Mixing Spring manufacturers Question

[moj91]

Hi All,

I had a N/S front spring snap on my W204 the other day, and it needed repairing fast. (yeyy potholes and road-salt)

I had a quick shop around and my local dealers had, one. The local car part suppliers were either out of stock or on a few day wait for delivery.

I had the option for my local mechanic to swap the spring for me the next day as he had a gap in work, so that was done, but of course the other side spring has now decided to snap as well (albeit lower down the spring)

I am aware that they should be swapped in pairs, but needs must - either way now the other spring needs swapping...

However my local dealer does not have stock available for over a week and they have quoted a much higher price (same also for the service parts I wanted, looks like they have reviewed their prices/my trade disc. amount.. grr.) £84 vs. £36 elsewhere...

This brings the question - I i fitted a non-MB OEM spring, the example being a Bilstein branded one, which supposedly is a direct replacement for the same Part Number as the MB spring, am I going to run into any issues? Or should they both perform the same? (I would have thought so?)

Thanks!

 

[LostKiwi]

I wouldn't fit a single spring unless it was a dealer one so I would know it matched the opposite side.
There is absolutely no guarantee an aftermarket one will. The MB spring matrix is a bit of a nightmare....

 

[Frontstep]

I would try and find another Bilstein one.

 

[Jkh112]

Many many years ago I had a front spring break on my 190e.
The main dealer had none in stock and the local motor factors only had one non genuine spring in stock. As I needed the car on the road I replaced the broken one with the aftermarket item.
Did not notice any real difference but the car was not like this for too long as the other side broke soon after.
I then ordered and fitted a matching aftermarket one.

 

[daveenty]

I agree with most of the above really, especially only fitting in matched pairs, though completely understand why you had to just throw one on at the time.

I would also only use genuine ones as there are so many different options of spring rating on most models of Mercedes and a dealer will know what yours was fitted with from the factory, and after-market ones don't use the same colour coding system.

I'm lucky with my W201 as I get a reasonable discount from the dealers, possibly just to get rid of me quickly, but I would only use MB irrespective of this as most of these cars are critical to springiness (Is that a word?)

 

[Frontstep]

I went through 6 springs over the years on my 210 before I realised that buying the box badge was a waste of time and money.

MB along with many other manufacturers fit duff rusty carrot based springs.

 

[moj91]

Thank you all for your comments and advice - I think the best course of action will be to fit another genuine one (£££) in order to make sure they are an exact match and to avoid fitting the incorrect spring from a spring rate/ride height perspective. The side with the remaining original spring is also sat a little lower too, although i suspect this is due to fatigue on that old spring/the new spring needing time to settle maybe?