2006 MERCEDES-BENZ AMG E55 — Complaint #742177
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEM filed November 2, 2009
NHTSA complaint #742177 (ODI reference 10290596) concerns a 2006 MERCEDES-BENZ AMG E55 and was filed on November 2, 2009. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 20, 2007. The vehicle had 4,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia 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 AMG E55 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 2006 MERCEDES-BENZ AMG E55 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2006 MERCEDES BENZ E 55. WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH HE HEARD 2 LOUD POPS AND THEN THE VEHICLE COLLAPSED TO THE GROUND. SPARKS FLEW ALL OVER THE HIGHWAY, WHICH ALMOST CAUSED A MAJOR CRASH. THE AIR BAG SUSPENSION ON THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE HAD BLOWN. HE WAS ABLE TO PULL THE VEHICLE OVER TO CALL THE ROADSIDE ASSISTANT, BUT THE WAIT TIME WAS TOO LENGTHY. HE THEN DROVE THE VEHICLE HOME AT VERY LOW SPEEDS FROM PENNSYLVANIA TO VIRGINIA. PRIOR TO THE FAILURE, THREE DIFFERENT SUSPENSION REPAIRS WERE PERFORMED. HE DROVE THE VEHICLE TO THE MANUFACTURER SERVICE CENTER TO HAVE THE VEHICLE REPAIRED. HE ADVISED THE TECHNICIANS THAT EVERY TIME THE VEHICLE WAS STARTED AIR WOULD LEAK UNDERNEATH THE VEHICLE. THE MANUFACTURER FEELS THIS VEHICLE WAS DAMAGE UPON DELIVERY AND FEELS THE DEALER KNEW ABOUT THE DAMAGE TO THE REAR AIR BAG SUSPENSION. THEY SPECULATED THAT THERE ARE MANY OTHER YEAR MAKE AND MODEL WITH THIS SAME FAILURE. CONTACT THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 14,600. TH
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 742177 |
| ODI Number | 10290596 |
| Date Filed | November 2, 2009 |
| Failure Date | August 20, 2007 |
| VIN | WDBUH76J26A |
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.