Originally Posted by Beagle

Thanks Brian
I am not looking to buy mounts at the moment but rather checking whether my information was correct but $134 is still highway robbery!

This is really quite a long story if you will bear with me. In the middle of last year I changed mounts for a friend with a 300D. The choice was OEM from MB, Meyle $18 or Lemförder $22. Price ruled out OEM for him so I recommended Lemförder. When we got the mounts I felt sure they were a softer compound than the OEM’s from MB I fitted to my car a year earlier and standing on them and pushing my nail into them seemed to confirm this.

I decided that before I fitted them I would carry out some tests. I borrowed 2 Meyle’s from the import agent and 4 OEM’s from MB (they have to trust me, I do all their F/I work for them!). I have a very accurate hydraulic press in my machine shop and compressed them all to 130kg for comparison.

What I found confirmed my suspicions – Neither Meyle nor Lemförder use a compound anywhere near MB’s tight specs for their after-market products. And perhaps not surprising at the price they sell them for.

There was little to chose between Meyle and Lemförder but the OEM’s compressed consistently 9mm less than the others.

I went ahead and fitted the Lemförders and now 9 months later they have settled and are bulging excessively although they are still intact. He was having problems with engine vibrations, rough idling and engine shaking. I fitted a very simple modification to the engine shocks that eliminate engine rock altogether and that has dramatically improved his problems as it did with several other cars that I have fitted it to.

Perhaps I will discuss that in detail in another thread sometime if there is any interest.

THanks for the responses