Fix Mercedes S Class Collapsed Suspension!

Hi everybody, David Harper here and this is my 2011 Mercedes-Benz S-Class 350 diesel with some serious suspension problems. Oh blimey, my poor beloved S-Class. It is about 10 years old now. I've known the car since it was new because it was bought by a family member and I've had her for about two years. I've driven 30,000 miles in this thing and it is a stonking car. It is quite unbelievable. It's a mega specification so you've got the diesel engine so it'll do 40 odd miles to the gallon but it's got the AMG sports package which is just seriously good. So you've got the AMG body, you've got the AMG wheels, the interior features like the steel foot pedals. I'll show you those in a minute but that body is so masculine. You've got the big haunches. Sadly, this is the worst side of the car at the moment. You can see how it's dropped on the passenger side. Look at that. This morning when I started the engine, the suspension lifted a little bit just to allow me to bring the car out but you can see how she's lopsided there. So not looking her best but talking of best, just take a look at the trim. So it's obsidian black with Sahara leather. Now I've got to tell you I have not cleaned the car for weeks. I didn't expect to be doing any kind of car review here so it's dirty. It's in use most days and the leather is just perfect. It's just a very nice place to be. It's very light and airy. I've got an E-Class Estate which I use more than this but this is the better car by far. And just look at these pedals. When you look down at these pedals, you know you've got an AMG specification. But let's get back to the problem in hand and that of course is the sunken suspension. So yesterday, luckily I was only a mile or so away from home. I was driving along a straight at about 40 miles an hour and the car began pulling to the left-hand side. Now I thought initially that it was something to do with the camber of the road. There'd been some roadworks there recently. I thought something had changed so I was just for the first 20 seconds or so just adjusting the steering and it continued. It started getting more and more violent pulling to the left-hand side. So I thought well I must have a puncture. So I pulled in and got the shock of my life. So the passenger side front had sunk completely and the car was ticking like tick tick tick tick. Something was working desperately to push the suspension up. So I got back in the driver's seat and was about to turn the engine off and there was some kind of warning symbol on the dashboard there. The digital dash. I can't remember exactly what it was but it was obviously a symbol for suspension. So I turned the engine off in the dear hope that when I switched it back on again the car would just miraculously fix itself which is something that has happened as you've probably had experience with cars in the past. Sometimes they can fix themselves but in this case obviously it didn't. I turned it back on again went round to the front. The pump was going crazy working overtime. You could hear it over and above the sound of the diesel engine and again that ticking. It lifted slightly maybe an inch or so. So I thought well I've got to just get it home. I did a very very slow three-point turn and then gingerly drove it home at very low speeds and bunged it into the garage. So situation as we speak is this. I've called my mate Mark also known as American Mark because he's American but he's also a guru when it comes to all things Mercedes-Benz. So he reckons he'll know exactly what the problem is but he has warned me that problem could be very expensive and in fact it's looking more and more expensive by the second. Have you noticed that the car is even lower now now that it's been switched off for a few minutes the suspension is dropping as we speak. So while we're waiting for Mark let me show you around the interior of the car which I think is absolutely mega and the specification is just gorgeous. The colour combination with the obsidian black and that Sahara beige leather is quite astonishing and you've got the piano black on the dash here rather than the walnut finish which really makes it quite sporty in its feel. You've of course got my favourite feature which is the AMG pedals those kind of drilled looking pedals good spec from new look at the seats you've got the electric seat package on drivers and passenger they're heated and it's a mega spec that probably I don't know a thousand pounds fifteen hundred pounds when new and something I've got to say I wouldn't specify if I was ordering the car newer because I'll be trying to save some money but when you bag something like this second hand and you get these features it really does make a big difference. I also wouldn't have upgraded the music system but the first owner did and this music system absolutely blows your ears off and it really does make a difference. It's a very nice place to be I've got to say and the headroom is so much bigger than the E-Class when you get out of this and jump into an E-Class it feels like you're jumping into a little golf or something so because it's a big car of course it needs a lot more space when driving around and parking in hotels and that kind of thing so you've got to you've got to bear that in mind and it does collect bangs and marks in my experience I've got so many little chips and dents on this car from supermarkets and hotel parking spaces but it's not a new S-Class so it doesn't exactly break your heart. These things are phenomenal value for money so this car really well spec'd with the AMG sports package and all of that is probably worth about 12 grand which I think is criminally low it's just outrageous when it comes to value for money. The first owner and don't forget I know the first owner it's a family member absolutely pampered this car to within an inch of its life it was valeted on a monthly basis it's never been validated since I've owned it I've got to say but I do use my cars quite hard but never skimped on when it comes to servicing it's done 64 000 miles 30 of those are mine and it's still worth only 12 grand now that to me is just fantastic so my intention with this car is to keep it I think the body is gorgeous I think it's actually better looking than even the brand new S-Class and I think because they haven't made this model for so many years I always think the get better with age that you don't see as many of them on the road and it just has great presence with those big haunches the big AMG wheels put a plate on it it looks a million dollars for no money and this is the view you get when driving an S-Class. First of all as a driver check out the pedals nice view there with the Mercedes emblem right on the end of the bonnet I missed that in my E-Class actually fabulous seating and I've got to say these seats are just phenomenally comfortable you can travel hundreds of miles in this car get out feeling as fresh as a daisy so this is the view for the driver let's see what it looks like in the back you know what really wherever you're sitting in this car the view is pretty astonishing loads of room loads of luxuries and whether you're a driver or a passenger the view can only be described as a millionaire's view for absolutely no money well here's an update for you unfortunately American Mark has been delayed so he's now not coming it's well past six o'clock and the car front suspension still looks really bad even in the dark however I thought I'd just take this opportunity to show you what this car looks like in the dark in the interior again remember I haven't cleaned this car up but it gives you an idea of what a jolly nice place it is to spend some time in the dark okay time to leave the car to settle overnight and Mark has promised he'll be here by 10am so good evening well good morning I feel a bit better about the situation because even though the car is looking still grotty the sun is shining it's not cold and American Mercedes Mark is now definitely on his way and here he is watch this I bet he drives really slowly look at that there's a little pothole there full of water he can't bear the thought of getting this car muddy or wet in any way driving up this drive would be driving him insane anyway lovely Mercedes he keeps it absolutely immaculate unlike my muddy monster as you can see anyway Mark is pretty camera shy so I'm the one that has to go and switch the engine on in an attempt to actually ramp up the front suspension hopefully enough to be able to maneuver it into the garage so here we go so we're hoping that the pump the arm will just lift it up enough to be able to move it otherwise the car is going to have to stay there can't drive it when it's just about touching the tyre beginning to move yeah just edging up so I want Mark to come over and film this you'll just be able to see it's lifting here you can see it budging just a bit you're going to have to believe me that's about an inch or two up right okay we can move it and so here she is sat in the garage again you can see how high it's lifted now but still not right the car is completely out of sync look at the back wheel arch that's really low as well it's just throwing it all to cock so what Mark's going to do now he's going to check to see if there's any air coming out of the top shocker so he's just using a winderlein you could use any liquid I'm I assume it's causing like a reservoir no bubbling that's a good sign I believe no bubbles no bubbles there that means the top of the shocks not leaking and now for obvious safety reasons Mark's going to disconnect the battery which he's not that impressed with I must say your battery that actually feels a little weak you know you know when you go to start it it's probably the original battery wow you're leaking see the air coming out wow meaning Walt I've never heard that why did the air come rushing out as soon as we lifted the car well he wouldn't expect me to know I have no idea well we'll take the wheel off check those arms so that's the airmatic suspension arms nice big alloy that see what they did at Mercedes is they put some grease there to keep that from rusting which is good okay so the next thing to check then is the front airmatic suspension arm to see what sort of condition that's in there's the arm yeah it's different the arm is up here where is it right here and it is loose so the arm is working ball socket ball socket so there's your lever right here and that's the whole entire air strut right here and the air struts in good shape the boot's not cracked or ripped just good yeah just so you know an air strut in English is a shock absorber so what he's doing here is he's oiling up the airmatic suspension arm to see if it's jamming anywhere and then we'll retest it okay so nicely oiled up and wheel back on another americanism mark referred to the nut as a lug that is a wheel nut lower it back down now because there's no air in that shock i'm trying a quick battery reconnection and let's start the car back up what are we looking for so listening out for the pump that will be hopefully pushing the suspension up i think you'd hear it if it was working over time but no real noise the plan now then is to drop the car down and see what happens that arm should tell it to go on and raise it up and that's if the arms working efficiently of course okay there it goes well there's the pump working well it should lift it's going going up now did it go up yeah too slow and it's not the right height okay so now what happens the pump stop it's definitely not happy and it looks like the oiling just hasn't made any difference at all yeah it's a good couple of inches too low this side so it's it's not settling it's not balanced this side much higher so does that mean that the sensor's not working efficiently why doesn't it settle back down after you turn off the button i don't know why you're asking me but let's try again seems like it's going up a lot more no it's really struggling and it pushes really hard to get up maybe two inches but settles probably two inches too low it looks utterly rubbish it seems like it went up a lot more did it uh no okay well let's be honest we could bore you for hours going up and down with that suspension so we're just gonna stop and this is the update so we've decided to order some parts from mercedes very cheap two so you might as well do both sides while we're at it two of the airmatic suspension arms 48 quickly fantastic but on top of that i've decided to go all out and buy the control boxes again not just for one side but we might as well do both sides the car's a keeper might as well do it now then have the control boxes go later so they're 266 for the pair and i think that'll sort the problem if it doesn't we're back to square one and two days later the parts arrived direct from mercedes who i've got to say so total amount 314 pounds 40p including v80 so i've got two sender units and two air suspension arms or rods as mercedes refer to them as two examples out of the box there on top of the invoice the other two in the boxes and we're ready to go so here we go and there they are beautifully fitted screamingly new and looking delicious however you will notice in a moment that there is no shocker because we tried them with the old shocker it still didn't fix the problem there we are no more shocker so we've decided that actually it was the shocker and there is the shocking shocker it looks pretty grotty i think you'll agree especially when you compare it to this thing coming up now which is a brand new shocker i've had to bite the bullet and order not just one but two because i'm doing the complete front end there's no point in just doing one side but that's a cracker i ordered these two from aerosus in germany so they're not mercedes but after research i've discovered these things are very good and they cost me 650 pounds for the pair delivered which is probably about half the cost from mercedes and there she is completely renewed front end suspension so we've got the air suspension arms we've got the center unit and two brand spanking shockers so the suspension on the front end of that s class now is as good as it was when it was new 10 years ago so it's been a bit of a rigmarole but she's done i will pull the car out sometime soon mint it up take it out for a drive and do a proper review for you because as you know i've owned that car for a good solid two years so i know it inside out so i will do that so do subscribe to the channel please and come back and have a good test drive in the s class so in summary cost in parts 950 pounds all in now mercedes mark very kindly has done this as a favor that's what he does it's just a hobby to him it took him about two and a half to three hours per side in total so five to six hours labor whatever that would cost you wherever but if you're good at these sorts of things you could probably do yourself i couldn't but mark worked his way around that beautifully so there you go 950 pounds in parts five or six hours in labor right tune in again for the review thanks for watching hopefully it's been a bit of help with you and your s class i know the pain but it's all worthwhile because that still is even after 10 years the best car in the world i'm david harper good to see you see you next time cheerio