You could do a bounce test at the rear of the car. Pretty crude but free. Just push down the the trunk (one corner at a time) and see if the car settles right away or bounces around for a bit. If it bounces around a bit then your shocks probably need replaced. You can test the front to compare.


It isn't that hard to remove the rear dampners to test them either - Rear shock replacement on a Mercedes Benz W115 / W114 /8 | Old Car Junkie