123 Wagon hydraulics

The "spheres" or suspension accumulators are bad. They do act as shock absorbers. Changing them is going to be expensive but not as expensive as trying to add shock absorbers.

You would not want to change the system anyway as it would affect the safety of the vehicle. One of the advantages of the load leveler system is that it keeps your car at its optimum balance regardless of load. Your car rides level whether you have 1 person or 7 in the car. The accumulators are not terribly expensive, but if you don't change them the seals will blow out in the hydraulic struts themselves, and they are very expensive. You can get accumulators here for about $105 each:

You should change the fluid and filter in the system annually. You can use automatic transmission fluid instead of the expensive hydraulic oil Mercedes sells for about $20 a liter.

Paul

One of the advantages of the load leveler

I have been using APW for years. I could add shocks without much trouble, but since the spheres are down to $100, thats cheaper than a set of bilstiens and my time fabricating secondary shock mounts. I do change the load a lot, often hauling heavy parts, and/or 4 people and 2 Labradors. Thanks

The new spheres should be good for quite a while. What causes them to fail is migration of the nitrogen gas through the diaphragm over time, resulting in loss of compressibility.