Lifetime of air suspension bags ?

[superquag]

Since this pertains to more than one model of wallet-destroyer, I've put this here in 'Technical Chatter'

"From your experience, what would you say is the SAFE or 'Guaranteed' life- Time of Air Suspension bladders?"
I'll wager 10 to 12 years as the maximum, 'sleep-well-on-a-bush-trip'.

The Lady Sarah - '95 softdash - came with originals, and they looked so perished and cracked that I bought a full set of Arnotts units.
While they never had a catastrophic failure, from memory, air needed to be added every week or two, so I'm guessing that sealing or material integrity was past the "Best Before" date.

Yesterday, I had the nightmare of a bladder suddenly go down... on a 20 year old Mercedes Bus.
- Ride on the front bump stops was still better than the Classic doing the same...
but Speed humps were a tad noisy...[bigwhistle]

[bblaze]

My p38 had replacement front ones when I brought it about 3 years ago, I replaced the original ( I believe) rears about 18 months ago, only the rhs had slight signs of being perished. so I figure that's about 18 years
cheers
blaze

[rar110]

The L322 front air springs seem to last 10-15 years mostly. Some fail earlier. I replaced the entire front strut/spring at 10 years as was going on a road trip. The struts were dead so quite happy I did this.

The L322 rear air bags seem to last much longer. Maybe in part because the strut sits outside the spring on the rear setup.

[RANDLOVER]

My D3 was built in 2005 and still has the original airbags, so that's 14 years.

[gavinwibrow]

Yesterday, I had the nightmare of a bladder suddenly go down... on a 20 year old Mercedes Bus.
- Ride on the front bump stops was still better than the Classic doing the same...
but Speed humps were a tad noisy...[bigwhistle]




Does this mean you are back in the saddle complete with F class?

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I recently replaced mine, just on ten years since install, and yes it had a slow leak and on visual inspection out of the car you would just change it out on looks alone,, on a physical inspection you could feel things pricking a hand as it passed over where the bag rolled.
Service life per the manual on the D2 is ten years


I watch a utube chanel called Bus Grease Monkey,, all he does is fix old detroit engines,, and its amazing how many 70 year old ORIGINAL airbags still hold air.

[superquag]

I recently replaced mine, just on ten years since install, and yes it had a slow leak and on visual inspection out of the car you would just change it out on looks alone,, on a physical inspection you could feel things pricking a hand as it passed over where the bag rolled.
Service life per the manual on the D2 is ten years


I watch a utube chanel called Bus Grease Monkey,, all he does is fix old detroit engines,, and its amazing how many 70 year old ORIGINAL airbags still hold air.

Dare I suggest.... better quality back then ? [bigwhistle]

[superquag]

Does this mean you are back in the saddle complete with F class?

In & out, so to speak, ... but I've never lost my F endorsement, despite the attitude of a previous cardiologist !

And I would have remained retired except this 'flu epidemic took out a few staff of a previous employer....
So yes, I'm back as a part-timer. [bigsmile1][bigsmile][bigsmile1]

[Graeme]

Both front air-springs on my 2012 build L322 were replaced in the last 12 months after they developed many small holes. However I don't know if the holes were caused by grit between the shock and the rubber from having to get through very deep mud daily for several weeks a couple of years ago or if the rubber had perished, which seems to have been a general problem with late L322 front air-springs.

[superquag]

Funny you should mention mechanical action.... Speaking to a Truckie today, and he told me of replacing airbags due to gravel getting between rubber and metal.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

maybe a maintenance ritual of hosing the bags while in extended mode?

[Graeme]

I found grit higher up than accessible at maximum height although the holes were lower down at around off-road height where the rubber moves and would rub on any grit there at the time.

[loanrangie]

Seems that the shocks go soft well before the air bags reach end of life, i know will need replacing at some stage and its tempting to just replace the shock which may or may not be economical.

[Graeme]

Air-springs for D3/D4 by themselves are quite expensive so don't get caught replacing shocks then have to buy air-springs.

I fitted after-market complete assemblies to my D4 then when the cheap shocks went soft in no time I fitted genuine shocks because I knew that the air-springs would still be in good condition.