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#46
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I own a '98 E300DT since sept. 2004.
I bought the car from my cousin with 85,000 km on it and I currently have 99,000km. When I bought the car, I was aware of this spring perch issue and I remember my cousin told me some work was done in the past by the dealer about it. I was looking at some papers today about this issue and this is what I found. (I'm translating from french, dealer is in Province of Quebec, Canada) Car was delivered on january 16, 1998. On may 3, 2002, I can see on the "working sheet" that the car was at the dealer for an oil change and also to "verify Recall campaign No. 01-0799 about the front spring perch". It says on the invoice "dismantle and replace both spring perch support, left and right." Parts: Qty 2 #210 626 01 19 Appui (Perch) (warranty) Qty 1 #001 989 63 20 Materiel etanche (Could some kind of sealer or asphalt undercoating applied against corrosion) (warranty) Hours: 5.97 (warranty) Today, I inspected both spring perch and everything is OK. I'm planning to go at the dealer next week to get some explanations about what was really done on the car at this moment. It make no sense to me the original perch were took off the car and replaced (welded) by the new ones? Hope these info may help, HDen
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W126 1985 300SD TurboDiesel W164 2009 ML320 BlueTEC (Sold) W123 1983 240D Stick (Sold) W210 1998 E300D TurboDiesel (sold) W124 1993 300D 2.5 Turbo (sold) 2012 GMC 2500 Duramax PickUp 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel PickUp |
#47
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10000 cars sold. Cost to fix 10000 cars is say 10 mil Of that say 500 cars will fail 50 will result in seruious injury Of the 50, 5 will sue Cost of the suits is 3 mil Therefore we don't fix it. Just like Ford had for the ignition switch or the TFI module.
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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 |
#48
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Could the recall HDenDiesel mentioned be a provincial thing? Maybe it failed in one region because of some condition and they are not doing it all over. I checked at the dealership and they have no recall in WI. Checked all the WI dealerships and they don't report a recall. Maybe we have to go to Canada, get an oil change and ask for the recall?
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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 |
#49
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Talked to Gilly. In his time at Zimbrick, he saw 2 maybe 3 problems of that nature with the 210 Chasis
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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 |
#50
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NHTSA search reveals complaints filed
I spent some time this morning searching the NHTSA website. It is not easy to search for complaints on the W210 spring perch issue, but it is possible.
The reason it is hard is because they break the complaints up into models and classes, so you have to search under E class and 300,320 and 420 models to see all of the complaints. Also the complaint categories can be confusing, and I didn't have time to search them all, but if you got to the NHTSA site and search under 1997 E class complaints, then go to suspension:front:springs:coils springs you will see 6 complaints filed of failures taking place from May of 2000 through March of 2005. There are also complaints under "front suspension" category. Same for 1996 and 1998. Clearly the problem exists. If NHTSA has 6 complaints on file for one year's model that should be a red-flag.
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Marty D. 2013 C300 4Matic 1984 BMW 733i 2013 Lincoln MKz |
#51
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Mine checked out fine
As an update, I had my spring perches checked today at my local MB dealer. They were fine showing no corrosion or rust, which I kind of thought would be the case as my car came from southern climate and only has spent half of this past winter here in NE. Still, it was worthwhile for the peace-of-mind in knowing that all's well.
I also have to say the dealer was very nice about the inspection, did it for FREE (not that I am not a regular patron otherwise, I just expected them to charge as they had indicated it would be about 0.5 hours tech time charge to complete it).
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Marty D. 2013 C300 4Matic 1984 BMW 733i 2013 Lincoln MKz |
#52
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How exactly did the dealer inspect the perches?
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'90 300SE 298k -300K and it gets put into retirement. '80 300D 255k Purchased new by family in 1980. Had a: 1973 220 (gas) 1980 300SD 1992 400E |
#53
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I can tell they did not remove my wheels as I torque them precisely to 85 Ft-Lbs and I know they do not...last time they pulled a wheel on one of my cars I had to stand on the lug wrench to break it free.
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Marty D. 2013 C300 4Matic 1984 BMW 733i 2013 Lincoln MKz Last edited by nhdoc; 05-25-2005 at 05:17 PM. |
#54
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Had my wheels off today.. looked at the spring perches real good.. on a very lower seam I saw a very small spot of "rust water".. the car was in TN all it's life with no snow at all.
What do you guys think of smothering the entire lower spring perch with something like POR-15?? I am VERY concerned because I travel alot through the snow and salt in the winter.. Right now the car does not have a one ounce of rust anywhere. |
#55
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Climate doesn't matter. They are not "rusting" off, they are just snapping off.
The 201's, THEY rust off. I know this makes both 201 and 210 owners happy. One of them I saw was from California. His welcome to Wisconsin was when they unloaded his car from the car hauler (had it hauled to WI not driven) and the expensive sounds ensued as the perch broke, probably from the body being cinched down on the car hauler all the way from California.......but still it should "take it", right? I'd investigate the viability of having the reinforcement bar added from the 4Matic versions. As was mentioned, the 4Matic has a formed steel bar on top of the perch, adds support to the perch. I don't know if the body is reinforced in this area or not. Need a tech-savvy 4Matic owner to poke around a little bit. As far as inspecting the perch; forget it. You'll never know if it's going to break or not. They can LOOK at it just fine with the wheel on, I wouldn't discredit the tech for just hoisting the car, you can see the perch just fine. They could just as well look in your glovebox for candy as inspect the perch though. "Technician reports spring perch is not broken at this time". Well duh, you could tell that when you walked up to the car! Gilly
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Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold) |
#56
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Perhaps this California car was damaged during shipping which caused the failure?? I'm not questioning your opinion or expertise, I can only say that I have spent several hours reviewing complaints about the spring perch failures in the 1996-1999 W210 and every one I have seen was an apparent rust problem which was blamed for its failure. If it is true that rust is not a contributory factor than MB really has to worry about liability if they don't issue a recall because my dealer gave me a "clean bill of health" and if the perch fails you can be sure they will be held accountable.
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Marty D. 2013 C300 4Matic 1984 BMW 733i 2013 Lincoln MKz |
#57
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Well, maybe a forum memeber will have this happen and can get someone to analyze it who would be somewhat of an expert in either metallugy, welding, or maybe bodywork (who else would be good at analyzing the damage, BESIDES someone from MB!). I think my eyes are fairly well trained, but not "expert". I have seen MANY more failures of the 201 spring perch, it's obvious rust caused it. I LIVE in the rust belt, I know what rust damage looks like. I was raised in the era of rust proofing and pretty much expecting your car will have rust on it somewhere after 5 years max, probably more like 2 or 3. We're talking 70's and early 80's.
In the 210's I've seen, I saw NO evidence of rust, especially rust which would degrade the structure like a 201. It takes more than a bit of rust to weaken a structure to the breaking point. You should certainly be able to SEE the rust, and this was all dull gray healthy looking metal. And the welds weren't torn or anything, looks like bad weld penetration to me. BUT I agree it sounds strange that the problems seem to occur in the rust belt, but doesn't explain the car which was from CA which broke when removed from the car hauler. MB spring perches just "hate" the rust belt for some odd reason? Ve haf many vays to make zem cooperate, und zey are all most unpleasant......... Gilly
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Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold) |
#58
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Hi,
This is what I get from the MB dealer today. As you can can see, this is not the whole original document. It's only an "additional information document". But it's a good start! It would be great if somebody can get the rest of the recall campaing by asking the recall campaing procedure # 01-0799 to the MB dealer... My understanding is last May 2002 (on my car), the sealer was removed from the spring perch and replaced with new one because there was not potential failure problem (no rust). HDen
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W126 1985 300SD TurboDiesel W164 2009 ML320 BlueTEC (Sold) W123 1983 240D Stick (Sold) W210 1998 E300D TurboDiesel (sold) W124 1993 300D 2.5 Turbo (sold) 2012 GMC 2500 Duramax PickUp 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel PickUp |
#59
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Document?
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W126 1985 300SD TurboDiesel W164 2009 ML320 BlueTEC (Sold) W123 1983 240D Stick (Sold) W210 1998 E300D TurboDiesel (sold) W124 1993 300D 2.5 Turbo (sold) 2012 GMC 2500 Duramax PickUp 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel PickUp |
#60
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If you owned one of these cars and it was out of warranty wouldn't it be prudent to have the spring perches re-welded just to be sure? Locating a welding/fabrication shop with chassis experience is not that hard and they should have no problem laying down extra beads around the perch. Seems like a no brainer to me. RT
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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops! 84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K 03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K 93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K |
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