You have saved my ass. I don’t usually comment but teaching me about the spreader tool all I can say is thank you, you have helped me more than you could imagine

Oooof! Brings back nightmarish memories. Back in early 2020, after having stressful air suspension issues on my 2004 4matic 5.0 sedan, i decided "i aint gonna play this game"! Figured once one strut/airbag craps the bed the others are soon to follow. And all their collection of cohorts that go along with them. Decided never again will i let this happen again. Tore the entire air suspension system out. Everything. Struts, Bags, Pumps, Solenoid Valve block, Leveling sensors, reservoir tanks, shocks and rear control arms. Then dropped in a beautiful simple clean set of BC Coilovers and new everthing else. Handles like a dream now. No more wallowing goin around corners. No harsh ride either. But watchin you do that no access driver side rear upper control arm bolt gives me the flash back willies. Pure Hell. I didnt remove much of anything except dopey plastic master cylinder cover. Snaked a long angel head ratchet with socket down over that nut and then ziptied the wrench handle in place to stuff around it so i could just leave it there. Then go below and take out the bolt in wheelwell. But yeah pure Hell. I wish your vids were around back when i did mine. Hardly any vids on 4matic suspension then. I spent a entire month just researching everything i needed to know and buying extra tools i knew id need. But hey great vids. Love it. Real nicely done. Solid info. Thanx 👍👍

You're very right about the left hand upper arm installation design due to that back nut near the SAM. Why didnt they do it like honda or toyota and weld the nut to the frame? That way you only concern yourself with the bolt inside the arm. Another reason why mechanics hate engineers

Hey just a heads up. if you ever have to replace a front air strut its pretty impossible to do without removing the entire lower control arm and all kinds of other stuff and madness due to not being able to compress those things to get enough room to get them out. Unless one can release the air through Star sytem electronically. Well I didnt have any such computer system. Got a great tip from a Japanese guy from japan. Said strut solenoid valve only operated on like 6 volts. I followed his advice and put 3 or 4 AA (cant remember now) bateries in series inside a skinny cardboard tube i made. Attached some wires to batteries ends. Unpluged the struts. Stuck the wires into the strut plug hole touch the 2 pins. Psssssssshhhh. Solenoid opens and all the air comes out. If nothing happens just reverse the wires on pins. Made it possible to compess struts and get them out of wheel well.

GOOD job !

Think its possible to change out the lower control arm strut bushing and the spindle ball joint without removing the entire lower control arm? My strut bushing is in bad shape but my control arm bushings don't look too bad

14:50 damn your axle should have been slid in its joint I think before you jacked up the control arm?

Hallo. I have a question. I want to install Amg E55 brakes on my E500 4matic. How can I install them and what should I replace?

What bushing did you pop into the center of the control arm please