Just picked up my (new to me) 79 300SD! What a great car! Imagine NO RUST, New ACC, New glow relay and only 81K miles. Really nice. This is my 2nd w116. My 1980 300sd sits at home in NH. It only has 134k miles but the rocker panels are severely rusted. I had to cover them with sheet metal just to get it inspected. Anyway, the 79 will stay here in AZ for the rest of it's life with me and only used in the winters. I expect I'll only add about 3,000 miles a year to it. I'm enjoying this car so much, I'd like to get the suspension back to a like-new condition as possible. Any suggestions as to what would be the best/"biggest bang for the buck" items to replace? Obviously, shocks, but what rubber related items make big changes in the ride of a W116?

Thanks in advance.

Bert - NH/AZ

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1979 300SD 83k miles Astro Silver Metallic/Black leather #3447
1990 350SDL 202k miles (3L engine from an 87 300D)Black/Grey leather
2006 Pleasure-Way Class B MoHo (Sprinter chassis) 134k miles
2005 E320CDI 270k (car is sooo fast - I can't believe it's a diesel!!!)

New rear subframe bushings, new differential mount, a whole front end rebuild that replaces all the rubber parts would help as well.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

After so many years, pretty much every bushing on the car is deformed and worn. Though they may still be performing their job sufficiently well, are perfectly safe, and may not even be slightly rotten, they are far from optimal.

Is it worth the effort to change them? That's personal opinion, really. My own opinion is that suspension is vastly important, and that barring cost issues, nothing but a beater should have anything but questionable suspension bushings installed in it. Consider the changes that rubber goes through as it ages. Even a new rubber part, sitting in a sealed plastic bag on a shelf goes through changes on a molecular level. Tires, even unused ones, are generally accepted as having a seven year service life.

My thoughts on aging and stressed rubber bushings have driven me replace every suspension bushing on a number of cars I have owned. My best personal example, an eight year old domestic truck, displayed a definite improvement in ride quality, handling, and vibration transfer from road surfaces with only the addition of fresh bushings. The shocks on that truck were year-old replacements at the time, so I left them alone. The bushings, it seems, made all of the difference, even though the originals were not visibly damaged.

Just something to consider...

*Edit: Keep in mind I'm the kind of guy that wants everything to look like it just rolled out of the factory. I actually clean bushings and apply protectant to them regularly on my vehicles. I've also pulled out and thrown away a seat bottom from a nine month old car without even trying to clean it first, because a friend's kid barfed up spaghetti on it. (Gave me the perfect reason to upgrade to a set of low mileage leather seats with lumbar support!) It's a disease, really.

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- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread