I rebuilt the front suspension in my TD two years ago. I already have rotten rubber components I went the cheap route and bought my parts from an ebay seller (I believe it was FPC Groton but not 100% sure). Anyway, found some Febi, Meyle and Karlyn brand parts. Heard of them all but Karlyn. I am open to any experiences you all have had with various brands of suspension components. At this point only the tie rods, drag link, and lower control arm bushings have either failed completely or cracked. Not sure if I want to replace other components at the same time ore not...

__________________
For Sale: 1982 MB 300TD
1995 Chevrolet Suburban 6.5TD

Sold: 1980 IH Scout Traveler- Nissan SD33T Diesel

i would steer away from meyle. their rubber parts (and many other meyle parts) are now substandard quality. karlyn i cannot comment, no direct experience. febi is usually very good. lemforder also good if available. TRW can be good or so-so. lots of TRW is german OE, but some of their parts are cheap. there is so much garbage rubber being made now in the auto aftermarket, i see this daily with the vintage VW parts we sell. the aftermarket motor mounts are terrible. one manufacturer to stay miles away from is "first equipment quality". they have many suspension and steering parts for european vehicles in the market, including MB. absolute junk, the stuff is ill-fitting right out of the box and poorly made.

in many cases with rubber parts, the dealer is the only wise choice. if you are offered febi or lemforder suspenion bits by a jobber, chances are these are identical parts to what the dealer has. but as soon as the manufacturer is not at least a german parent company, all bets are off as to where it's made.

__________________
________________

punkinfair

Stick with the Lemforder brand, a few$$$ more but you are getting the real thing,The new eccentric bolts i bought for the lower control arms actually had the MB star on the heads with a gob of epoxy or something similar covering it. Nothing like the comfortable feeling of having used the right safety related parts.Shop around online you can find the quality stuff for not a whole lot more money,try Fastlane the people who support this forum or MB parts .com or ******** az .com . My $.02 Don

__________________
Red Green "This is only temporary,Unless it works!"

97 E300D 157000 miles
87 300TD ?141k? miles

I put Febi in mine and they seem to be good quality.

I'd get Lemforder where possible. Moog seems to be a big supplier as well.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

are there any people offering polyurethane bushings, or is there an interest in them?

__________________
-Trevor

OBK #12
1980 300SD 333,XXX miles - Totaled
1986 Mazda RX-7 212,XXX miles - impounded and auctioned off
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited 33,000- SEGR, Provent, Fumoto