2000 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS — Complaint #673540
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM filed June 12, 2008
NHTSA complaint #673540 (ODI reference 10230786) concerns a 2000 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS and was filed on June 12, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 11, 2008. The vehicle had 49,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to PR based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear: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. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
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:rear: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 2000 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THIS CAR HAS AN AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM WHICH HAS A SEVERE PROBLEM. THE CAR HAS NO SPRINGS, INSTEAD EACH SHOCK ABSORBER HAS A PNEUMATIC SYSTEM THAT SUPPORTS THE WEIGHT OF THE VEHICLE. *TR WHEN BOTH REAR SHOCK ABSORBERS FAIL AT THE SAME TIME THE WHOLE REAR OF THE CAR DROPS DOWN AND THE CAR HAS TO BE STOPPED, POSING NO HAZARD. BUT WHEN ONLY ONE OF THE REAR SHOCK ABSORBERS DEVELOPS A SMALL AIR LEAK, THE CAR DOES NOT LOOSE MUCH HEIGHT AND THERE IS LOSS OF TRACTION IN THE TIRE IN THE INVOLVED SIDE BECAUSE THERE IS NOT SUFFICIENT VEHICLE WEIGHT BEING APPLIED TO IT. THIS LOSS OF TRACTION IN ONLY ONE TIRE CAUSES THE TIRE TO SPIN ON LIGHT TO MODERATE ACCELERATION, BUT WORSE, IT CAUSES THE TIRE TO "LOCK UP" ON BRAKING. IMMEDIATELY THE ABS SYSTEM GETS ACTIVATED AND IN TRYING TO PREVENT THIS "LOCK UP", THE ABS SYSTEM DECREASES THE BRAKING FORCE ON THE REMAINING 3 TIRES CAUSING MARKED DECREASE IN BRAKING CAPACITY. WHEN THIS HAPPENS AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS, BRAKING DISTANCE IS EXTENSIVELY PROLONGED, PO
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 673540 |
| ODI Number | 10230786 |
| Date Filed | June 12, 2008 |
| Failure Date | June 11, 2008 |
| VIN | WDBNG70J6YA |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM Complaints for 2000 MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASS
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.