How to Replace Mercedes ML350 W164 (2006-2011) GL Front Air Spring - The Complete DIY Guide
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- Опубліковано 23 жов 2020
- How To Replace Mercedes Front Air Spring Suspension Bag on ML-Class W164 Vehicle.
In this video I show you how to replace the Front Air Suspension Spring Bag on a Mercedes ML or GL vehicle. For the video I am using my 2011 Mercedes ML300 W164 which has a faulty leaking front right air spring bag.
I am replacing it with an aftermarket replacement Air Spring. You can purchase this from the following links:
Amazon (US and General): amzn.to/3F32yIn
Amazon (Australia): amzn.to/2QemO3b
What you will see is that I step by step show you how to do this procedure safely with minimal tools. In particular I have attempted to film all of the steps involved without avoiding the trickier elements of this task.
The tools used in replacing the front air spring are:
* 10mm, 13mm, 17mm, 21mm, 24mm, T30 Sockets
* 10mm, 13mm, 15/16 Spanners
* Hoist (To lift the car), however you could use a Jack and Axle Stands
* Jack with a Block of Wood (For supporting and manoeuvring suspension components)
* Ball Joint Separator
* Rubber/plastic Mallet
* Flat Screwdriver
* Silicone Spray Lubricant
DISCLOSURE : This is a 2 to 3 hour task. The author takes no responsibility or liability for other's attempts to undertake this task. - Авто та транспорт
Great work. You activated genius level using the spanners and sockets to put that top on. Good tip/trick 👍🏻
Mercedes GL Glass X164 Front air spring x 2 replacement over a weekend.
I took Drew’s advice and purchased 2 Maxpeedingrod's front Air springs as the RHF was at fault and I didn't want to take the risk of the other side front having the same issue as well in a few month’s time, so I got 2. I looked at the past history as I have only had this car 8 months and found the previous owner had replace both rears in 2018, so I didn't have to worry about that.
On to the Job.
I don't have a hoist so I used 4 jack stands and a proper workshop 4 ton trolly jack.
I used a 1/4 dr cordless ratchet.
3/8 dr Cordless rattle gun
1/2 dr cordless rattle gun
Gal pipe for a leaver.
plus, spanners, sockets and breaker bars ect.
Before staring, I removed the 40amp Maxi Fuse for the airmatic suspension and I also took out the green air pump relay as well.
[Note] RHF was done on Saturday, and the LHF the next day]
With the car on the ground, I sat 2 jack stands under the rear of car just below ride height [This is in case when the air escapes from the front air springs doing the job, causes the back of the car to drop. [the RHF did drop but doing the LHF it didn't drop. Don't ask me why because I still don't know!].
I then jacked up the front of the car to get the front wheels off the ground and placed the jack stands under the front. Once satisfied and safe, I loosened the air line from the RHF air spring, and slowly the car started to drop at the rear and the car rested safely on the rear jack stands that I set up previously. Once safe again I stated taking the RHF wheel off. I then removed the cross strut mounting support bar that’s bolted to both struts, and to make things easier I took off the inner splash shield so as I didn't have to keep getting up to lean over the guard all the time so I could access wiring harness plugs and I wanted while I was there to check the airmatic air pump, the pump air filter that no one checks and the valve block and lines as well just to make sure all is ok. The Air pump filter was slightly blocked, but I replaced it. In case you don't know the air, pump has a long black rubber hose, runs over the top of the splash shield and attached to that is the air filter that sit in the top part of the mud guard. The filter is the same as a standard 1/4in plastic fuel filter so I replaced it with that and took careful notice which way the filter fitted as it can only suck air or fuel one way obviously.
Prior to ripping bolts and nuts off, I took 2 top strut mount nuts off and loosened the other, then Once the other nuts and bolts were all taken out and the top control arm ball joint was off and the lower strut bolt as well, I used the strap part of a tie down strap and tied it to the upper control arm to the top hub assy to stop the hub assy from swinging out and putting excessive pressure and strain on the brake flexible line and more so when it came to getting the strut in and out. This also allowed a greater leverage to remove and replace the front strut assy as the hub assy was closer to the strut and not worry about ripping a brake line off because if that happened, I'd be dead in the water.
With the strut ready to be removed I placed the jack right next to the lower control arm and lifted the bottom part of the strut up and over the drive shaft and rested the strut on the jack. I then removed the final nut from the top strut and took the strut assy out.
With the strut out on the ground standing up being held by my amazing wife who helped and assisted in every way from start to end with the operating of the jack, undoing bolts, fetching spanners, sockets ect, I sprayed cocky’ s piss [aka wd40] around the top of the strut and using a tube socket I tapped the air fitting plate down, so I could remove the circlip. [I checked and marked the old air spring on the strut for position for when the new air spring was getting fitted]. Then I removed the air fitting plate to expose the top strut nut. BTW, instead of using a screwdriver to wedge into the cavity to hold the nut as in the video, I used a 1/2 drive socket, crimped it with vice grips and used a 1/4 drive torx bit and ratchet as it was able to fit down into the square 1/2in hole of the socket and undid the top strut nut that way. This also allowed the vice grips to rest against one of the top strut anchorage studs to use as a leaver to hold the nut while the strut was being undone with the torx bit.
With the old air spring out, I used grease [Not rp7 ect as in the video] for the orings on the air fitting plate and the lower part of the strut where the oring sits on top of the metal round holding plate. I slid the new air spring onto the strut and as the air spring was collapsed and the bottom oring was greased the bottom of the strut wouldn't sit home on the strut and it kept popping up, but that was ok and wasn't an issue as we had a fix for that later on.
I then did the top strut nut up with the torx bit and the socket and when I fitted the air fitting plate I didn't need to press it or use spanners in the video as it just slid down with a little tap of the socket and hammer, and then I fitted the new circlip in and bobs ya aunty. I then proceeded to fit the strut back to the car in the opposite manner.
When I came to fitting the bottom part of the air spring into place at the bottom I lowered the car very slowly and the bottom air spring slipped over the greased oring and sat in place with no issues at all. With the back of the car resting on the jack stands the car just pivoted when the front was being lowered. [Note: at all times through the whole process the back wheels were on the ground, in park and hand brake on].
With car on its legs sitting below ride height with jack stand supports I fitted the relay and fuse back in and started the car. As this car has 3 height levels, Normal ride height, plus 2 other higher off road levels, I raised the car to level 3 and the car came up and lifted itself off the 4 jack stands. I left the stands in place and checked for leaks with soapy water and all was good. Then I removed the jack stands and lowered the car to level 1 normal ride height. All went well and the car doesn't drop anymore.
[In Conclusion: This can be done at home, my wife and I did it on our own on a bigger car than the ML class with jack stands and using safety and common sense. I would really stress if you do one side, do the other as well as you don't know when the other side will give up the ghost, and when it does, your usually dressed up having dinner somewhere with your loved one or just out having dinner with the family]. The RHF front all up too just under 4 hours from start to finish, the LHF took 3.5 hours approx due to we knew what we did the day before. I'd strongly suggest to do one side at a time, and split it over 2 days. this help stops any confusion, errors or if the car still drops then what went wrong and which side is at fault. Leaving it a day proves that the job worked or it didn't so to speak and if there is a problem then you know exactly which side is at fault without banging ya head against a wall and it saves ya time as well... I hope this helps people like you looking for ways to save money working on your own car. I'd also like to thank Drew for the video as well and my wife who helped and assisted in everyway and just wanted to help to get the job done].
Well done JS! I really do feel that this forum is a great community and all about contributing to help others, so thankyou for sharing your experience with doing it with jack stands! BTW, you have just saved yourself by my calculation close to $4,000 by not taking it to the Stealership, so I think your fabulous assistant deserves to be spoilt and taken out for a nice evening!!
Thank you same peoblem left side !!!😂🎉
Hi Mate, good luck with it! Let us know how you go fixing it? Cheers Drew
Good video, actually helpful and straight to the point unlike a lot of these bs videos people post. Thank you!!
Hi James, thanks for the feedback. My goal is to help others as much as possible with these videos and I am trying to create the style of instructional video that I like to watch myself! Cheers Drew
9:45 I would recommand a "ratchering strap" to sqeeze the strut, rather than using a pry bar.
much easier, and you don't even need a help.
Clinical as always. Thank you for sharing your expertise. 👍
Thanks mate! Cheers Drew
Bonza 👌
Good job
Nice video!
Thanks!
Looking to start DIY front struts replacement, both sides of course. Your videos are always among the clearest and most informative online.
I see the Mercedes WIS guidance doc says, as regards refilling the air system,
"The wheels must not be in contact with the ground during the filling. Since the air suspension bellows in the spring element is destroyed when filling in deflected condition."
Which sounds to me like its lost something in translation, but I do wonder if there's a real point there nonetheless? It also assumes the deflation and inflation process is done by plugging the car into a diagnositics machine.
For better or worse in our case, a front bag burst (hence the replacement work ...) whilst the system was at full height and was then caught by axle stands under the front jack points. I was changing the engine oil at the time!
Hi Mate, thanks for the feedback! If you haven’t seen I have a complete playlist of all of the AIRMATIC videos I have done for all components:
ua-cam.com/play/PLor5qdyoV_nQk9277ANJLkKaJ-9Ky_OB7.html Cheers Drew
Harry, Enfield, to be precise
Drew, you brought in a stuntman to finish the job?!?! Where did you go mate?
I wish! All jokes aside my father and I work a lot together on the cars together and it is actually really good bonding for us. He just loves grabbing a wrench so he often appears in a lot of my videos! Cheers Drew
Cheers Guys well done mate. My GL is suffering the same i think. The RHF drops and the LHF goes down in sympathy.
Understood. I did one at a time and it did solve the immediate problem, however what I found is that it was only a few months later that then the other side failed as well. I put this down to the fact that both Air Springs were the same age and thus were simply close to being end-of-life. It has been nearly 6 months since I did the second front and my car has not had any issues since. I wish you luck!
@@DrewFixIt Thanks mate. I'll be doing both FT at the same time... Q: Can ya get the same spring bags [Max] here in oz or do ya have to get em from the US?
@@js-amg Absolutely, Maxpeeding Rods have an Australian Website.
@@DrewFixIt Thanks heaps mate.. I'll chase it up..
@@DrewFixIt Hey Drew.. Question if I may. Im doing the front 2 air springs over the weekend [one at a time], and I wanted to ask when you do 1 air spring replacement at a time and you let the air out of the spring to collapse it, do all the other air spring on the car let go too and allows the whole car to sit on it's legs? I only have jack stands mate not a 2 posta hoist, and i don't know if i can just jack up the front or have the car on all 4 stands to stop the car from dropping once the air is let out of the air spring. I've seen vids but on one tells that ya know.. Thanks again mate. BTW great speedy delivery on the new air springs too mate from maxpeedingrods...
Well done, did you check out the arnott bag or full air strut as option? In the States these have lifetime warranty not sure if lifetime in Australia (have asked as need to change mine) the arnott bag also comes with a tool to compress the top cap. We are 2nd owner of gl500 its had a pampered life and original owner had both front struts replaced at 5 and 6 yrs of age (approx 70000 kms) and the rears at 9 yrs of age (approx 110000 kms). Front passenger now has failed (small pin prick hole in bag) at 6 yrs since replacement and 148000 kms. I'd be interested to know thoughts on normal life of these bags/struts? Cheers
Hi Scott, I did look into the Arnott option, however they were very expensive in Australia. In terms of life my car got to about 120,000 kms before the original Air Springs started failing. I have replaced all of them with non OEM with absolutely no issues. Recently, I had the front right strut fail (160,000 kms) so I replaced the entire unit with non OEM. In the future I would probably not bother doing just the Air Spring on the front as by my experience the Strut is probably not far behind at that point!! Cheers Drew
Hi Drew. Great video's! I think they will be handy living in central Australia! Just got a 2012 GL350 W164 & have a sagging drivers front. I think I'll repace the strut & bag (only 76000 on the clock). Are the maxpeeding products ok in your experience? I was looking at Arnott or Airbag Man in Australia, but they still only offer a 5 year warranty & are as dear as poison (but I don't fancy repalcing them too often 😀)
Thanks for your time. 👍
Hi Mate, I have not had any issues with the other cheaper imports. What I would say though is it may just be worthwhile replacing the whole unit as per:
ua-cam.com/video/RaKISTTgPzI/v-deo.html Also especially if you live in central Aus I would do all four, hers is a playlist of AIRMATIC videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLor5qdyoV_nQk9277ANJLkKaJ-9Ky_OB7.html Note - most of these videos should have links to where you can buy the parts relatively inexpensively! Cheers Drew
What size is the top nut on the strut, 17 mm?
Hey Drew got a question I have a electric boat winch and need to add a plug to the rear of my 2011 ML350, where would be a good point to tap into that could handle the amps of the winch...Thanks
Hi Brett, no problems. We have put an Anderson plug on the back of the Black ML W164 that you sometimes see on the channel to supply separate high current (amps) to a caravan. We tapped the positive into the rear fuse box to minimise the cable length and the earth just went to the body at the rear. If you don’t know the rear fuse box is located on the right hand side of the rear luggage compartment. Here is a video I did which shows the fuse box locations and in particular the rear one: ua-cam.com/video/QyJQfLh1R0Q/v-deo.html Cheers Drew
@@DrewFixIt awesome thanks Drew
I received two rubbers o rings one slightly bigger than the other and one plastic o ring. Can I use both rubber o rings or can i use only one and the plastic o ring? Please help
Hi Landu, you need to use both of the rubber o rings and the plastic o ring. Sometimes in the kits one of the rubber rings is already installed on the top cap. I would suggest yours is not, thus I suggest that you need to put one of the rubber o rings on the top cap and then the other one and the plastic ring is put on the strut before you put the Air Spring onto the strut. I trust this helps? Cheers Drew
Hey hey bud I’ve got an ml63 w164 amg are they not the same part or am I mistaken if you could some how know at all plz
I believe so, but best to check yourself! Thanks DFI
I received two rubber rings with one plastic ring. Can I use both rubber o ring one sloghtly bigger or can I only use one rubber o ring?
One rubber ringbis slightly bigger than the other one.
Can these bag be inflated without the shock in it ?
No. The shock is integral to sealing the bag. Cheers Drew
pregunta es posible cambiar de balona a un Mercedes Benz clase s 350 del año 2010.
Lo siento, realmente no entiendo su pregunta. Lo siento, realmente no entiendo su pregunta. Sin embargo, creo que se está preguntando si puede instalar el muelle neumático de la Clase S en la Clase ML (y viceversa). si, ¡así que no creo que esto sea posible! si, ¡así que no creo que esto sea posible! Saludos Drew
Amigo DrewFixlt, yo tengo un Mercedes Benz clase s 350 y lo que deseo saber es si a mi auto es posible cambiar solo la balona que está perdiendo aire del lado derecho,en Perú no encuentro el repuesto,hay modelos creo que no permite cambiar solo la balona y es necesario cambiar todo el amortiguador.
@@samuelsanchez9161 Hola amigo, parece que puedes comprar un kit de reparación para reemplazar la bolsa de aire de manera efectiva, consulta el siguiente enlace para obtener un kit para reparar tu puntal trasero: amzn.to/3HYDq5B Saludos Drew
Hey mate how do you rate these cars as a 4 wd, have you ever run it through its paces.
Hi Brett, it really depends what you mean by 4WD! I was born on a farm and can drive 2WD utes were city folk don’t attempt to drive their pristine 4WDs … but let’s get back to your question. For starters the standard W164 is an AWD, that being said mine has done it’s fair share of beach driving and I have also taken it on a number of off-road tracks, I would say nothing overly serious but stuff where the extra ground clearance of the AIRMATIC suspension helped! I hope this helps? Also, do you know that their was a specific off-road package option which added a low range transfer case to the transmission (mine does now have this)? Cheers Drew
@@DrewFixIt Thanks mate for the quick reply, I have a 105 series landcruiser for the more extreme 4wd but it is good to know that it can handle the beach. I noticed 2 buttons on the dash of the merc one is a car going over undulating ground is that some sort of diff lock amd another button of hill going down hill
Hi Brett, it is not a diff lock, rather it raises the suspension by inflating the air suspension to a higher PSI. The other button is hill descent which the vehicle would use the brakes to control the descent down steep hills. For me I have used the extra height quite a lot and you may have also noticed that most of the time I have a set of 17 inch rims on the car instead of the 21 inch AMG rims that came with my car, which I personally find far more practical for how I want to use the vehicle! Cheers Drew
@@DrewFixIt I thought the airmatic was the one that raises the car, there is the other button that has a car going over undulating ground
@@brettsprojects7629 my apologies, that button activates the “Off-road drive program”. I have never honestly used it, but the manual says “The engine’s performance characteristics and the gearshifting characteristics of the automatic transmission are adapted for this purpose. ABS, ESP and 4 ETS programs especially adapted to off-road driving are also activated.” Cheers Drew
You sound exactly like loads of money😅