W210 Rear Suspension ... again

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C&V Cars

When I bought my 211 I got it from C&V Cars over in Swavesey, they seemed to know what they were doing with mercs so may be worth a call to them?

Hi,
I visited C&V Cars after speaking to their Engineer Terry Langford. He took the car out for an extended run, got it up on a lift and checked out the main suspension components front and rear. Tyre pressures were also checked. After some general discussion about settings and some heavy levering of the suspension we decided to fix roll-bar bushes and the rear-subframe front bushes. The rest of the suspension seemed OK, but he told me that it could still be the bushes on the shocks but it is not possible to tell from a static test. All-in-all, he and a colleague spent around half an hour on the car and charged me a total of nothing, as in zilch!
As soon as I can sort out my schedule I shall take the car back for bush replacement as described. Given the price of the shocks, if their bushes are faulty I shall just live with it (£300 each :-( ). So thanks for the advice on C&A cars.
BTW, they also showed me a repair that was made on the bracket of the exhaust... it seemed to be a bent screw forced intot the bracket. That's down to my previous indie.

 

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Well I took the car to Swavesey Garage for fixing, following their extended diagnostic run. Two front bushes on the rear subframe were fixed, as were bushes on the front anti-roll bar, as well as an exhaust clamp , and 1 lamp in the instrument cluster (FoC). This lot cost around £480 all in. The result is that most of the noise has gone. When I hit a pothole it is much more of a distant thump than something rattling loose, so as of now the car seems to be back where it was when I bought it.. around 7 years ago. It seems that the front anti-roll bar is badly corroded so I might be having it replaced.
Overall I am very impressed with Swavesey Garage. The guys have time to talk you through the issues and options and they have an enthusiasm for Mercs which also helps.
They lent me a C220 Estate for the day.. it had 138,000 miles on the clock. I have to say the quality of the car was a bit of a shock... it was very poor. However, at a pull-in, I met an owner of a new Tesla.... and he was over the moon about it. So, we shall see....
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.. all very helpful