I've had my first MB for about 15 months. Last summer I put in Bosio injector nozzles from DieselGiant. They were fine and then after a thousand miles or so, I noticed my car nailing, mainly when cold and at idle. I didn't do much about it at the time except for the occasional italian tune up.

Last August, one of my axles goes bad, and I had to make a road trip in a couple of days, so I went to Napa and had them order in a couple of axles as quick as possible. When I got them, I noticed one looked like my old ones while the other looked different. It had about 6-8 hex bolts holding the housing together and I believe it was made in Quebec or something like that. When we got ready to put them in, I noticed those hex bolts were loose, so I tightened them as much as I could, then installed the axles and once again made sure they were as tight as I could get them.

I made the road trip (400 miles), and noticed some of those bolts had become loose and some grease had leaked out, so I retightened them using extra leverage to increase tightness. 800 miles later last December the axle came apart when I went around a corner and the car got towed (thanks AAA) and went into storage until May.

I then return the axle and get a free replacement that is a "regular" rebuilt one from Napa, and install it.

Today I was trying to investigate the cause of my car's nailing in cyl #5 by switching injectors and inspecting the prechamber and glow plug. It apparently is not the injector because the nailing stayed in #5 and the prechamber and glow plug looked ok to me.

So, then I decide to do an italian tune up to see if that makes any difference with the nailing and after I get off the freeway I hear a thunk, thunk, thunk coming from the same area as the axle I have already replaced twice. I am wondering if I have another bad axle, and if I do, I'm going to get the replacement from CVJ this time around and try to get my money back from Napa.

By the way, the nailing was much quieter after some hard driving, but still audible.

What I learned from this experience is don't buy just any rebuilt axles for my Mercedes, because this will be the third time I will have to switch out axles.

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82 300D 225k

That's great feedback -- thanks for sharing your experience. Learn from Eyeguy's tale of woe, people. Be thankful the axle didn't fall apart during the Italian tuneup and cause an accident. "Cheap parts are not good and good parts are not cheap." How much is your time worth? Your life? Your family's lives?

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

OE is best, good pull from junk car is almost as good, "properly" rebuilt from CVJ is next and the ONLY way I would use a cheapie from any of the parts hockers is for a emergency when away from home and with the knowledge that it's coming out when gotten home.
that said, however I have heard that advance auto has "new" axles that may be decent...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I've had good luck with my CVJs for about 100K miles now, don't buy critical parts from NAPA.

whaaaat? ya mean their slogan "get the gooood stuff" ain't good enough for you?

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I ordered a cvj axle. I was wondering if I should also replace the other one now, or wait and see how long it lasts.

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82 300D 225k

There is no real reason to replace them both now. I did replace both of mine when one acted up, but I drive a LOT and did not want to deal with the possibility of the second one acting up when I was away from home. You can just pay attention to the other one, maybe you will get lucky and it will last a long time.