HERBIEMERCMAN
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2008
- Messages
- 1,407
- Reaction score
- 40
- Location
- PRESTON, LANCS.
- Your Mercedes
- 97. E300.TD. 7 SEAT.ELEGANCE. EST.TOYOTA SUPRA MK4. RS. VAUX. CORSA.GLS AUTO. SPORT.
hi everyone, the experience i had with failure of my front o/s suspension in sep. this yr, whilst on hol. in ireland may prevent you with the traumer i had. as many of you may know the b-roads in southern ireland are quite bumpy. after one day on such roads the front o/s suspension coil fell off, and the tyre dropped onto the inner wing. i risked life and limb and gathered all the bits from the road, i did not have a clue what was going on, but i knew it was somthing serious and potentially dangerouse. i jacked up the car and could see what the problem was, the steel cup which retaines the top of the coil spring had corroded and with fatigue had broken away from the car's bulkhead. to get home i had to cut and jam a piece of wood where the coilspring should be. the merc. main dealers in uk, not ireland, keep the steel cups, so i figured it is a known problem. apparantly if the plastic underseal fails behind the cup it holds moisture and corrosion sets in. the n/s susp. was as new, underseal in tact. if you have this car, then i would check it. the local garageman in east dunmore waterford was fantastic, 180 euro to weld the new cup in place, the cup kit with sleeve and rubber buffer costs £25. the air freight was £85. we also lost 4 days touring time. finaly i must tell you about the irish mech, he was great, naturally funny, he said, (read this next bit in a storng irish accent) "i tuk the f--kin spring up to my friends farm at the top of the hill, we dropped the tractor's bucket on it to compress the spring, i had to lie down and put some fence wire on it to keep it compressed, to be sure we carried it down der hill like a f---kin handgranade with the pin out, when i cut the wire in the garage my son ran out", "in the big country yoose have the compression tool." after i had stopped roaring with laughter i gave him 200 euro and thanked him for doing such a good job. his name was michael welsh. herbiemercman.
