W210 Suspension Bush Replacement

[johnmc]

Folks,
My W210 has 45kmiles on it, and I'm told by the dealer that one of the suspension bushes needs replacing. Seems very early, and another fault I've not seen on a car I've owned since 1981!

I've since read that it is also a problem with the current C-Class. Anyone got any insights? Do Merc help cover the costs of a basic fault like this? Maybe not on a 6 year old car, but at only 45kmiles?

Cheers!
John

 

[robertjary]

I've had front ball joints, on my 2002 W210 E220 CDI estate, replaced twice now, first at 50k and then when the car failed its first MOT at 105k. On each occasion, as the car was still under warranty, they were replaced with no cost to me. My car now has 152k and is due its next service in about 7k. I won't be suprised if needs replacements, but I doubt if I'll get then fitted under warranty (although I suppose that I could argue that they're not fit for the purpose if they need replacement every 50k).

None of the other cars I've owned, have ever needed replacement ball joints, including my previous car, an Audi A6 estate now used by my wife, which has now covered 205k. All my cars have each covered at least 100k.

Other than ball joints and headlamp bulbs (I've changed more headlamp bulbs in this car than I have in all my other cars put together), it's been very reliable.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

My Audi A4 (1998) needed an entire new front suspension setup, due to poor design £700, although the factory warranty covered it.

The W210 is a pretty heavy car.

 

[jberks]

I had my W210 5 years and 70k - never needed any suspension work done. Sweet and smooth over dodgy roads or fast motorways. I guess these things happen but not a design fault in my experience anyway.

 

[johnmc]

Hmm! Thanks lads, looks like just bad luck for me.

Cheers!
John

 

[OlafMaxwell]

The expected life of the drop links is 25-50k but they are cheap. anti roll bar bushings also cheap, nine done at 70 and 100k.

 

[pcman_jh]

W210 suspension bush - just changed one of mine at the weekend

I just changed the driver's side rear bush on my E300 TD estate (1999 with only 92K miles, knocking coming from the rear end mainly when pulling away or stoppping, not noticeable when driving over bumps). It was the bush that's at the bottom of the rear hub assembly and is friction fitted into the hub. All in all it took me about 6 hours, partly delayed as I couldn't figure out how to remove the parking brake pads. After buying a C Class manual, since I used to own a C Class and note the rear assembly is very similar, managed to strip it all off - hint here if you're doing it yourself and want torque settings etc.

The bush did came out after stripping off the rubber seals aroound it then using a socket from my trusty old socket set and hammering like ^&%%$^!! To fit the new bush simply did a reverse, but trying to keep the new bushes rubber seals in tact.

The bush cost me £28 from the local Merc garage.

I wouldn't like to change this every few years and its a big job.

Hope this helps.

 

[jim99]

same for me!

Hi, my 2002 e320cdi has just failed mot on four front suspension joints having excessive play. I have had the car from new and covered 43,000 miles, 99% of which is on dual carriage ways. The doesn't show any symptoms when driving. Garage quoted £700 to replace, I protested and MB agreed to pay half. i still think this is unreasonable and there should be no failures in the suspension after this amount of miles. I would appreciate any suggestions anyone has before I loose all faith!!

 

[davidash]

I have a 1999 E280 with 137k on the clock. With fairly normal driving I have just replaced the front shocks, ball joints and the link rods for the stabiliser bar. I was told that this suspension work was normal at about 120k. The work(excluding the shocks) was done by the agents and cost the equivalent of approximately US$300. Not too bad after 6 years.

 

[big x]

Hi, my 2002 e320cdi has just failed mot on four front suspension joints having excessive play. I have had the car from new and covered 43,000 miles, 99% of which is on dual carriage ways. The doesn't show any symptoms when driving. Garage quoted £700 to replace, I protested and MB agreed to pay half. i still think this is unreasonable and there should be no failures in the suspension after this amount of miles. I would appreciate any suggestions anyone has before I loose all faith!!

If there are no symptoms when driving there is probably nothing wrong...just an MOT man after work or not familiar with MB suspension IMHO !

adam