On my last oil change, i had the opportunity to lift my car and I did a fairly simple underside check of my car. Here's what i found:

Steering related unit appears damp:


Leak around turbo area:


Various suspension components that may need replacing?





If anyone has anymore information on any of these items, please share.

Thank you

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Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

Check the ball joints. when they go the wheel can fall off. Just happened to me in the parking lot a couple of days ago. No other damage than the ball joint, but if it happened 10 minutes later at 80mph on the parkway......

Well I was very lucky.


Joe

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www.jerseyplanning.com
1987 300TD 440K - My car
2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 107K - Tim's car
2000 - CLK320 100K - Deb's car
1994 C230 150K - Josh's Car

It looks like you need a new set tie rods or just 4 ends. The lower ball joint I'm not sure on. Mine has a leak on the bottom of the turbo also not half as bad as yours, I'm in no rush to fix it.

The first picture you posted is of the steering gear box, the shaft coming out of the fire wall is part of your steering wheel. You will need a pitman arm puller to get the arm off to replace the seal. I will tackle this same job soon on my car.

While your under their re-build the idler arm, simple to do and makes a nice difference in steering feel.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Now... why do we have to be on the opposite sides of the USA? Wish we could just meet up and tackle both cars at once

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Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

Whereabout in LA are you?

Don't worry abou the turbo, don't worry about the PS Pump.

Do worry about your ball joints. Shocks look shot, too.

1) Steering gearbox has a little leak. Not a big deal. Maybe try a partial bottle of Lucas stop leak, or Valvoline SynPower power steering fluid next time you top it off. Clean off the steering box after the treatment to see if the leak has subsided.

2) You either have excessive oil coming from the PCV tube and leaking out the intake snorkel, or the turbo body seals are leaking (pretty common on Garretts). Clean it up and monitor this, but don't lose sleep over it. Not worth fixing. The coolant hose below goes to the plastic expansion tank. Clean the oil off that hose! If it feels soft, replace the hose.

3) Sway bar bushings are shot. Cheap and fairly easy to replace. Buy the OE dealer parts, they have a Teflon sleeve to reduce noise. Aftermarket ones do not. Cost about $30 for all 4, maybe less.

4) Ball joint boot is shot, ball joint failure is coming eventually. If they're not making popping noises yet, you still have time; but plan on replacement within the next 10kmi or so (IMO). Parts are cheap, installation isn't fun.

5) You need new strut dust boots and probably the strut shaft bumper (foam thingy up top on the shaft). Probably $50 for all 4 items, maybe less. If the strut isn't leaking oil and the car rides OK, the struts are good enough for now. Changing the boots and bumpers is more of a PITA than it looks like - trust me, I've done this twice in the past 6 months on two different cars.

6) Tie rods are shot. Same as ball joints, if they're tight now, they won't be soon. Plan on replacement in ~10kmi or so. If they're loose now, replace them. I'd try to do the ball joints & tie rods at the same time since you'll need an alignment afterwards. I would also recommend replacing EVERYTHING on the steering system - both tie rod assemblies (don't just buy the 'ends'), drag link, and steering shock. Rebuild the idler arm if it's loose or sloppy, otherwise leave it alone. This stuff is relatively cheap and once it's replaced, you won't need to mess with front suspension for another 100kmi or so.

Items 3 and 5 can be done without an alignment, but 4 and 6 will need an alignment. Only let the dealer do the alignment (it's worth the $100 they want), or find an indy shop that aligns a LOT of Mercedes (not one or two per month.) Buying the tie rod assemblies (complete with new adjusting tube) is often *cheaper* than buying two new ends and threading them into your old tube, so check prices on both before ordering.

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