Hi everyone,

Did the rear shocks on my 300E a couple of weeks ago. Despite reading the shop procedure and the many posts on this site, it still took me about 3 hours to figure out how to do the first shock. After figuring it out, it took about 30 minutes to do the second, so I thought I'd write up how I did it in case it could save anyone some time in the future. (Note that this required two people in my case, but if you are beefier than I am you could probably do this by yourself)

Tools:

Floor jack + jackstand (1)
breaker bar + 17mm socket
17mm open end/box end combo wrench
1/4" ratchet and 10mm socket
medium/heavy gauge wire

1. Yank out the trunk liner panels. For the side panels, I found it easiest to start by pulling on the far (cabin) side first and bending them back.

2. Upper shock mount: using the 17mm open end wrench on the lower nut as a counter-hold (I used my foot for leverage on this one), loosen and remove the upper locknut with the breaker bar. Remove the bottom nut, pull off the washer and bushing.

3. Jack up the relevant corner of the car, then lower onto a jackstand so the tire is just resting on ground. Although you shouldn't have to worry about a spring coming loose (!), I thought it would be best to have it in contact with the ground just so it wouldn't stress the sway bar link too much.

4. Remove the 10mm nuts securing the wheel carrier cover, then unbolt the 17mm bolts for the lower shock mount.

5. With one person pushing on the top of the piston rod, pull down on the shock body from inside the wheel well. (I needed two because mine were still pretty firm, though worn.) Pull the top into the wheel well, then pull it up to unseat the bottom and remove.

6. Insert the appropriate rubber bushing (one of two in the kit) on top of the shock.

7. If your shocks are precompressed, skip to the next step. If not, have your partner compress the shock, while you wire both ends together to keep it compressed. (Obviously, don't wire it through the bolt holes.)

8. Insert the bottom of the shock into the lower mount, making sure the bolt holes line up, insert the lower bolt (this is important to do FIRST!) then slowly undo the wire and let the top rise into the upper mount.

9. Start the lower nuts, but don't fully tighten them.

10. Insert the other rubber bushing on the top mount, inside the trunk. Add the washer, then the first nut (15-18 Nm). Counterholding the bottom nut, install the lock nut (30 Nm).

11. Lower the car off the jackstands and drive it forward and back a few feet to settle the car.

12. Tighten the lower bolt to 55 Nm, and reinstall the wheel carrier cover.

Hope this helps, and let me know if there's something I need to add!

Anthony

Did the rear shocks yesterday. I would have saved myself a lot of time on the first one if I would have taken the wheel off and compressed the spring by lowering it on to jack stands.

Not only did someone previous put on pos gabriel shocks, they used an air gun to tighten the bolts. Couldn't get leverage until the tire was off.

This is an easy job, but it's best to have two people. We didn't have compressed shocks, fortunately my son had enough upper body strength to pull out the old shock (not too hard) and put in the new one (much more difficult)

Changed out the rear pads while we were there.. Of course that just may be the easiest job on the car.

I am going to do the plastic links next. I would like to do rear sway bar bushings...but do you have to drop the driveshaft to get the sway bar out?

I don't think much of the stock w124 rear way bar. Seems a bit flimsy to me.

__________________
1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

I don't think you need to drop anything to do the rear sway bar bushings, just loosen the bushing bracket and there should be a nice slit in the bushing to squeeze the sway bar through. The new ones come with the slit too. Then just bolt the bracket back up.

I don't think much of the sway bar either, if I ever end up having to do the rear subframe bushings I'll probably upgrade the bar at the same time.

Did my front struts on my '87 yesterday. It was really easy in comparison to what you mention about the rears. I plan on doing the rears soon. My fronts were shot after only 150K so I imagine the rears are just as bad.
Thanks for the tips.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Thanks to Anthonyb for documenting the W124 shock replacement. It really helped me get a better idea of what I needed to do before doing it. I am going to take his original write up and modify only the parts that I did differently. Hope you don't mind, Anthony

Tools:

Floor jack + jackstands (2)
1/2 rachet and 17mm socket
17mm open end/box end combo wrench
3/8" ratchet and 10mm socket
Grinder with cutting disc
Screwdriver
Vaseline
PB Blaster

1. Yank out the trunk liner panels. For the side panels, I found it easiest to start by pulling on the far (cabin) side first and bending them back. Remove them out of the trunk to give yourself some extra space to work

2. Loosen the lugnuts and jack up your car at the differential. Remove the tire. This will give you more room to work. It's worth it, trust me.

3/ Place your jackstands underneath the two rearmost rubber jack points/mounts. I went two notches high on the jack stands to give myself more room to turn the rachet/socket wrenches (a lesson learned). See pictures

4. Lower the jack and then position it under the lower control arm. Jack up the control arm to compress the spring and the shock. This will allow you to easily remove the shock's opposing nuts (inside the trunk). I believe Anthony had to put a little more elbow grease into removing the nuts because there was tension on the shock and nuts.

4. Remove both 17mm nuts, washer, gi-normous washer, and rubber bushing. You may need to pry off the rubber bushing with a screwdriver.

5. Now lower your jack to release the tension on the shock shaft. This is crucial because it takes the tension off the entire shock for safety reasons

6. Cut the existing shock boots off and then take your grinder with cutting disc and cut the exposed shaft in half. Now I've read plenty of threads here where people are trying to muscle it off, but why bother...it's an old shock you're going to replace anyways! It will just be a waste of time, unless your shocks are so worn that compressing them by hand is easy. My grinder cut the shaft in half in about 5-10 seconds

7. Remove the 10mm nuts securing the plastic cover under the control arm. Remove the 17mm bolt and nut from the lower shock mount. If it does not come off, a spray penetrant is your best bet.

8. Adding insult to injury to our hapless shock, use the threaded top half to push out the bottom half

9. Insert the bottom of the shock into the lower mount, making sure the bolt holes line up, insert the lower bolt (this is important to do FIRST!) and then loosely thread on the nut about 1/2 way. The Bilstein kit came with two washers. I put both on either side of the nut and inside of the bolt head. At the top end of the shaft, put a teeeeny amount of Petroleum jelly on the shaft of the shock. This allowed me to push on the supplied bushing quite easily.

11. Jack up your control arm again to push the shock shaft higher---this will allow you to easily thread on the hardware. Also, here's where my order of hardware differed: Anthony says "Insert the other rubber bushing on the top mount, inside the trunk. Add the washer, then the first nut (15-18 Nm). Counterholding the bottom nut, install the lock nut (30 Nm)." On my Mercedes, the order was (from top to bottom) as follows:

• Lock nut
• nut
• washer
• Gi-normous washer
• Rubber bushing

That's the order I did it because thats how it was on my old shocks. Again, put a teeeeny amount of Petroleum jelly on the shaft of the shock. This allowed me to push on the bushing quite easily. Install hardware as shown above.

11. Now here's something I did to make it a one man job: I used my 1/2" drive rachet to lever/compress the shock downwards. First, push the shock to the left. the reason for this is that the shock will naturally want to wander back in the direction of the hole. Second, put the handle end of the rachet in betweeen the shelf of the car and the top of the shock bushing. Pushing downwards, you'll catch the lip of the body. Once you compress downwards a little, flip the handle towards the shock. All the while, push the shock inwards. Once youve flipped the rachet handle, then you can easily lever/compress the shock downwards. You just want to get the shock shaft compressed and pushed into the hole. This method is 10x easier than trying to muscle it downwards.

12. After securing the hardware, lower the control arm. While you have the jack in your hands, move it under the differential, lift up the car a few strokes, and then remove the jack stands. Lower the car and let the shock settle.. I like Anthony's idea of driving it forward and backwards a few feet to settle the shocks.

13. Tighten the lower bolt to 55 Nm, and reinstall the plastic control arm cover.

The first one took me about an hour and a half. The second on easily under 30 minutes. If I did it again and had a good sized garage, I could do it easily in 20 minutes.

Attached Thumbnails

     

would this procedure work on a w126?

Yes, W126 shocks are just as easy and go in the same way.

__________________
08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

No need to over-think this procedure. Get an impact wrench and 17mm socket and you're in business, it works for all tire lugs and all the nuts and bolts for the shock.

1. open trunk remove side plastic covers.
2. impact the two nuts off each shock, pry off rubber gaskets, discard
3. jack car by diff. until both wheels off the ground, remove wheels
4. remove lower control arm plastic covers, 2 x 10mm, then it snaps off
5. impact off the lower shock mount bolts, you'll need a 17mm wrench to hold
6. compress old shocks down from the top (I used a ball joint separator and pried)
7. lift out shocks
8. place new shocks, bottom end in first, put bolt through but do not tighten
9. muscle each shock down and put the pointy end up through the hole
10. lower car onto a blocks supporting the lower control arms, to seat the upper mount, put most of the weight of the car on the blocks
11. tighten lower mounts, torqued to 50 Nm
12. hop in trunk, on each shock put new rubber gasket on the pointy end, then metal washer over that
14. on each shock put on first nut, tighten to 16 Nm, don't let the pointy end rotate as you tighten, grab the tip of it with vice grips. The rubber squashes down quite a bit.
15. on each shock put on second nut, use a 2nd wrenches to hold first nut firm, as you snug the second nut down to 30 Nm.
16. jack car up again and pull out blocks and put wheels back on, torque lugs to 80 lb-ft.

Sometimes I'm metric, sometimes standard.

__________________
Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D

I must be buff, I am able to compress new shocks by just grabbing it at the top and pulling down on it for removal.

When I replaced the shocks on my W124 I just put the jack under the side I was working on, lifted the car till the wheel was just barely touching the ground.

I then removed the trunk carpets.

I then removed the nuts on the top of the shock and the rubber pieces.

I removed the cover from the lower control arm. I then removed the lower bolt.

I grabbed the shock in the wheel well, pulled down and compressed it, and pulled it out.

I then compressed the new shock (by hand ) put it into position, and let it extend up through the hole. I installed the lower bolt and re-installed the cover.

I put on the rubber piece and two lock nuts.

Lowered that side of the car and did the same to the other side.

Put carpet back.

Enjoy.

It took me about 1.5 hours total....having never done rear shocks on a W124 before.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

frankly I don't see the big deal and all the concern about the springs

On my W124 I unbolted the top nuts, jacked up the rear under the diff and took both tires off. Removed the cover and unbolted the shock at the bottom, compressed the top by hand and pulled the old one out. Install was the reverse.

When I unbolted the top nuts and jacked it up there was no tension on the shock

It took me about 30 minutes for both, never done it before.

__________________
1995 E300 diesel

Where was anyone able to find shock bushings? I have a 1993 300CE and cannot find a rear bushing kit for the life of me. PS i only need the lower bushing that attaches to the A arm, not the upper. Thanks!

anybody have the proceedure for the wagon rear stabilzer R&R including fluid bleed?
And, yes, they are pooched from bad accumulators.