My 124 300d had a loose drag link and I decided to replace the tie rod assemblies, damper and freshen up the idler arm while I was in there. The ball joints and lower control arm bushings were replaced a couple of months ago.

I started hearing a little knock when I hit bumps yesterday so I made sure to give things a once-over while replacing the tires today thinking I may have left something loose. Sure enough, the LH front tire had a lot of play. The LH inner tie rod end was shot. Way shot. There's at least .25" lateral movement in the joint. You get what you pay for.

Sorry to hear it.

__________________
83 SD

84 CD

URO = NO-NO

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Uro = urine

they are trying to kill us, one by one....

__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

A lot of the BMW message boards are posting problems with the URO parts too. It's not just the MBZ replacement parts

__________________

1974 280C MBZ
1995 BMW 840 Ci
1999 996 Cabriolet Porsche
2005 Toyota 4Runner
1974 VW Westfalia camper P27

That's a pretty spectacular result in a short space of time.

When you remove it and replace it I'd be interested to see pictures of the inside parts or even to know if they put any grease in it.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

2x on Army Im getting ready to do my front end.

__________________
1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

URO flex discs turned my nice 91 560SEL into a parts car. They really do sell junk.

__________________
With best regards

Al

Please expand on this - I must have missed the story.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I took the part off and gave it a close look. There's no dramatic carnage to see, really nothing to see at all. The ball is tight in the plastic socket and it requires a healthy amount of force to make the socket articulate. The problem is that the plastic socket was not crimped tightly enough in the tie rod end metal housing so the whole socket, plastic and all slides back and forth.

I'm going to chock this up the lessons learned, contact the vendor to let them know of the problem, then replace both tie rod assemblies with better stuff. This is a low drama situation for a guy who does his own alignments. I'd be upset if I were paying someone else to do it.

While in no way defending substandard parts, after reassembly were you sure the tie rod assembly could be rotated? I've seen parts replaced , toe set and the tie rods were bound causing failures. ( Inner tie rod rotated in one direction and outer in the other then the adjusting sleeve tightened. )

Here; URO flex disc warning - Benzworld.org - Mercedes-Benz Discussion Forum

__________________
With best regards

Al

Great question. A noob could totally screw up that part. I made that mistake a long time ago. I've been doing front end work a living for a while now and I try not to make the same mistakes twice.

When a part magically costs many times less than the alternative, there's usually a reason.....and that reason is that the part is junk.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Way about 4 years ago I bought a complete front end kit on eBay.
All the Parts were URO.
I only used the Upper Control Arms and the lower Control Arm Bushings and have had no issues with them. But, I am a low mileage driver.

I found the URO Ball Joint (I never used them) ID where they would press in is actually fatter than the Lemfoerder one. That would make them Harder to install.

Never have used the Tie Rod or Drag link parts.

Even though it is a front end kit it came with the Plastic Sway Bar Links and Rear Trailing Arm Bushing (which I may be useing this year).

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel