Suspension repairs - am I being ripped off?

bob 6600

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Hello and welcome. 120k is not really high miles for a 10 year old car these days, especially a diesel. As said, go to AMF and even if the price is the same, you know the car is done correctly.
 

mioba

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Take the car to AF, he will see you right, at that age of car, it is age related components fail (rubber) so nothing to be woriied about.

AF will also fit best parts so you wont be worrying about it for years, A good MB indy is worth thier weight in gold.
 

Timeandleisure

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and let them charge you £150 to diagnose what you already know ??? :rolleyes:
I didn’t realise you get charged for a complimentary vehicle check, perhaps I should have been clearer.
For diagnostics then yes I would agree you don’t want to spend money for nothing. However, I think there is has been some discussion about whether the all work needs doing and when. I would ask MB if they would do a complimentary vehicle check...
 

mioba

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MB do only a vehicle check as part of the servive for other items not covered by the service as such. If one turns up and says can you check abc, then they will charge time.
 

kotecki

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Would it be fair to suggest that when using an independent garage, you might not get access to all the latest updates that Mercedes bring out. Some of these updates are possibly candy dressing but some can be important, at the end of the day its your money.

A simple example of these updates and yes this can be described as 'candy' but here we go.

many years ago when we purchased our car 211 E-class, playing an Mp3 was not an option for the COMAND system. The next time our car went to the main dealer for some work, then as usual, the latest updates were installed, one of which was the ability to play those music files. All free and all part of the service. The majority of updates are usually for the drive train, suspension etc

Some Mercedes Independent garages pay for the licence to do this, but some do not.

Good luck with the new car
 

Timeandleisure

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MB do only a vehicle check as part of the servive for other items not covered by the service as such. If one turns up and says can you check abc, then they will charge time.
Oh I see.... nice to know I am getting some preferential treatment then... but I am ££££s lighter.. Good tips from this forum for me to learn how to handle MB better...:)
 

Blobcat

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Would it be fair to suggest that when using an independent garage, you might not get access to all the latest updates that Mercedes bring out. Some of these updates are possibly candy dressing but some can be important, at the end of the day its your money.

A simple example of these updates and yes this can be described as 'candy' but here we go.

many years ago when we purchased our car 211 E-class, playing an Mp3 was not an option for the COMAND system. The next time our car went to the main dealer for some work, then as usual, the latest updates were installed, one of which was the ability to play those music files. All free and all part of the service. The majority of updates are usually for the drive train, suspension etc

Some Mercedes Independent garages pay for the licence to do this, but some do not.

Good luck with the new car
Quite rare unfortunately these days for Mercedes to update things like the comand system as it ties up a bay for many hours.Ask @Botus
 

Misterdog

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Mp3 was only ever a thing for those who didn't care about the loss of information for the sake of greater storage capacity.

FLAC is, and has been my choice of music storage since the advent of digital, the 'L' standing for 'lossless'.
Vinyl replay was always tricky in cars though.

OOH.jpg


My nude Shibata stylus mounted on a solid Boron cantelever.
 

EmilysDad

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I didn’t realise you get charged for a complimentary vehicle check, perhaps I should have been clearer.
For diagnostics then yes I would agree you don’t want to spend money for nothing. However, I think there is has been some discussion about whether the all work needs doing and when. I would ask MB if they would do a complimentary vehicle check...
Possibly I misunderstood .... I know that Merc will charge to diagnose, if you were getting a 'complimentary check', then that's another story
I know that when I asked them to quote for a job, they wouldn't until they'd charged me to diagnose.
 

Timeandleisure

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Possibly I misunderstood .... I know that Merc will charge to diagnose, if you were getting a 'complimentary check', then that's another story
I know that when I asked them to quote for a job, they wouldn't until they'd charged me to diagnose.
Seems like I have been lucky... will keep your advice in mind. Thanks!
 

Botus

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Would it be fair to suggest that when using an independent garage, you might not get access to all the latest updates that Mercedes bring out. Some of these updates are possibly candy dressing but some can be important, at the end of the day its your money.

A simple example of these updates and yes this can be described as 'candy' but here we go.

many years ago when we purchased our car 211 E-class, playing an Mp3 was not an option for the COMAND system. The next time our car went to the main dealer for some work, then as usual, the latest updates were installed, one of which was the ability to play those music files. All free and all part of the service. The majority of updates are usually for the drive train, suspension etc

Some Mercedes Independent garages pay for the licence to do this, but some do not.

Good luck with the new car

its exceptionally rare software updates are applied to vehicles... where possible all main franchised dealerships on all brands tend to steer away from it... many reasons

laziness is a huge one
in the early days most garages didn’t have the knowledge to use the equipment given to them and made mistakes trying
sometimes it wasn’t just the dealer being incompetent, bad software from the manu had glitches that killed cars (still does)
bugs on the new software is still an issue as the world moved to let the end user do the software testing
most places still don’t like the idea of bothering with correct stable voltage
as the manu won’t share why there’s an update, grumpy ignorant dealers don’t see why they should bother, particularly as many dealerships want faulty cars, its more business, and can lead to more car sales

in the end to make it more reliable dealer training, decent dealer kit, with non molested files, and a handshake reporting why, who, and how it went - means many indepenant dealers can't do it - but to the end user its little different - no one bothers....
 
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sausage

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I would go and try the independent that is recommended previously in this post. I'd give them business and then get to know each other and look after a car in a way this is best for me and my pocket. Independents are usually really helpful in giving a gentle heads up on what is needed, how important it is, and how soon you need to do it vs what is immediately needed. I have found them to be much more supportive, and customer oriented, knowing me and my car history. Some main dealers are great at that too, but in my experience they are less that way now and this is where the independents win my business today.

I've had plenty of time with main dealers and only recently changed my view to match the endless numbers of people that already say independents are better than main dealers. But only if you get a good independent, and it seems you have some strong recommendations on here for a local guy.

I'd have truly been guessing for about £500 - £1000 for the parts and labour, but probably would have thought that main dealers would be somewhere towards the higher end of the bracket and hoping somewhere for the lower end :)
 
OP
janes360

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Hi and welcome to the forum, loads of help to be had here. Mrs D bought a lovely CLK Coupe a few years back at broadly the same age and mileage yours is now. Over the first couple of years we had to put on several suspension arms and steering ball joints before it was spot on... so it is possible your work is needed.

However how long is it in time and mileage since the last MOT and were any of these items noted as advisory?
Thanks for that - it's reassuring. It was MOT'd in June and no, the items weren't noted then.
 

JBell

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Hi there. I have an 11 year old navy blue convertible beauty (E350SE). She's just been serviced and the garage recommended some proactive repairs to address the following:
1. Slight play in the nearside front suspension lower front arm ball joint
2 Ball joint gaiters split (no play) on: offside front suspension lower front arm ball joint; nearside front suspension lower rear arm ball joint; offside front suspension lower rear arm ball joint.
They said the way Mercedes manufacture you can't just replace the gaiter, you have to replace the whole suspension arms. They said that the work is not urgent but will need doing at some point and can affect tyre tread wear.
They want £700 to do this work.

Hi

My C350 (same chassis) is 11 years old and I have the same things coming up, Rubber degrades over time so that is to be expected.

I replaced my 2 lower front suspension arms last year with GSF Premium items and a 45% discount code, they are still around £100 each. Lemforder make the arms for MB (ECP sell them)

The gaiters came up as an advisory on my MOT in aug.

The problem with the ball joints is when they go the tyres start to wear unevenly so you actually cost yourself more money in the long run.

Will be worth replacing them all in one go IMO as this will reduce labour costs in the long run.

You may also need laser Alignment doing on the front wheels after the new arms have been fitted
 

JBell

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Would it be fair to suggest that when using an independent garage, you might not get access to all the latest updates that Mercedes bring out. Some of these updates are possibly candy dressing but some can be important, at the end of the day its your money.

The Indy I use has Xentry and has access to all the relevant updates.

He has been told if he puts the latest emissions software on my car the 190e 2.3-16 Cosworth in his collection will be on my drive
 

Frontstep

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My car has had some joints replaced a few times some MB stuff just doesn't last.

The MOT station I went to yesterday told me of MB's rather poor record on some suspension parts.

There are some other make parts about some terrible some just as good but its a faff finding them.
 

LostKiwi

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Never had any car worse than a D2 Audi A8 when it comes to suspension joints.
Front arm sets lasted about the same length of time as a set of brake pads!
 


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