97. E-300 Td. Est. Self Lev. Susp. Bumpy ?

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi everyone, just read numer cruncher's exc. article on how the SLS works. some months ago my veh. 97. e-300 td. 7 seat. est.went in for rear brake pies replaced, the young mecha. took all the wrong pipes off and threw the suspension pipes away. merc. do not supply repl. pipes. so we tried 6 mm copper. pipes get so hot that dif. exp. stress releived the joints, so had to order 6mm bundy pipe, this cured the problem. there are two questions i would like to ask, the oil level in the supply res, was filled to the high correct mark and stayed there for several weeks and miles, now the level has increased a good half inch above high, why ? the other question is that the rear suspension has become hard / bumpy is this related ? i am fairly sure the self leveling is working as when loaded she looks level and rides well. if the unloaded bumpy ride is the spheres is it an expen. to repair. ? the veh. has cov. 190k miles. many thanks. herbiemercman.

 

[Number_Cruncher]

My post is assuming that the system on your car is like the one on W124s (and largely like W123s before it) - if that's not the case, please disregard all below.

Of possible errors, I can imagine it's easy to get the feed and return pipes mixed up at the height corrector valve if they weren't replaced one at a time.

Was the system bled at the bleed valve on the height corrector valve?

The pipes between the height corrector valve and the spheres contain restrictors - it's best to replace these with new ones rather than fabricate a replacement without the restrictors. For W124s, these pipes are both available and cheap (about £12 each IIRC), and I would be very surprised to find that they aren't available for your car.

The expensive pipes (for what they are) are the large bore pipes between the rams and spheres, they're over £70 each.

The bumpy ride can be one of two things - either a hydraulic ram has seized up, or, the spheres have failed. The spheres are much more likely to be the problem, but, it's quick and easy to check that the rams move freely.

 

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi number cruncher, thankyou for info much appreciated. herbiemercman.