serious problem with springs

[jackabea]

hi,
i have a 1999 e300 t/d estate the other day i hit a pot hole, there was a huge bang and the front of the car was on the floor??????
after visiting the nearest toilet, i picked all the bits up that bounced around and limped home, i eventually got a jack under the car, removed the road wheel only to find that the spring cup welded to the chassis had corroded and broke away causing the colapse, i have checked the other side and that has started to crack, is this a common fault, has this model ever had a recall due to this fault, i did phone the local mercedes dealer who was unhelpfull and rather vague about what they could do, so turn to the experts, the owners club, can anybody help, advise, i think if this had happened on the motorway i would be deceased now

thanks in anticipation.
please forgive the spelling, im in a hurry!

 

[mikestrivens]

Thank God you are OK. I suggest that you get a local Indie MB Specialist to look at it. MB will only want to sell you a new car. Others on this forum will advise of good indie in Birmingham/Wolverhampton area.

 

[Top Cat]

I've read about this a lot recently and TBH it is surely only by shear luck that nobody has lost their life in a horrific accident.

As a preventative measure for other 210 owners, is there any merit in getting some sort of strengthening brace or plate welded above/around the cup base to spread the load?

 

[television]

I believe that Parrot of doom put up lots of pictures on this some years back, and we had another last week

 

[smv]

I had this happen to my e320 .They are only about £20 quid each but a bit tricky to fit luckily my mate fitted mine

 

[robs-mbz]

I paid about that much for mine from Mercedes but fitted them myself. Any competent welder will be able to make a satisfactory repair. The standard ones are fitted with just three spot welds! Get him to spot weld them and run a continuous seam around them, it will be obvious where to weld when you see them fitted. Give the replacements a generous coating of waxoyl, paying plenty of attention to the gaps between the spring hanger and the inner wing. The major work involved will be removing the suspension and springs, nothing complicated at all, just time consuming. you will be very suprised when you see your replacements, they are very thin and flimsy and don't look anywhere near capable of supporting the weight of a W210!

 

[turbopete]

i think, come bodywork fixing time, mine are getting cleaned and rust treated! hope i dont need to take the springs out though!

 

[robs-mbz]

Strip out all the mastic around the spring hanger and soak in wax oil. To be honest, mine looked ok until I started poking and scraping, I was horrified by what I found underneath. Good luck!

 

[jackabea]

Hi , i've had the damaged one welded now as a precaution i asked the welder to check the o/s, good job!!! when he removed all the sealer and had a good dig at it only to discover it was held on by one spot weld and the sealer, so much so it was actually bent upwards and ready to go the same way, moral of story! if you have one of these, ASAP, scrape all the rubbish away and check both sides, it could save your life, and a lot of expense.
Thanks to all for advice and comments, MB local dealer still has not responded to my calls, it's a good job this forum is here for supporty, thanks again


jack

 

[television]

Pleased that it is going well and you are making the best from a rotten job

 

[jackabea]

hi guys, managed to borrow some mb spring compressors from a friend at a body shop, and put all back together, its all ok now, thanks again for all comments and support

 

[television]

hi guys, managed to borrow some mb spring compressors from a friend at a body shop, and put all back together, its all ok now, thanks again for all comments and support

A good post Jack and a good result, thanks for sharing it all with us

 

[FraseD]

Hi,

This has just happended to mine, only had the car 1 week!!!!...

Am a bit gutted really, am getting them to check both sides now after reading this thread.

Can any one tell me if I would need to have the tracking set after having the repair parts welded in?

Thanks for any advice

FraseD

 

[television]

Hello and welcome,,the car should be OK providing nothing bent, like the track rods, and this would be seen when putting it all back

 

[FraseD]

Thanks for the advice and the welcome!

 

[jackabea]

spring mountings

Hi
sorry to hear about your problem, it happened to me a while ago now and a good welder did the trick, i got him to do both sides, because i was not to happy with the way it went, he did tell me that there were only five spot welds holding all that weight? i had it tracked as a precaution and it was not out but better to be safe, hope it gets sorted ok.
regards

jack

 

[FraseD]

Got a phonecall today to say that all is repaired and that the passenger side has been checked and found to be OK?

I will check it thoroughly when I get it back to make sure all is well

 

[Laughing Gas]

My front nearside spring cup failed last evening on the A40, luckily a suburban section and at only 20 mph!! I had just left Kwik-Fit where the front nearside tyre had been replaced, so I guess the spring decompression and recompression was the final straw. No bad feelings against Kwik-Fit - it was clearly going to fail sometime. I know my car, a W210 from April 1997, is notorious for rust and its living up to expectations, but I still don't expect a catastrophic suspension failure of this sort on a "quality" brand such as Mercedes. I'll speak to the Dealer on Monday, but don't hold much hope of help from them.
Doe anyone know any good Independents with welding facilities near Amersham, Buckinghamshire?

 

[dieselman]

My front nearside spring cup failed last evening on the A40, luckily a suburban section and at only 20 mph!!

This failure always happens at low speed for two reasons. 1. that's when most bumps and pot holes are found and 2. at speed the front suspension unloads a little.

Failure of these spring cups will not cause loss of control due to the double wishbone suspension design.

 

[Laughing Gas]

Dieselman, thanks for the reassurance. I still wouldn't want it to happen again, at any speed.
Perhaps the failure wouldn't cause loss of control, even at higher speed, but the wheel disappeared into the arch so I was unable to steer more than a few degrees. Presumably, if I had been cornering when it failed, it would have chewed the wing up as well?