W124 Strut Mount replacement & Suspension Arm OSF Lower (rear bush) replacement

Ben's Mercedes

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I'm American, working over here on and off for 5 years and am just wanting to clarify a thing or two ahead of a couple of repairs.

My 124 has just strolled through its MoT needing nothing yet again, but for a little entertainment this time it decided to playfully increase its appeal with a couple of advisories, rather like Marilyn Monroe's beauty spot.

Nothing major, could probably be left to drift for a while even, but I prefer to deal with things when they arise so any tips/advice/translation would be appreciated, thanks.

FIRSTLY: Both sides "Macpherson strut bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement [5.3.4(a)(i)]"

I THINK this is what I know as the Top Leg Mount, accessible under the hood/bonnet, mounted through the top of the wheel arch and accepts the top of the leg/strut from below in to a unit incorporating a rubber mounting which over time can crack.

Assuming I am correct (yes? If not please advise) I haven't done this job before but I know that removing the leg is pretty straightforward and lets you get the job done, however I have come across this how-to on Youtube for swapping-out a 124's mount unit from above -

.

If anyone has done this job either way however and could share their views/advice I'd welcome the input. I'll be doing it on the drive so no pit or lift, and using regular tools

SECONDLY: "Suspension Arm Bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement OSF Lower (rear bush) [5.3.4(a)(i)]"

I KNOW what this is, so a great start! Identifying the bush from online parts suppliers is a minefield however without the part number, and I have found that MB dealers/spares over here REALLY don't want to give out part numbers even to a firm sales enquiry!

I have seen a couple of references on this forum about "The Russian Site" where your chassis number can get you model-specific part numbers I understand, so if it is allowed can someone point me to there please? Or alternatively, for my C/N WDB1240822f335498 could anyone provide the part number for me from either that source or available-other?

If so, then as an afterthought the P/N for the L&R Top Leg Mounts for the first job would also be potentially useful in the avoidance of errors.

I hope that none of this breaks any forum rules, but if it does please disregard with my apologies. If not however, then any advice/guidance would be great.

Ben
 
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Ben's Mercedes

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Well I guess I asked either an impossible question or a way-too-simple one.

But thanks to the 50+ people who at least took a look to see if they could be of help ... the absence of response often says just as much, if not even more.

I'm sorted now, and for the benefit of anyone finding this later whilst looking for the same assist for themself, you might want to consider the choices I made after weighing-up what I learned:

Which firstly is that yes the strut top-mount can be replaced from under the hood/bonnet in the manner shown in the video I linked-in, but it is a tad fiddly. More straightforward to do it from below which, despite requiring partial dismantling of the strut and the suspension there, is the better/cleaner way.

Both ways however pass you through option-points for other things to be done whilst most is strikpped-down and totally accessible ...like, fitting new shocks, springs, bushes and more whilst things are getting undone, freed-up etc, hopefully to bring back the comfortable "float" ride if that has diminished across the ages/miles/wear that can come along on cars that are just about run-in at 200K miles :).

If the top mounts are beginning to crack a little and show deterioration, then the steering and suspension bushes along with associated assemblies undoubtedly might be candidates for replacing also ... costs are often just a few pounds, so while you are getting your hands dirty their replacement is well advised even if just on a precautionary basis as they just may well soon become more obviously in need of doing anyway.

And if you are doing that, then there's a good argument for replacing the front shocks, and even the springs ... depends whether these have already been done as a matter of routine at any point of course.

So altogether I opted to go for 1) necessary Top Mounts by Sachs out of a small handful of mfrs that are OEM suppliers (there are MANY other suppliers at half the cost and even below, but mostly v sketchy and with tales of woe to be heard all over the place.)

2) suspension/control-arm/wishbone bushes both sides though only one side was reported as deteriorating. For a while it became a toss-up between moving mountains trying to extract the old bushes, which is potentially v problematic without a Press (but apparently there ARE ways lol ), or just replacing 27 year old original wishbones with new that come with bushes and ball joint already present ... a far easier job of work, out with the old and in with the new, presto!

However ....

a) according to my Dealer (genuinely v helpful!) MB no longer supplies the 124 wishbones, and redirects enquirers toward aftermarket suppliers (P/Ns A1243303007 and 03107 for left and right respectively). Again they can be had from many suppliers/mfrs at a range of costs, though other than for a short-term cheapy quick-fix you will need to spend from £120-150 per side, though encouragingly probably from an OE mfr anyway.

So I looked at my original wishbones, and they are perfectly serviceable still though would benefit from a clean-up though still would not look as pretty as shiny new ones. But setting the cost of just the bushes against £250-300 for worthy new wishbones just didn't compute!

So my choice is to stick with the existing wishbones, give them a good clean and tidy-up and do whatever might be required in order safely to extract the old bushes and replace those with new ones ... again, not currently available as OE but MB can supply a service kit A1243300675 at quite a rich sum though there are none around currently and it could be a tidy wait for backorder availability if MB is waiting to have enough customers to make supplying a batch feasible. The separate pieces in the kit are a similar problem for much the same reason.

However, the OE mfrs have near-identical service kits available, and preferred seem to be Lemforder and Febi-Bilstein at generally similar prices

And talking of prices, I've only mentioned a couple of prices for a reason ... which is that I have chosen to use AutoDoc for the majority of things, including some more still to mention ... but all is available from other suppliers also and everyone's costs are very fluid it seems.

Plus most seem always to have a discount offer running at one level or another, and also I have found that prices can change to some degree from one day to the next .. prob an exchange rate effect as the ultimate sources for much of these things lie widely across Europe. Most-favoured are the German manufactured items, unsurprisingly, despite some of those still being outsourced to elsewhere

So please don't just follow my lead on pricing, look around and there could be better elsewhere for the same parts when you are looking.

I should finish, but first it still needs to be said that having decided to do these jobs and in these ways, it seemed utterly stupid not to give my lovely old girl the gifts of new shocks and springs at the same time with fitting being a complete walk in the park, and see just how well she likes being able to waft-as-new again rather than just an 85-90% waft-factor at present I estimate :)

So after seeking experienced advice here and there and also the after-impressions of 124 owners who had gone with various manufacturers for both components, it appeared to me that the combination of B4 Bilstein shocks and MB P/N-equivalent Eibach springs restored the *best* original ride without watering down on handling/motion-performance at all. And I hope they are right, because that's what I have got sitting here whilst waiting for some of these other parts to get here!

Oh, and new shims on the tops of the springs where they set in to the top retainers - still available from MB! :) and I am replacing them with exactly the same size/thickness from the four options on offer for those wanting to fine-tune the ride height at front/rear/both.

On mine the original shims were 8mm and have compressed considerably, so replacing with the same again should raise the nose just that little bit to what it originally was, overall slightly nose-down (advised) as it is an S124, the estate ... and the rear/sls was done not long ago, new spheres etc, and is set up correctly - so with the front now getting a treat too, it should all look "right" :)

Oh, and regarding ride-height for anyone who might want to assess what thickness shim/s to go with if changing them, I gather that the accepted norm with stock 15" wheels and appropriate tyres is 15.5" from centre of wheelhub/MB center cap to the top of the wheelarch vertically above it ... sometimes with an extra 1/2"at the rear but that seems to be mostly because people think it looks better ... :)

So then, I hope that anyone subsequently treading a similar path finds this to be some kind of useful, but please remember that it is nothing more than my informed choices right now ... it will be worthwhile comparing and contrasting for yourself and following any brighter lights.

Best of luck in hopefully sharpening back up your own 124's comfort/ride/steering too ...

Ben
 

LostKiwi

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Only just seen this but did my 129 a few years ago (and is apparently the same as the 124).
I did mine without removing anything other than the strut top mount.
If you support the lower wishbone with a jack you can undo the strut mount, undo the nut on top of the strut, compress the strut by hand and drop out the top mount. Took around 30 minutes from memory.
 
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Ben's Mercedes

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I appreciate the confirmation LostKiwi, thank you.

I'd initially intended to do it that way when it was just the top mount being done, as the above 124/109 video seemed to bear out my impression that it should be pretty straightforward. Given the few extras I have chosen to include as well now, I'll work south from there :)
 


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