I'm kind of in the middle of this very job at the moment on my W201 (amongst other things of course)

I'm planning on replacing as little as possible as I really can't tell which spares are a good long term buy any more. On my 170,000 km vehicle it looks like there's been a new steering idler arm and new eccentric bolts and bushings fitted to the lower control arms - that helps me 'cos I don't have to replace them but they seem to be the parts that most people have to change.

I'm swapping out tie rod boots and greasing up the as many of the old joints as I can.

I'm rebuilding the steering box.

I'm replacing the struts with Sachs super touring. I hope that they will stop the nose diving under hard braking I experienced but provide enough comfort for my old bones! I found HD Bilsteins on my W123 to be a bit too jiggly.

The front springs on the W123 are scary - these W201 ones don't look too too bad but still need to be treated with respect.

I'll probably replace the anti-roll bar bushings and I might do the shock rubber top bits if they look a bit grotty when I get them out.

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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!