Question for all 124 owners?????
 

How stable is your 124 car on a windy day, on a hi way going 65 mph or faster?

My 124 for example, gets pushed around quite a bit! I also had the same experience when I owned a 190E, it reacted the same way. Note, both my 124 and previous 201, had new tires, tight and aligned front ends.

In contrast, I drove my 450SL to work several times last week, while it was very windy out and this car was not effected at all. It tracked perfectly and was as stable as a rock!

Wondering if this is a normal 124 thing, or not! Maybe I've overlooked something? ............BB

My wagon is rock solid, even at 110 in cross winds. My sedan is a little bit squirly in a cross wind, even though I replaced much of the front suspension. I'm considering replacing the rear bushings on the sedan. Proper alignment is really very important. I highly recommend only having a MB expert do the alignment. Shops that do any car for $75 are not going to get it right. Also, if you have directional tires and they're facing the wrong direction it can make the car feel unstable

front and rear suspension must be at specs and more importantly the shocks must be in good working condition.

my car is rock solid even at higher speed.

The 124 and 201 are both fairly light and have greater "sail area" than a heavy 450SL, so it stands to reason that they may move around a little bit more in a high cross wind component situation and require more steering correction to maintain course, but they are basically very stable.

I recall in the Silver State Classic Challenge cresting a rise at about 125 MPH and feeling a good "bump" from the left - probably due to a wind shear. It really got my attention, and I instinctively steered slightly right for a fraction of a second, but it was over almost before I realized what happened. Other that that little incident the car showed excellent stability over the rest of the 92 mile course.

I also recommend front pressure bias, especially in 201 six-cylinders because of their high front weight bias. I run my 205/55ZR-15s at cold pressure of 38 front and 34 rear, and reset them when they drop to 36/32.

Duke

Mine starts to behave that way whenever one or more of the control arm bushings get old and worn. I have the rear control arms inspected - usually 1 or 2 turn up worn when I see this problem - and after they are replaced, the problem is gone. The thrust seems to go first, then the torque. I have had the thrust rod replaced twice, and the torque once in about 120k miles.

Also, tires and pressure seem to make a difference, as noted above, and some tires make a HUGE difference, at least with my Sportline. The ES100 Yokos, dBI Yokos, and Michelin XGT V4 Pilots were relatively insensitive to speed/road/xwind issues, but the dBII Yokos became exponentially more twitchy in cross winds and road surface changes with increased speed!

http://www.warewolflabs.com/john/arms124.jpg

Solid as a Rock here...no problem.

These cars were designed and built for 140+ MPH autobahn crusing and they will do it with total confidence all day long.

As JCE pointed out, the most common problem that prevents this from happening is a bad "dogbone" somewhere in the rear suspension. That said, there are LOTS of other things that COULD cause lack of confidence in the handling department such as; bad or low tire, bad shock(s), front end problems including suspension links, steering linkage or steering box.

Granted, the 124 is not an SL, but if everything is correct they are an awesome high speed or winding road cruiser.

Good luck,

I've been chasing down the instability in crosswinds problem on my 124 also.
I've replaced the thrust arms and torque struts and with no positive result.
The car practically darts in cross wind gusts.

Does anyone feel really strongly that a proper spreader bar alignment can make this go away? My gut tells me there's more to the story...

If it's not a dogbone in the rear, the next most likely culprit would be the idler arm bushings.

Alignment could be pretty bad without causing such a problem. Alignment problems most often result in uneven tire wear. The one alignment problem that could cause wierd things like this would be if the car had been crashed before such that the thrust angle is way out of whack.

Good luck,

Recently, I had 4 new Yokohama Avid H4s tires put on, and it now occurs to me that this may be my issue. The previous tire were Bridgestone Blizzaks, and I never remember floating around the hi way.

Also, the car tracks and handles straight tight when there is little or no wind.

I'm thinking now it may be the new tires! An inspection of rear suspension appears in good shape, shocks are not too old and are responsive. BB

JCE and others, good info. Can someone tell me -- using the names JCE wrote on his diagram -- which (if any) of the rear arms can be replaced without removing the rear springs or rear shocks? I suspect one of mine is worn.

All 4 of them can be replaced without removing spring. "Torque" and "Thrust" wore out in my case, while there was still zero play in the other 2.

Thanks! I may tackle those 2 on the upcoming long weekend.

Another question: would of these arms being bad result in severe uneven tire wear on outside edge of tire?

Low tire pressure will also make it feel squirmy. I run 35 rear and 32 front cold tire pressure.

Good luck,