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I'm pretty sure that his car (a W210?) uses essentially the same setup as the older wagons, W123s and W124s - it's a hydraulic system, quite simple - a hydraulic pump driven by the engine, an actuator valve connected to the suspension and body at the rear of the car, "shocks" which are actually just hydraulic cylinders, and nitrogen filled accumulators (just like the brake fluid bombs ABS systems), one per side, which actually provide the shock absorbing action. Also a bunch of hydraulic lines running forward and back. The actuator valve can raise and lower the pressure in the "shocks" and accumulators to raise/lower the car. I used to own a couple of wagons with this setup, and it is generally extremely reliable - I would fix it and keep it, as the ride with a functioning system is great - plus you can put 1000 lbs of crap in the car and it doesn't sag! When something is wrong, mechanics sometimes want to replace everything in the whole system (a few years back, my old '85 300TD wagon had a fitting break on one of the shocks, draining the whole system while on a road trip in Albuquerque - the car was totally packed and riding absurdly low, a local MB mechanic quoted $3600 to fix it - I got a used shock with the fitting for $20 online, replaced it, good for another 50k miles until I sold the car...), but in my experience, all these components are rather reliable, so there's not a real reason for that.
What's wrong with his suspension? Most commonly, the accumulators fail and the ride gets really hard - but they are easy to replace, not too expensive, and possibly only one is bad. The shocks can go bad by leaking, but they can be replaced with used ones, as failure is uncommon, or I suspect they can be rebuilt by somebody who deals with hydraulic cylinders... The actuators are just a valve body and a couple of o-rings and can also be rebuilt - they're essentially the same thing as the valve on any truck's hydraulic lift gate.
Sorry for the long-winded response, but in short, if it were me, I'd keep the stock setup, and I bet it can be fixed for wayyy less. Good luck!
posted by 75.68.12...
, Wed, 5 Aug 2009 17:44:51, Wed, 5 Aug 2009 17:44:16
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