s211.. 220cdi.. 58 reg.. airmatic problem

SHAMGIT

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came back to carpark after 15 mins ,car was well down at rear,drove home 2 miles,warning light came on parked on my drive,car now completely down, jack up .front wheel off,inner wing off, pump not running, all fuses ok, put on new pump from EBAY and new relay,checked 40amp fuse under drivers carpet everything is good.... but pump will not run....,tested old pump on bench with 12 volt did run not really good pressure,tested new pump on car, it ran but i didnt think there was much difference in pressure,.....so it looks like there is no power to the pump when engine is running or not,am going to try another relay tomorrow,,....................just one question ,can anyone give me an answer ......if the level sensor failed with the vehicle at its high position,,although the vehicle was down,would it still think it was at the high position and not run the pump...............thanks in anticipation of replies
 
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Really struggling with this one...had 2new relays in just to make sure..checked all fuses under bonnet checked secret fuse under drivers carpet.....there is no power at the pump all wires seems to be OK I know it will have to go on star ...how do I check power at relay plug in point.am trying to avoid a massive bill from the stealer..any help gratefully received...


I
 
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SHAMGIT

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am not very good with computers so am going to do this update in sections because i know if i tried to do it all in one go i would just about get to the end and id hit the wrong button and the whole update would disappear ,,,
 
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SHAMGIT

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chapter 1

if i do any swearing during this update i promise to try and limit it,,i dont give a sh/t about spelling mistakes...

i studied the whole internet and had a lot of difficulty with the left and right hand drive configurations,i decided that i was going to have to bite the bullet and get on with the job of exploration,i was loath to send it to a main stealer or independant due to limited funds, this job wasn't going to be easy for a 74 year old with arthritis and a glass back...my knees were going to take a lot of the brunt in this exploration into the unknown,...
 
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SHAMGIT

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chapter 2

i decided to start in the drivers footwell on the right of the car,everything was a 10mil socket,i unbolted the gas pedal and tied it up out of the way ,i decided not to remove the carpet,i felt that it would be easier to cut the carpet so i put a new blade into my trusty stanley knife and started,the carpet is only about 5 mil thick with about 40 mil of foam backing attached,i started on the left side at the left leg foot rest,i started up at the top and cut down hill only the depth of the carpet,i cut down about 30cm to just were the floor pan levels out i then cut across the floor towards the door so the cut was an l shape,i then pealed back the carpet just enough to see the foam backing thickness,i had no idea were wires were running but i could see the foam was about 40 mil thick,i then cut down all the way around the foam at about half that thickness and finished by tearing the foam with my finger,the carpet and foam came out as one piece,i don't think i would have cut any wires if i had cut deeper..
 
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SHAMGIT

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chapter 3

now that everything was exposed i could see the pre fuse box, self leveling fuse 74 was ok,so were the rest,i put everything back in reverse,the carpet fitted perfectly and was then covered over by the mats,if i need to go in there again it will be easy peasy,next step was to go to the passengers side, carpet was easily folded back exposing a 30cm metal cover held by 3x 10mil bolts, i found a box, it was the air control module,now it was going to be decisions decisions,i called it a day and took my furskin wreck of a body inside,i must have been at it,groveling around ,,on my knees for the best part of 4 hours in temperatures just above freezing,
 
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SHAMGIT

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chapter 4

spent a couple of hours on google and the following day i decided that because the vehicle has 210,000 miles on the clock,if iit went on star it could cost me any were from £400 to a grand,then 2 months down the road it could go again and i would be in that situation of pouring money down an open well,the decision was made i would spend £250 on a arnott spring conversion kit ,europarts are the agents for them, the arnott part number for the e class s211 220cdi estate.rear coil spring conversion kit is ,,c2896,,arnott have an interesting little video of the conversion i think its on utube as well. i drove the car a mile round to my little man only about 50 mil clearance at the arse end so very gingerly went over traffic calming humps,3 hours later i had picked the car up,the air control module had been disconnected as instructed by arnott ..all in all the conversion had cost me a total of £340 and the car was driving beautifully,

at this point in time im not sure what is going to happen with my headlights when i have a full load in the back ,when the car is just 2 up its lighting looks about the same as before the job,,,

well thats it,
my body isnt to bad but i have trapped a nerve in the neck so i am suffering ,the wife says im mad,
hope this is of use to someone ....
 
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SHAMGIT

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Final update

Headlights .main beam and dip are ok.

Just one piece of good advice.
While the job is being done get the rose bushes on the outer edges of the lower arms replaced...2 days after springs were done i had to have the nearside rose bush done because of the dreaded groaning squeeking noise.the rose bush is cheap less than £16.....
the febi part number is....21174..mercedes number
2043520027.......that's all folks..
 
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SHAMGIT

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So a new problem
The s211 has an ally rear wishbone if that's what you call it
the rear spring and shocker are attached.to it.
I have just had the wishbone fail.
It snapped of at the rose bush end.
My qwestion is are all estates ally because the self leveling is softer or are some of them in steel like saloons.
Should my spring conversion have been upgraded to have the steel wishbones or am I just unlucky.any advice would be appreciated
 

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