Took the Wunderwagen to our local (and only) Mercedes dealership to ask about the strange noise coming from the rear of my car. The service advisor suspects that it is a bad trailing arm or a spring. Either way, what kind of expense am I looking at since our dealership charges $95.00/hour! From looking at the posts on this forum I notice that this is an item that you really can't do yourself. Also, I am wondering if I am able to continue driving the car until I can get it repaired? Any help would be appreciated.

Rusted trailing arms on the left side where the spring rides in it are common. If it gets bad enough, you can lose a spring which wouldn't be good. It's really got to get pretty bad though to get to that point. I replaced mine myself a few years ago. Got a good used one. Total replacement cost for the arm and bushings was only about $100. It was a pretty hard DIY job for me, but I figured it saved me $500 or more in labor and I could afford to tie the car up for a week while I did the five hour or so book time job. But if you're going for a new trailing arm and going to pay someone to do it, I bet you'll easily hit $1000.

Len

Did you find arm locally or have shipped in?. I have two quotes-$250 or $440 out of state(Colorado). not including freight
JD

Got it from the now defunct Atlanta-Stuttgart. Potomac German bought them out. Might give them a call.

Len

RYT

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Have you been to german car service or is it german auto service? They're name is on many mercedes liscence plate holders around here. I spoke to a couple of guys selling their cars who had fairly good things to say about the place. Then shop around for the part/parts. Costs a little more to ship it here, but it can be worth it. Good luck bro!

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RT


1984 300D---Sold
1995 E420 - 106K - Brilliant Silver Metallic/Orion Gray --- Sold
1984 300SD - 151K Manganese Brown Metallic/Mostly Black --- Sold
1982 240D - 79K - Manila Beige/Palomino---Sold

Thanks 1sttimer, German Car Service is the name, and I understand that they are very good. I have known the guy who sells the Benzes their, Bodo Hermann for over 18 years now ever since I left High School! But making a long story short, Phillip at the parts store here on our forum recommends that I have it inspected before ordering any parts, it may be something very minor. Are you going to tell us stories of picking your car up from the docks!!?? Can't wait to hear them

Reyn

I also got mine from Potomac German. I forgot how much it cost, something like $250 and the labor (at $75 an hour at a Mercedes specialist) was about 2 or 3 hours. Very reasonable IMO.

Alex

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1983 300D (parked for four years)
2012 VW Sportwagen TDI Manual
2001 Miata SE
1962 Chevrolet Corvair Rampside

Call Bernard at European Connection in KY. He has like 8 acres of old Benzes in his salvage yard. Ships stuff out all day long. 1-859-654-8632. I have had to buy some strange pieces form him over the years.