Maybe your car is starting to squeak when you hit bumps, and/or you've noticed that torn ball joint boot a while ago and did nothing about it and you finally have the time to replace the lower ball joints now. These parts seem to put up with quite a bit of poor conditions for a while but I don't like to procrastinate anything suspension related. I actually redid most of my front suspension bushings at this same time. If it was rubber and I could replace it without compressing the springs I did.

I'm not going to kid you, it takes about an hour and a half if you get right to business to all out change the ball joint. However a boot swap will go pretty quick. That is quite the incentive if your boot hasn't torn yet like one of my was. The new boots seem to be polyurethane rather than simple rubber like they were stock. I ended up buying a whole ball joint and swapped the boot onto the car since the stock one is in fine condition. The boot retails at around $10, the cheap Moog joint wholesales for $12. However I heard less than great things about the moog, also it seemed to have came with much less grease than the more expensive ($19) Lemforder. As a quick comparison here for your judgment. The Moog is made by TRW, it comes with a very easy to put on (and fall off, happened to me before installed) clamp. The Lemforder has an annoying Mercedes style clamp which wraps way around and takes a lot more effort to put on, therefore to fall off as well. You decide.

__________________
Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Hello BoostnBenz
Where do you get your boots from?
RE: The boot retails at around $10.

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1985 300SD
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The dealership sells them, well they can order them at least. I found the part numbers around here somewhere. I figured for the extra couple dollars I'd just buy the whole thing, but since I don't favor Moog I just used the boot.

__________________
Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k