I used to fix mine. I raised the car to just barely off the ground then I loosen the air lines from the front two air springs (lowered the car) till the tires were sitting tucked in the wheel wells. Then I used SDS to start filling them up. The system was able to equalize and then all 4 corners were within voltage range.
Not sure if that is what your facing, but if everything else is working, chances are this could be the problem.
I didn't clear any codes, didn't disconnect the battery, just Lily decided it was "okay."
The point of these sites (For me anyway) is to learn and share diagnosis for the benefit of others, not only using it as a hotline for other ideas - so I will continue inspection of the system and let you know what I come up with.
Sometimes its more fun to figure out the cause of a problem than for the problem to just go away with no explanation. The allure of these machines for me is learning and interacting with all the systems (until I learn and interact and still can't figure it out )
Agreed, there is no such thing as a fault that fixed itself :big laugh:
Sometimes it can be an Acceleration (G) Sensor they read out of range pop a code and then when the vehicle is driven they go back in range and the message disappears, (for a while).
If it were read on SDS it would be apparent what the problem is, and also it will be stored in the Event Log, instead of just coming up with an un listed code like the lesser machines do.
Yep. I have to concur. This happen with the SRS light for me. it would stay on with no error till you started the car.
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