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2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS — Complaint #613028

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NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM filed February 12, 2007

NHTSA complaint #613028 (ODI reference 10182366) concerns a 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS and was filed on February 12, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 10, 2007. The vehicle had 69,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Connecticut based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:air suspension system, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:springs:air suspension system failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS
Component
SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM
State
Connecticut
Mileage
69,000 mi

Complaint Description

I OWN A 2002 MERCEDES BENZ S-430 WITH 69,000 MILES THAT I PURCHASED NEW. ON FEBRUARY 7TH & 8TH I HAD THE DEALER PERFORM A SCHEDULED SERVICING OF MY CAR WHICH WAS AN EXTENSIVE CHECKUP (COST OVER $1,000) DESPITE HAVING NO PROBLEMS. THE FOLLOWING DAY MY FAMILY TOOK AN AUTOMOBILE TRIP OF 140 MILES. ON FEBRUARY 10TH, WHILE DRIVING I EXPERIENCED A FAILURE OF THE AIRMATIC SUSPENSION SYSTEM. THE CAR'S WARNING SYSTEM ALERTED ME TO STOP THE CAR AND NOT DRIVE IT. AFTER TALKING TO MERCEDES ON THEIR EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM, I HAD THE CAR TOWED TO MY DEALER 140 MILES AWAY. THIS MORNING,2/12/2002, I WENT TO THE DEALER AND SPOKE TO THE SERVICE MANAGER. HE TOLD ME THAT IT WAS PROBABLY A FAILURE OF A HYDRAULIC STRUT/SHOCK WHICH SUSPENDS THE CAR. HAD I TRIED TO TURN THE WHEEL BEFORE NOTICING THE PROBLEM I WOULD HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO NEGOTIATE A CURVE AND WOULD HAVE HAD AN ACCIDENT. WHILE AT THE DEALER, I WAS SHOWN 5 OR 6 MERCEDES BENZES, SOME MUCH NEWER THAN MINE, WHOSE CARS HAD COLLAPSED OVER THE FRONT

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 613028
ODI Number 10182366
Date Filed February 12, 2007
Failure Date February 10, 2007

Similar SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM Complaints for 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.