My apology for the xxx's making the post difficult to read. The actuaries at NHTSA are the original people that see some statistical anomaly, if one exists, and then look further to see if it's worth investigating as to whether it is a hazard due to design, assembly, or owner operation. Further, the number of these MB models in the State's is small in comparison to say the Firestones failing on Fords Explorer several years back. The Explorer was an unstable automobile to begin with even in the absence of tire failure. Because of the relatively small number of the MB models in question, that puts the problem back in priority. If the failures have resulted in few deaths as a direct result of the failure, then that puts it further back as a priority. The biggest thing though, in my opinion, is that NHTSA doesn't even have the MB bracket failure as an issue. If a statistically large portion of MB owners with failures or just concerns report them, then the NHTSA will maybe at least take a preliminary look. My guess is that MB-Germany as opposed to Daimler-Benz/Chrysler is a further reason the NHTSA would shy away as they might not have good access to MB's information, even assuming that most of these MB model owners complain to the dealership. It's not a dealership problem, it's an MB-Germany problem. So, in essence, bottom line, there are statistically too few of these models to get caught on NHTSA radar; that is, it's not the threat of death/injury that gets NHTSA attention, it's the observed death/injury per failure, and whether it gets reported to NHTSA; so, one needs to see a much higher percentage of injury/deaths from bracket failure on these models than they did on the Firestone/Explorer because statistical signifigance was reached with the Explorer. NHTSA involvement, saying they do get involved on this issue, is a cold, cold process. They are more interested in actual injury/deaths rather than the potential of injury death.

Yup, like any government agency, the NHTSA is purely reactionary as opposed to forward-thinking or whatever the right term is. People have to die for action to be taken, yet this particular problem is completely preventable. I just wonder how the Daimler-Chrysler management will defend itself in court once the lawsuits start rolling. I think there have already been enough cases reported to and addressed by the dealerships that the management has to know about this problem and it won't be able to just state in court that it wasn't aware of it. It would be in DC's best interest to issue a voluntary recall and thus show good faith in addressing the issue.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

But if DC did, could it be viewed as an acknowledgement of fault and may not play well in a court when someone sues?

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Indeed. The class action attorney's job is to maximize $$ per hour worked. The defense attorney's job is to minimize $$$ paid out. The plaintiffs' attorney and the defendant are represented in court. The plaintiffs are not, their lawyer is too busy representing himself. The end result is the lawyers get rich, the defendant ditches a boatload of liability, and the plaintiffs are left holding the bag.

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'79 300SD W116
'86 190E 2.3-16V W201
'92 300D 2.5 W124
'99 E320 4MATIC S210

Mitch, so true. And still getting the MB dealership to fix the things is distant from anyone's mind. Justice is about law, lawyer dynamics, not fairness to the member's of the class filing the original complaint.
thirty seconds of time, sad to say, on one of the cable news station's would do more to help the owner than anything else. Yet, that is a story of no particular interest. Jokingly, maybe if the pad bracket failure could get tied to Heraldo opening Al Capone's vault, then we'd make some progress.

I guess I don't understand MB's logic...if they really solved the problem through redesign then why aren't they willing to take any responsibility for it? I'd like to see exactly what they are asking you to sign away in return for them agreeing to fix this.

I am a mechanical engineer. When I was in college I had a professor who came from the former USSR. There he was a bridge designer. In the USSR when you designed a bridge to hold a certain rated load they made you stand UNDER the bridge when it was loaded to test it the first time...now THAT's accountability. It also is a good way to eliminate bad engineers.

There were no "release" forms the engineers asked to be signed...if the bridge fell down it was on top of them, so they designed them correctly and made sure they were built right. MB should learn from this.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

So let's say you find a nice 98-99 E300D with the spring perches in good shape. Is it inevitable that they will fail at some point?

Why hasn't this problem driven down the prices for these cars?

I'd think that if it has gone 7-8 years and still looks perfect, I might buy it and spray that entire area with diesel fuel after every visit to the car wash.
If there is a major problem with a car, and 2% of the potential buyers know of it, the effect on market pricing will be negligible.

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'79 300SD W116
'86 190E 2.3-16V W201
'92 300D 2.5 W124
'99 E320 4MATIC S210

"sad to say, on one of the cable news station's would do more to help the owner than anything else."

Ok, I have a thought, as I was listening to the radio program called the "CAR TALK by brothers Tom & Ray", why dont we all attempt to voice our problem on this show, their phone # is 888 227-8255. I have been trying for an hour now but the line is busy, but I am detemined to get on this program and bad mouth MB for this screw up. The program enjoys a large listenership and who knows something good might result from this effort.

Vahe
E320 97/ 67K
240D 77/350K

I think it depends on where the vehicle is and what kind of driving conditions it has been exposed to.

I bought one recently in the Pacific NW and had the spring perches checked by two different MB mechanics and they didn't see anything. Not only that, but neither shop has ever heard of the problem until I mentioned it and these are both shops that have been doing MB only work for a very long time (decades).

If I was buying a car that had seen a lot of snow and salt or was near the ocean I may be more concerned. You just need to get it checked and from what I've seen here it's fairly obvious there's a problem when you see the perch peeling away from the chasis.

I've only owned my 1999 for a short time now, but it drives more solidly than our 2005 car and gets much better gas mileage. I'll check the perches from time to time and not worry about it too much. There are far more likely dangers on the road that could kill me than this issue.

I noticed some light surface rust low down between the rad and the engine on our E320. I decided to take the spray shield off under the car and get a better look. What I found, was that the subframe crossbeam had started to rust (Front of part 122.).

Because this supports the front suspension, it might be just as well for others to check theirs too. Plastic sprayshield comes off easily - about 8 screws to remove. Seems that moisture and salt must get trapped in there and they don't get washed out.

I have contacted MB to see what they have to say. As with spring perches, this could be a serious problem if left unattended

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Today I was at the dealership where I purchased my 1999 E300. I stopped by to get the radio code number. (This did not change a thing.) Anyhow, while I was with the service manager about the radio code I asked him about spring perches on W210's. He said that he had very heard of such a thing. At that point I was not sure what to say. I would like them to at least inspect them. I was wondering if there might be a service bulletin number or the like that I could tell him to reference.

Realize I am taking what the service manager told me with a few bags of salt. I have contacted this service department twice via email without any response. Later I sent an email to the owner of the dealership about the lack of response. I have received no response from him. (Note: I did not received any email delivery failures) When I was at the dealership today I noticed that the sales manager and salesman that I dealt with back in April when I bought the car were no longer there. Also, many of the other names of the current sales personnel looked different. I don't think that this dealership (Shaver Import of Fort Wayne, IN) can keep employees. I really wanted to rant to someone at the dealership about there lack of response to my contacts, however, after walking through the offices today I felt like it would not prove a thing because this dealership is a sinking ship. When I purchased this car the salesman and sale manager constantly bragged on and on about how that Shaver Import rates way over other Mercedes dealerships in customer service. (I believe that this must be service for the owner’s mother) All I know is that today really burnished in me today that I will likely never buy another Mercedes new than a W124 chassis. There new cars are crap and the dealerships are worse. If Dieter Zetsche is going to fix Mercedes he better be sure to rain hell fire down on the dealerships as well as the product.

Sorry for venting. I feel much better now as I feel that you forum member would understand my frustration better than anyone else.

Thanks,
Nate

Find a better dealer. A good dealer won't play stupid. MB seems to be doing a good will repair on these cars now.

I'd respond to the guy that said he never heard of this like this:

"get on the phone to MB and they will educate you"

Thats why I use MB of North Haven. They don't bs you with this crap and waste everyones time.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

ncof300d, if you read my previous posts in this thread you'll see that I initially got the same response from my dealer. But I was persistent and I eventually got MB to cover 50% of my expenses. If you can't find another dealer, you'll have to show some knowledge about this issue. For example, tell them about all the complaints you've read on the NHTSA website, the Canadian campaign about this issue that we talked about earlier, and the cases of people like me and other forum members. For your own sake, did you do your own visual inspection yet? If you don't feel comfortable peeling off the undercoating, at least turn your wheels all the way in and out or raise the vehicle and inspect the area visually yourself.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I wanted to update the forum members with respect to my 1998 E300.

I signed the agreement Mercedes asked me to sign. They then kept the car an additional week, performed the spring replacement and returned the car to me. There was no charge for the work.