rear suspension '87 300TDT
 

how difficult is it to R&R the bushing for the rear lower control arm on my 1987 300tdt ( sqealing noise)? I hear you have to have a special tool to press it out and than to press a new one in and it is burried in the wheel carrier.

I tried pressing one out with a socket for a drift, no luck.

Any idea how much would it be to have it done in a shop?

is this the rear lower you mean, 201 352 00 27? this is the steel one in the bearing carrier. yes, you would need a press to re and re those.

i did these on my car last year, along with all the other links and rear wheel bearings. it took me almost 2 days on and off, a shop would be less. i imagine a mercedes shop might have a tool to do these on the vehicle, i did mine by taking everything apart and pressing the bushings in a shop press.

How do I go around the dust sheld to get to the bushing? Any shortcuts?

i can't imagine getting at the lower uniball bushings with the dust shield in place, meaning the hub has to come off. if the hub comes off, the bearings probably have to be replaced.

i am nothing close to an expert on this car, but when i did this work it involved removing the bearing housing from the car, so the entire rear suspension was taken apart. since that was done, everything except one of the links was replaced - the bushings, the links, rear wheel bearings. there are no shortcuts when doing that, and in fact it is a job that you are not supposed to be able to do without factory tools. i don't have the factory tooling but i do have a well-equipped shop.

I did this type of job on a 1985 BMW 535i and what I did was burn the bushing out. I'm older and wiser now, especially when I found out that the dealer has a tool where they can do it with the hardware still on the car, and it took a lot less time for them to do it. I'd check with the dealer just to see what they would charge, or a good foreign car repair shop.

the uniball bushing cannot be burned out, it is steel.

I just did my lower control arm bushings (87 300D Turbo) same as yours along with the differential mount bushings. (Separate tool)

YOU MUST BUY THE TOOL. Its about $110 but it will make removing and installing the bushing a snap and no need to remove the axle or wheel carrier or wheel bearing. Just remove the brake caliper and disk and e-brake shoes and dust cover rotates enough to get at the bushing. Thats it!

Also ya gotta have the CD Manual on a laptop near where your working too!

Good luck :D

Thank you very much for all the great info. I think I am ready to make a move: buy the darn tool. Not quite sure about the service CD though- how much and where to buy? Again, thank you in advance for any additional instructions.

in my case i was renewing the wheel bearings anyhow, so the carrier came off - like with the uniball there are factory tools to do the wheel bearings in situ but removing the bearing carrier is free and works perfectly well. once the carrier is off the uniball is relatively easy to do in a press.

You are right punkinfair about not needing the removal tool if you remove the wheel carrier, however it just eliminates all that extra work. In my case the wheel bearings where ok as well as my axle shafts, so I took the easy route.

My "spring link bushings", manual definition, (lower control arm bushings) or what you call 'uniball' (where the heck did that come from) where totally shot, but did not make a squealing noise as in oso's case though.

Your squealing noise maybe something else entirely.

The CD manual is a MUST! You can get it on e-bay cheap $5