Hi Folks,
Changed the oil and rotated the tires today as well as looked over the front suspension and noticed the drivers side Spring Perch is in bad shape. The rear wing has rusted free which to me means it will fail soon.

I see that a fellow member just did the perch replacement, but that seems outside of my capabilities. Does any one have recent experience and costs info on getting this done at either a dealer or and Indy?

Some photos of the spring perch.

Attached Thumbnails

     

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Treetops
06 E320 CDI 127K Miles
87 300TD 231K Miles

99 E300 269K Miles-Sold

In July of 2013 my local body shop charged me $390 to repair the PS perch. At the same time I had them installed 2 front springs from MB that cost $200 for the pair.

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Greg
2012 S350 BlueTEC 4Matic
2007 ML 320 CDI
2007 Leisure Travel Serenity
2006 Sprinter 432k
2005 E320 CDI
1998 SLK230 (teal)
1998 SLK230 (silver)
1996 E300D 99k, 30k on WVO
Previous:
1983 240D, on WVO
1982 300D, on WVO
1983 300CD, on WVO
1986 300SDL 237k, 25k on WVO (Deerslayer)
1991 350SDL 249k, 56k on WVO - Retired to a car spa in Phoenix
1983 380 SEC w/603 diesel, 8k on WVO
1996 E300D 351k, 177k on WVO

A couple of years ago my auto body guy was charging about $300 a side.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Thanks guys. Can you tell me what you had done, re-weld to repair the perch or install of a new one?

Google shows prices for a new perch from $45, part 210-626-01-19, to$425 for a perch plus reinforced plate which I'm guessing was not installed.

Again thanks in advance.

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Treetops
06 E320 CDI 127K Miles
87 300TD 231K Miles

99 E300 269K Miles-Sold

Haven't actually had mine done yet...was just checking prices for when the time comes.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Just a word of caution, I had my 96 E300d up on a lift to have the tires rotated, and I inspected both spring perches at that time. Everything looked fine, with the factory coating showing no signs of a problem. Two weeks later, I had the car parked in front of the house overnight, and when I woke up the next morning, the passenger side of the car was leaning as if it had a flat. Upon inspection, I found the passenger side fender was sitting on top of the tire, the spring perch had failed, and the spring itself had split in two and was laying on the ground. If I had been traveling on the highway at 60-70 mph, there would have been no way to steer the car and in all probability I would have had a MAJOR ACCIDENT. There was absolutely NO warning or outward sign that anything was in need of repair prior to the event, but when the perch let go, you could see that the entire passenger side of the engine compartment had rusted from the inside out without any indication.

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96 E300d

When they did mine, the spring perch was only part of the problem. Reinforcing the inner fender, replacing rust-eaten metal, welding the perch back in and replacing both springs came to almost 1K. I'm not sure it was the smartest use of funds, but I have gotten 150K miles out of the car since.



I'm not sure how dangerous it would be if it happened on the road. The brakes, strut and control arm mount points weren't affected, so steering geometry and stopping would be ok.

I paid $350 in labor per side plus parts. I had a new perch plus the reinforcement installed.

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Ed
-1984 Mercedes 190D 2.2 5-speed gray market(bought@30,000 miles) (Sold back to original owner@170,000 miles)
-1999 Mercedes E300DT (245,000 miles)
-1999 Mercedes S500 Grand Edition (80,000 miles)

I riveted both of mine on with 5 mm stainless steel rivets , about 16 or so rivets on each perch.
You need a good rivet gun, one of those yard long concertina type affairs as stainless rivets are very hard to work with.
I have done both perches and have probably put around 15k miles on them by now and they are solid despite the dismal potholed Uk roads.
Its all very easy to do , just chisel the old one off and drill out and tidy the few spotwelds that held them on and then the new one will sit correctly and its a matter of drilling and fitting the rivets.
The hardest part I found was getting the spring back in, despite a chinese copy compressor you really need another arm to lever the bottom arm down a bit to get spring in.
I do not have a welder, Mercedes rivet them as well but with larger surface area rivets.
I have bottomed suspension on a few large potholes and they show no signs of distress.
About $60 a side for perch and rivets £25 perch + £15 rivets.

Thanks folks. Thought I would update my progress. I had a reinforcement welded to the fender wall after cleaning out the Rusted bits. The rear part of the perch was still in decent shape and was welded to the reinforcement. Total cost $180.

I did get quotes from a"professional Body Shop" which was $1,200 and a not so professional shop which was 500. The majority of these costs was taking the suspension down, doing the replacement and then putting it all back together. The fellow I took it to was able to do his work with all the components in place and just move the brake lines out of the way.

Cheers

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Treetops
06 E320 CDI 127K Miles
87 300TD 231K Miles

99 E300 269K Miles-Sold