The Moment of Truth: Replacing the Seaman Relay on my Air Suspension System

As I sat down to work on my air suspension system, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. The system had been giving me trouble for quite some time now, and I was determined to get it fixed once and for all. After months of research and planning, I finally had the necessary parts in hand, and I was ready to begin the process.

The first step was to remove the original relay that was causing the problem. According to my sources, this particular relay was made by Seaman and was notorious for its tendency to stick over time, which would cause the pump to run unnecessarily and overload it, leading to overheating and eventual failure. I knew that replacing it with a new one would be the key to solving the issue.

I carefully removed the old relay from the system, taking care not to touch any of the surrounding components. Once it was out, I double-checked my work to make sure everything was in its correct place. According to people who had done this before me, the new relay should be installed at the fourth position from the left, so I carefully placed it there.

As I put the new relay in, I couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. This was it, the moment of truth - would the new relay fix the problem and restore my air suspension system to its former glory? I quickly took out the old relay and examined it more closely. Yes, this was indeed the original Seaman relay that had been causing all the trouble.

I put the new relay in place and double-checked everything one last time before proceeding with the rest of the installation process. Next, I tackled the issue of the leaves and dust that had accumulated in my engine bay. It was a bit of a mess, but I knew it needed to be cleaned out if I wanted to see any signs of progress.

With the relay in place, I moved on to test the system. I started by allowing the suspension to settle for a little while before testing its compression again. As I did so, I could hear a slight buzzing noise coming from the system - this was completely normal, according to my research. The air suspension system was designed to make a bit of noise when it was working properly, and this was just one of those things that you had to get used to.

Finally, I tested the car's movement on its new suspension system. As I did so, I could see the car slowly rising as it compressed the air. It was a beautiful sight to behold - the system was working beautifully once again. But there was one final test to run: would the system fully rise when I pressed the button? According to Mercedes' specifications, this should take between 30 and 90 seconds, but I knew that my old Seaman relay had been causing all sorts of problems.

To my relief, it took exactly 45 seconds for the suspension to reach its full height. And as I checked the dashboard, I could see the SRS light turn off - a clear sign that everything was working properly. It was a huge moment of triumph, and I couldn't help but feel proud of myself for fixing the problem once and for all.

But my work wasn't done yet. As I looked around at my newly restored engine bay, I knew that I needed to tackle one final issue: installing a new back seat belt. After forgetting to install it during the initial repair process, I knew I had to make it right as soon as possible. And with that task complete, I was finally able to drive my car long distances without worrying about whether or not the air suspension system would fail me.

Looking forward, I know that there are many more repairs and upgrades in store for this old car of mine. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy the feeling of satisfaction and pride that comes with fixing a difficult problem like this one. And who knows - maybe next time around, it'll be my trusty 3000 GT that needs some TLC.

Rebuild MasterTech: A Company Worth Knowing About

As I worked on my air suspension system, I couldn't help but think of all the other car enthusiasts out there who were probably struggling with similar problems. That's why I wanted to take a moment to talk about Rebuild MasterTech, a company that specializes in rebuilding and restoring air components for cars like mine.

According to their website, Rebuild MasterTech has been around for many years, serving car owners from all over the world. They claim to have a team of expert technicians who are dedicated to providing top-quality workmanship and excellent customer service. And it's clear that they back up those claims - I received my new air compressor for about $200, including shipping, which is an absolute steal.

But what really sets Rebuild MasterTech apart is their warranty policy. According to them, all of their rebuilt parts come with a lifetime warranty, which gives me peace of mind knowing that if anything goes wrong down the line, I'll be covered. And it's not just limited to air components - they also rebuild other parts like suspension systems and fuel injectors.

I'm so impressed with Rebuild MasterTech that I've decided to make them my go-to source for all future car repairs and upgrades. If you're struggling with a similar problem, I highly recommend checking out their website and seeing what they have to offer.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and welcome to another grand lovely day it's uh it's actually pretty nice yesterday we had some thunderstorms but who cares because today we are working on my car h ah look at it piece of junk it is a piece of junk what you are looking at here is my 2000 mercedesbenz S500 complete with dog in the back crying for his owner well for those of you who don't know about this car um I uh kind of famously wrote onel opik about how I bought it for $3,000 and turned it into my daily driver and I have been driving it for the last 2 years or so and as you can see you know there's some nice daily driver marks stuff that I got to get rid of and it's uh it's it's been a Workhorse I mean it's a little rough around the edges now and it's uh it's getting a little long in the tooth so today I'm going to fix a problem that's been kind of a pain in my ass for the last month every time I turn on the car the air compressor starts to make a little noise and it's uh since the car is so well uh sound deaded on the inside it's not very noticeable on the inside but then once you go outside it's sort of insane so let me uh let me see if I can get that to sound off for you all right so if you want to get the air compressor working you just have to put the suspension up a little bit and you can hear right away right there this is not exactly how quiet a Mercedes-Benz should be and the air compressor is somewhere in there so I just have to replace it with a brand new one so here is the new part it is a uh looks like a remanufactured one so new to you yeah it's new to me but it's um it's been completely refurbished and it's a little bit cheaper than the regular all right that makes it a little harder actually get your foot off there so this is by a company called rebuild MasterTech and they're in Pompano Beach Florida and I've used them before for air suspension components for my father's Range Rover and uh and this Mercedes but this should be this costs about 200 bucks and here's how it comes see for the w220 that's the one I need w211 I think that's the I don't know CL class and 219 who cares so take this out need there we go take that out and here is the compressor now people praise foam this is actually pretty good pH it is a high quality foam um so the issue with a lot with these compressors is not that the seals inside go I think mine mine went because you can tell that it's it's really really loud and it shouldn't be that loud should be uh quite quiet uh so the original seals they uh well the original hose there's like a junction right right here and that Junction usually leaks and this is a um it's a redesign so this should not leak since it's only meeting at one end instead of instead of two so this uh this should be good to go and it has a warranty I know that that's pretty foreign if you're that's a foreign concept to anyone following my stuff but you know sometimes you do have to you know bite the bullet and not buy used and get something that's uh even if it's not new it's just refurbished so let's get the old one out and see what that looks like so here we have the old well actually no this is the new Air Compressor see it's all shiny and clean and here's the old one notice it the difference yeah so this actually the rivets on this supposed to be like this they broke off I have no idea how this was holding pressure at all doggies a why are you so scared is the world scar to you not to you you don't care anyway here is the hose for the uh filter and that hose is almost completely rotted through almost yeah so there's your problem yeah this thing uh is past serviceable now I'm going to try to get this in there and uh working correctly uh after I broke the mount so I'm going to have to tap those but I think should be salvageable let's hope so now that I've taken off the old compressor you can see that piece of crap just sad and just disgusting hello new compressor so here's what I'm working with let me see if I can get phone in here now here are the mounts and uh that's that's one Mount try to focus on that it's one one of the mounts um you can see it's all rusted and I mean this car doesn't have a lot of rust but these These are particularly susceptible uh since there's uh you know salt and corrosion and whatnot and this is a daily driver as you can see these have all broken off like these um the the bolts but I have tapped uh a a thread onto here and that way I can fit one of these nuts on here no problem uh I will after everything's on I will paint it to make sure it doesn't rust or at least stop the rust and I still have to tap this one and that one make sure this Airline is out of the way and uh not not being pinched I don't think that's that's going all the way through but making sure that that's routed the the correct way cuz maybe this was a replaced before but uh yeah as soon as I have these tapped then I can put on the new air compressor and uh hopefully my car will no longer be no longer have the sound that uh the horrendous sound that I made before all right sitrep uh I came home because uh I have a little bit of an issue now that stud right there is completely stripped out and it's too rusted to even uh try to uh put a tap back in on the thread now what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut that off and then I'm going to with My Little Harbor Freight welder I can get that yep little cheap Harbor Freight welder I'm going to weld on wow I really can't get any okay there we go basically weld on this bolt right here that way I can thread it and uh yeah hopefully it'll it'll fit like it like it should the way it works is it's there's a little bit it has to has to be able to move a little bit because this vibrates a lot when it uh when it engages and in order for it to not to hit the top or vibrate the body I need to have it have some give so hopefully that'll work uh we shall see so here is the uh somewhat finished product um I welded that bolt uh I put in a uh nut right here with a washer I welded up a washer too doesn't uh doesn't look all that great but uh just put in again this is just a stop Gap because uh I am going to be replacing this thing this uh this entire bracket um with an oem one but uh for now I just painted this black just so it's not going to be uh rusting in the meantime uh yeah I put a nut right there and then a lock nut uh so it doesn't back itself out because this does vibrate a bit and there is a bit of movement here let's I don't know if that's going to translate into uh vibration on the inside I don't think it will because it's not really hitting anything but we'll see now that we got things mostly buttoned up we have to put in the relay so this is the relay that we have to put in it's this little probably $5 relay um the issue with these cars is that they have relays uh I think made by Seamans or or something and they stick over time so it means that this pump is going to be running when it shouldn't and it's going to overload the pump and it's going to overheat it and it's going to make it die this relay makes that not happen so all I have to do is stick this one in and uh test the car so you can see my pristine engine bay with uh with leaves and dust and and grot everywhere this is what happens when it's a daily driver I definitely need to do a nice clean but that's later on I believe the relay is here so got to let me see okay so according to people it's the fourth one from the left so that would make it this one actually before I take that out let me double check upon further inspection yes that is it thank you very much YouTube and Google so just take that out and take a look at that I think this yeah this is the original Seaman relay um I mean this car does have about 106,000 Mi on it I don't know if this is particularly bad but you know we can always change it especially with a part this cheap so let's put that one right there bam let's take some of these leaves out so again pristine Concourse quality here is the Moment of Truth all right let the suspension settle a little bit now I can hear a little bit of uh little bit of buzzing but that's that's normal and that's that's it wow there we go that is it so it looks like job done let's try that again you can see car slowly lowering slowly again this airomatic it's not like a hydr Pneumatic suspension in the s55 or um like an S65 this is sort of very very old school um just a compressor a pump and uh just pumps up the shocks it's very good system when it works so see aromatic Rising little bit of uh little bit of grumbling but it's that's totally normal and you see Rising ever so slightly so Mercedes says that when you press the button it should take between 30 and 90 seconds for it to uh for it to fully rise and it rises about right around about an inch so yeah I think I think that's it I think it's uh it's stopped Rising the dash light went off you can see my SRS light is on because uh I'm so smart that I forgot to install one of the back uh seat belts when I was doing the black interior so H whatever I'll I'll do that later so I'm a bit dirtier for the wear uh but I have fixed the issue um now I can drive this long distances without worrying about if the air suspension is going to fail I have um many new components I have uh both back shocks brand new the front shocks didn't look like they were leaking or anything I did a test with soapy water they were okay uh the lines weren't corroded the lines weren't um you know they didn't have any holes in them so fingers crossed this should this should be a good solution for for years and years to come and if you guys want to find a really good company to uh rebuild and uh restore your air components if you like a Range Rover if you have a Jaguar um if you have Bentley or whatever go to rebuild MasterTech I think they have a website they're definitely on eBay uh yes it's rebuild MasterTech they have a um they're in Pompano Beach Florida and they have really good prices I got this air compressor for about 200 bucks shipped and it has a u has a pretty good warranty there's a there's even a new one you can buy for like $300 and it has like a lifetime warranty but you know me I'm super cheap so but I think I'll end the video there so if you like the video please like comment subscribe do whatever you'd like to do if you didn't like the video then I urge you please hit that dislike button because I like to hear feedback now um the next video I think I will be working on my 3000 GT it is high time I work on that thing because um it smells horrible and it developed a flat tire and I need to get it running because I can't even access my garage anymore and I'm kind of interested into seeing what that car can actually do on the street if it smokes if it uh if it runs right if has all the gears that will be coming up in a new video and uh look forward to that but for now I will see you next timehello and welcome to another grand lovely day it's uh it's actually pretty nice yesterday we had some thunderstorms but who cares because today we are working on my car h ah look at it piece of junk it is a piece of junk what you are looking at here is my 2000 mercedesbenz S500 complete with dog in the back crying for his owner well for those of you who don't know about this car um I uh kind of famously wrote onel opik about how I bought it for $3,000 and turned it into my daily driver and I have been driving it for the last 2 years or so and as you can see you know there's some nice daily driver marks stuff that I got to get rid of and it's uh it's it's been a Workhorse I mean it's a little rough around the edges now and it's uh it's getting a little long in the tooth so today I'm going to fix a problem that's been kind of a pain in my ass for the last month every time I turn on the car the air compressor starts to make a little noise and it's uh since the car is so well uh sound deaded on the inside it's not very noticeable on the inside but then once you go outside it's sort of insane so let me uh let me see if I can get that to sound off for you all right so if you want to get the air compressor working you just have to put the suspension up a little bit and you can hear right away right there this is not exactly how quiet a Mercedes-Benz should be and the air compressor is somewhere in there so I just have to replace it with a brand new one so here is the new part it is a uh looks like a remanufactured one so new to you yeah it's new to me but it's um it's been completely refurbished and it's a little bit cheaper than the regular all right that makes it a little harder actually get your foot off there so this is by a company called rebuild MasterTech and they're in Pompano Beach Florida and I've used them before for air suspension components for my father's Range Rover and uh and this Mercedes but this should be this costs about 200 bucks and here's how it comes see for the w220 that's the one I need w211 I think that's the I don't know CL class and 219 who cares so take this out need there we go take that out and here is the compressor now people praise foam this is actually pretty good pH it is a high quality foam um so the issue with a lot with these compressors is not that the seals inside go I think mine mine went because you can tell that it's it's really really loud and it shouldn't be that loud should be uh quite quiet uh so the original seals they uh well the original hose there's like a junction right right here and that Junction usually leaks and this is a um it's a redesign so this should not leak since it's only meeting at one end instead of instead of two so this uh this should be good to go and it has a warranty I know that that's pretty foreign if you're that's a foreign concept to anyone following my stuff but you know sometimes you do have to you know bite the bullet and not buy used and get something that's uh even if it's not new it's just refurbished so let's get the old one out and see what that looks like so here we have the old well actually no this is the new Air Compressor see it's all shiny and clean and here's the old one notice it the difference yeah so this actually the rivets on this supposed to be like this they broke off I have no idea how this was holding pressure at all doggies a why are you so scared is the world scar to you not to you you don't care anyway here is the hose for the uh filter and that hose is almost completely rotted through almost yeah so there's your problem yeah this thing uh is past serviceable now I'm going to try to get this in there and uh working correctly uh after I broke the mount so I'm going to have to tap those but I think should be salvageable let's hope so now that I've taken off the old compressor you can see that piece of crap just sad and just disgusting hello new compressor so here's what I'm working with let me see if I can get phone in here now here are the mounts and uh that's that's one Mount try to focus on that it's one one of the mounts um you can see it's all rusted and I mean this car doesn't have a lot of rust but these These are particularly susceptible uh since there's uh you know salt and corrosion and whatnot and this is a daily driver as you can see these have all broken off like these um the the bolts but I have tapped uh a a thread onto here and that way I can fit one of these nuts on here no problem uh I will after everything's on I will paint it to make sure it doesn't rust or at least stop the rust and I still have to tap this one and that one make sure this Airline is out of the way and uh not not being pinched I don't think that's that's going all the way through but making sure that that's routed the the correct way cuz maybe this was a replaced before but uh yeah as soon as I have these tapped then I can put on the new air compressor and uh hopefully my car will no longer be no longer have the sound that uh the horrendous sound that I made before all right sitrep uh I came home because uh I have a little bit of an issue now that stud right there is completely stripped out and it's too rusted to even uh try to uh put a tap back in on the thread now what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut that off and then I'm going to with My Little Harbor Freight welder I can get that yep little cheap Harbor Freight welder I'm going to weld on wow I really can't get any okay there we go basically weld on this bolt right here that way I can thread it and uh yeah hopefully it'll it'll fit like it like it should the way it works is it's there's a little bit it has to has to be able to move a little bit because this vibrates a lot when it uh when it engages and in order for it to not to hit the top or vibrate the body I need to have it have some give so hopefully that'll work uh we shall see so here is the uh somewhat finished product um I welded that bolt uh I put in a uh nut right here with a washer I welded up a washer too doesn't uh doesn't look all that great but uh just put in again this is just a stop Gap because uh I am going to be replacing this thing this uh this entire bracket um with an oem one but uh for now I just painted this black just so it's not going to be uh rusting in the meantime uh yeah I put a nut right there and then a lock nut uh so it doesn't back itself out because this does vibrate a bit and there is a bit of movement here let's I don't know if that's going to translate into uh vibration on the inside I don't think it will because it's not really hitting anything but we'll see now that we got things mostly buttoned up we have to put in the relay so this is the relay that we have to put in it's this little probably $5 relay um the issue with these cars is that they have relays uh I think made by Seamans or or something and they stick over time so it means that this pump is going to be running when it shouldn't and it's going to overload the pump and it's going to overheat it and it's going to make it die this relay makes that not happen so all I have to do is stick this one in and uh test the car so you can see my pristine engine bay with uh with leaves and dust and and grot everywhere this is what happens when it's a daily driver I definitely need to do a nice clean but that's later on I believe the relay is here so got to let me see okay so according to people it's the fourth one from the left so that would make it this one actually before I take that out let me double check upon further inspection yes that is it thank you very much YouTube and Google so just take that out and take a look at that I think this yeah this is the original Seaman relay um I mean this car does have about 106,000 Mi on it I don't know if this is particularly bad but you know we can always change it especially with a part this cheap so let's put that one right there bam let's take some of these leaves out so again pristine Concourse quality here is the Moment of Truth all right let the suspension settle a little bit now I can hear a little bit of uh little bit of buzzing but that's that's normal and that's that's it wow there we go that is it so it looks like job done let's try that again you can see car slowly lowering slowly again this airomatic it's not like a hydr Pneumatic suspension in the s55 or um like an S65 this is sort of very very old school um just a compressor a pump and uh just pumps up the shocks it's very good system when it works so see aromatic Rising little bit of uh little bit of grumbling but it's that's totally normal and you see Rising ever so slightly so Mercedes says that when you press the button it should take between 30 and 90 seconds for it to uh for it to fully rise and it rises about right around about an inch so yeah I think I think that's it I think it's uh it's stopped Rising the dash light went off you can see my SRS light is on because uh I'm so smart that I forgot to install one of the back uh seat belts when I was doing the black interior so H whatever I'll I'll do that later so I'm a bit dirtier for the wear uh but I have fixed the issue um now I can drive this long distances without worrying about if the air suspension is going to fail I have um many new components I have uh both back shocks brand new the front shocks didn't look like they were leaking or anything I did a test with soapy water they were okay uh the lines weren't corroded the lines weren't um you know they didn't have any holes in them so fingers crossed this should this should be a good solution for for years and years to come and if you guys want to find a really good company to uh rebuild and uh restore your air components if you like a Range Rover if you have a Jaguar um if you have Bentley or whatever go to rebuild MasterTech I think they have a website they're definitely on eBay uh yes it's rebuild MasterTech they have a um they're in Pompano Beach Florida and they have really good prices I got this air compressor for about 200 bucks shipped and it has a u has a pretty good warranty there's a there's even a new one you can buy for like $300 and it has like a lifetime warranty but you know me I'm super cheap so but I think I'll end the video there so if you like the video please like comment subscribe do whatever you'd like to do if you didn't like the video then I urge you please hit that dislike button because I like to hear feedback now um the next video I think I will be working on my 3000 GT it is high time I work on that thing because um it smells horrible and it developed a flat tire and I need to get it running because I can't even access my garage anymore and I'm kind of interested into seeing what that car can actually do on the street if it smokes if it uh if it runs right if has all the gears that will be coming up in a new video and uh look forward to that but for now I will see you next time\n"