Front bottoms out

[Zulfiqar]

My cars front bottoms out on coming out from largish dips. I bounce tested the car and it moves quite firmly with no floaty movement like a worn strut would give.

The springs are not broken Ive checked.

Are my struts bad or I need to check something else.

Car is a 95 E300D with 104K miles

[leathermang]

Does you car have struts and coils around them ?
If yes, I would replace them....

[Zulfiqar]

my car has springs captured by perches on the body and the LCA - the struts are on the knuckle and the body frame on the top.

You are suggesting my struts to be bad, isnt it that the spring should never allow the strut to bottom out or am I mistaken?

[winmutt]

Does it float on the highway?

[leathermang]

Do you have a picture ?

[barry123400]

Typically if the front shocks are bad mercedes will bottom out on the front end. At least much easier than it should. My experience from the old days anyways. Bounce test is not conclusive for some reason on their product.

Remember blistiens are the only shock I like for mercedes. Last well and work well. Your car is much newer than the mercedes I have dealt with over forty years out there.Still there is no reason to suspect things have changed.

[leathermang]

I would like to mention that new springs really help a car's feel....
and since you are having problems you could check on the cost of that..
some cars are built to where it is not as much labor to replace them as others....

[Orv]

Originally Posted by barry123400

Typically if the front shocks are bad mercedes will bottom out on the front end. At least much easier than it should. My experience from the old days anyways. Bounce test is not conclusive for some reason on their product.

Spring rates are too high, I think. I had the same problem with my police interceptor; the rear springs were too stiff to get a good bounce going. Cars like that tend to get nervous-feeling instead of wallowy when the shocks go bad.

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by winmutt

Does it float on the highway?

Yes I would say its a little floaty at the front and a little jarry at the rear - not the solid balanced feel that a W210 CDI has on the highway.

Word from the guys is that a W124 should feel more better on the highway compared to a W210

[sixto]

I don't know about better but it shouldn't bottom on a regular basis. Are you sure the springs are intact? Maybe they're broken or they were replaced with lighter duty springs.

Sixto
87 300D

[Zulfiqar]

the springs are intact for sure. The question of wrong springs also makes sense, How would I know if the springs are the correct ones? coil wire dia? or coil count or both?

The front seems a little saggy too when on the run,

[johnscars]

FWIW, I replaced struts (with Bilstein HD) on a 124 wagon that bottomed a few times, and it stopped bottoming, didn't touch the springs. I'm about to do it again on another 124 wagon but this time I want to try regular struts, not HDs. Does anyone have experience with both struts? or with the non-HD struts on a wagon?

[barry123400]

Originally Posted by Zulfiqar

the springs are intact for sure. The question of wrong springs also makes sense, How would I know if the springs are the correct ones? coil wire dia? or coil count or both?

The front seems a little saggy too when on the run,

There is a spec on height to a certain point on the chassis on all models. If you have the height the springs have not sagged. I also seriously doubt anyone would put softer springs into this chassis.

Good shocks can even help weaker springs with age. They slow the rate of compression way down.