124, My turn for spring perch failure

[Chris W.]

On the way to work this morning. I actually had a heads up moment last week as I did front disks and pads, saw that I had serious corrosion going on in the LF perch area. No fresh metal showing, so I thought I had time to organize the replacement or even just patch it. Was going to get my grinder out with a wire brush and take a look see one evening this week.

Not to be. This morning at about 65 mph on a perfect stretch of highway I felt a slight bump and heard what I thought were stones in the wheel well. Funny, didn't see anything to run over.... A couple more times I had the pebbles in the wheel well sound. Then I noticed I had to hold a bit of right lock to keep the car straight. Just a tad, was I imagining it or ? So I slowed down, kept to the right lane to my exit, got off the slab, was going about 35 on a side road with manhole covers and bumps, and BANG, there she went.

Was actually able to drive another half mile or so to a parking lot, all straight. Not so good when I had to turn in, but I made it to a parking space. Flatbedded away, hope to have it back in a few days. Fortunate to find a shop with a lot of experience on this repair.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 375.2K and ailing, yes I know this isn't diesel specific, but anyway...