My spring perch failed. This is a documented problem on the W210 cars; NHTSA has four cases they are investigating. There is another thread in tech section for more info, but if you have a W210 PLEASE check your perches because you could be KILLED if they give way on the road!! It is a pain but I implore you to get it checked!! The wheel and spring COLLAPSE and cause one side of the fromt to LOCK UP; you can imagine the loss of control!! DO NOT PUT IT OFF you may save the lives of your family or other innocent drivers. I cannot believe that MB is not RECALLING these cars! Sure it's costly but so is a wrongful death suit - could be hundreds of millions if the car hits a schoolbus for instance! They will have to recall these cars at some point but in the meantime people will DIE!

I cannot overstate the importance of getting YOUR car checked!! PLEASE!!

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RIP "Betsy" (Oo=*=oO)
'96 E 3 2 0 (W 2 1 0) M 1 0 4 (Totalled)
Spaces in sig so as not to screw up the SEARCH; every time someone searches for that MB they don't want my sig!

2004 Audi A8L
'98 VW Passat 1.8T 5M
'87 Alfa Romeo Milano 2.5L 5M
'67 Impala convertible, 327cid

Or just have a look yourself, they're easy to see

I thought they had already issued a recall. Maybe it was a service bulletin. Either way, MB has know about the issue for many years.

Read this thread for more info:
W210 Diesel owners: Spring Perch Failure - Please read

I'm totally fed up with the attitude of Mercedes and the NHTSA. Both are waiting until people start getting killed before taking any action. This is so stupid.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

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

I recently took my car in complaining about some wandering in the suspension. I thought I had a broken spring, but they said they found nothing, they gave me an alignment and centred the steering wheel. The head of the service dept mentioned this problem to me and took a look under each wheel (while the car was in the parking lot, not raised up in the bay). Should I assume they were satisfied I have no problem, or should I push it? Do you get warning signs before it fails that you might notice or does something just snap?

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Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired

There's no warning and it will just snap. However if it's about to snap some rust or at least cracked undercoating should be visible but there are no guarantees. The best way is to peel off some of the undercoating to have a better look, but you have to be prepared to patch it back up so water doesn't get in.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

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