Thread: Lifetime of air suspension bags ?

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

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.

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

Originally Posted by superquag

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...

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

Dare I suggest.... better quality back then ?

Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

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.

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.