stumo
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2008
- Messages
- 431
- Reaction score
- 66
- Location
- VIC, Australia
- Your Mercedes
- ML270CDI x3 2002,03,04 | Sprinter 316CDI 2003 LWB
I have a fleet of ML270s I maintain. I recently had to replace 15yo Bilstien B6 front shock absorbers on one of them. The LH shock had broken its lower eyelet off, but was otherwise fine. And the Bilstein bump stop was in perfect condition. It even still low-speed damped stronger than a brand new OEM shock!
But on the RH side the bump stop was non-existant. Only traces of it were visible mashed up against the top of the shock mounting. The remains were all very brittle and crumbled away to dust in my fingers.
I know the exact history of these shocks and the car, because I did the install myself, and its been our daily driver for the 15 years since I put the new B6's in.
So if you have old shocks on, and especially the Bilstein's with the yellow-ish polyurethane bump stops rather than the stock rubber ones, it might be worth checking them. Also note that I believe the KYB OEM shocks also use a polyurethane bump stop like the B6 (but I believe they were USA only - which didn't get the Diesel W163 so wouldn't have this issue anyway). Other OEM/Stock shocks I've pulled (Sachs, Bilstein B4) have all had severely mashed and split rubber bump stops on the RH side. But the Bilstein B6 was by far the worst. Seems the car had been running for quite a while with no RH front bump stop, which explains the harsh ride over big bumps lol.
What I'm going to do now is install some kind of heat shield down there. So that it will protect the RH shock top mount and the nearby RH engine mount from heat from the turbo/exhaust heat. Both of those components are very close to the turbo/exhaust, and I guess that heat radiates into the shock top mount and the engine mount.
The early demise of the RH engine mount has been a known issue for a long time on these, but this bump stop issue is new to me.
But on the RH side the bump stop was non-existant. Only traces of it were visible mashed up against the top of the shock mounting. The remains were all very brittle and crumbled away to dust in my fingers.
I know the exact history of these shocks and the car, because I did the install myself, and its been our daily driver for the 15 years since I put the new B6's in.
So if you have old shocks on, and especially the Bilstein's with the yellow-ish polyurethane bump stops rather than the stock rubber ones, it might be worth checking them. Also note that I believe the KYB OEM shocks also use a polyurethane bump stop like the B6 (but I believe they were USA only - which didn't get the Diesel W163 so wouldn't have this issue anyway). Other OEM/Stock shocks I've pulled (Sachs, Bilstein B4) have all had severely mashed and split rubber bump stops on the RH side. But the Bilstein B6 was by far the worst. Seems the car had been running for quite a while with no RH front bump stop, which explains the harsh ride over big bumps lol.
What I'm going to do now is install some kind of heat shield down there. So that it will protect the RH shock top mount and the nearby RH engine mount from heat from the turbo/exhaust heat. Both of those components are very close to the turbo/exhaust, and I guess that heat radiates into the shock top mount and the engine mount.
The early demise of the RH engine mount has been a known issue for a long time on these, but this bump stop issue is new to me.
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