Ball Joint Replacement on 1997 C230

[georgeb]

I thought I’d do a little write up on my experience with replacing the ball joints on my 1997 C230. I believe this should essentially be the same for all w202’s. I checked the repair cd I have and the information on the repair was kind of sketchy. I have a Haynes manual that is fairly decent but still leaves a little too much to the imagination. I also checked the posts and there is a lot of useful information but I never did find a comprehensive method for this model car. In addition most of the information posted makes it sound like a dreadful job. I found this to be a very simple repair and I had never done any prior suspension work outside of putting on a couple of bilstein struts. I had also expected to replace the hub bearings because the Haynes manual stated that the rear bearing would certainly be destroyed upon removal. I didn’t destroy any bearings whatsoever. As a matter of fact the bearings were in excellent condition as were the bearing races. If you have a high mileage vehicle you may want to clean them and check them to see what condition they are in.

I’m writing this from memory at this point so forgive me if I leave something out. Feel free to email me if you need clarification. This information is provided as a reference and is in no way to be construed as a comprehensive guide and I can not accept any responsibility for its use or misuse as the case may be. It is merely provided as a reference, so do your due diligence before you begin.

Tools Needed:
Small Pitman Arm Puller – I used one with about a 1 1/8 inch opening between the legs. A 1 inch opening would have been ideal as the 1 1/8 was a tad too large and I had to maneuver it a bit on the upper control arm to get it to work. The maximum depth it would open was approx. 2 inches.
Torx- T40
Hex 5mm
17 mm socket
7/8” socket

I’ve heard you can get a loaner puller but autozone is too far away and I bought the one I used for $15. I was looking at the small lever type which they have pictured in the Haynes but the cost a lot more and it doesn’t look very sturdy. I have a pickle fork but I didn’t want to ruin the boot on the upper control arm ball joint.

Loosen lug nuts, jack vehicle up and support on jackstands. Remove roadwheel. Remove the two bolts securing the caliper to the steering knuckle. Slide the caliper off of the disc and support with a wire hanger of some type so as not to put pressure on the brake lines. Next remove the 3 hex nuts securing the brake dust shield from the front of the shield. Behind the shield there are two torx bolts securing the abs sensor which needs to be removed also. Then you can pull the shield off of the knuckle and tie it out of the way with a piece of wire. Remove the hex nut securing the disc to the hub and remove the disc. Remove the hub cover from the front of the hub. To do this I used a long socket and hammer and just enough force to dislodge it a little at a time while you rotate the hub between taps. This way you don’t distort the hub cover. Once you have the hub cover off you can loosen the hex lock on the bearing retaining bolt. Note the position of the bolt as it will be approximately in the same position when you reinstall it. Then slide the hub off of the spindle The Mercedes method of obtaining the proper play in the bearing entails the use of a dial gauge. There are other home brewed methods and opinions on how to best do this task so check the posts for your own peace of mind. If your bearings are stuck on the spindle you may need a puller and new bearings. I didn’t run into that problem. . The next thing would be to loosen the upper ball joint nut on the upper control arm and bring the nut to a point to where it just covers the end of the threads. Then slide the pitman arm puller onto the end of the steering knuckle shaft and the upper arm and apply pressure to the end of the ball joint. I didn’t overdo this, just tighten it down and tap the end with a small sledge hammer. It should pop right apart. If not tighten the puller a little more and give it a couple more taps until she lets go. This took a lot less force and effort than I initially thought it would. I did no damage to the upper ball joint during removal. Now you can remove the nut all the way off. It may be necessary to lever down on the top of the control arm to hold the ball joint from spinning around while you take the nut the rest of the way off. Haynes recommends that you remove the tie rod end too so when you remove the ball joint you can separate it from the knuckle in a vice. I found this totally unnecessary. Once the upper balljoint is separated and disconnected from the knuckle arm you can angle it away and expose the balljoint. Loosen the top nut halfway as with the upper ball joint at which point u can pop it out of the joint with the pitman puller using the same method as the upper balljoint. Tension the puller on the end of the nut and tap and it pops right off. Remove the nut. You may have to stabilize the steering knuckle a little at this point because all the supporting parts are being loosened. At this point remove the remaining nut attaching the back of the balljoint to the knuckle. Use the pitman puller to press the ball joint out. That’s all there is to it. Make sure you have a decent torque wrench to put everything back together in the reverse order of disassembly. The following are the torque values I used expressed in foot pounds. I also used the blue locktite on all of the nuts and bolts.

Lower Balljoint nuts……………….…77
Upper Balljoint nut……………….…..33
Front sensor torx………………...……16
Brake disc retaining screw………….….7
Caliper Retaining bolts to knuckle…...85
Brake dust shield bolts………….……16

I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and inspect the bearings and bearing races for signs of failure, scoring pitting etc. I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the hub and used fresh grease to repack the bearings. If you do this you will need new bearing seals which I think are a couple of bucks. I didn’t have access to the green grease that Mercedes uses and you don’t want to mix greases. I used a lithium based high temp grease for wheel bearings which looked very similar to the original. You might want to get the Mercedes stuff if you need a warm and fuzzy. I wouldn’t cheap out on the grease…you do want high quality material and I got what I could at the time. I wouldn’t use moly based grease for this though as I’ve read it can create problems.
Since you have everything apart it’s a really great time to put a new disc and pads on if they need to be renewed soon. It took me approximately 2 hrs per wheel to do the ball joints. A lot of the time was spent cleaning and repacking the hub and bearings. Hope this will be of use to some of you.

[manny]

Nice write-up.

[sokoloff]

I know my 123 chassis calls for 65 grams of grease in each wheel bearing. Is there a similar spec for the C class?

Nice write up.

Len

[georgeb]

The only information I had from the Haynes manual was to fill the hub 2/3 full of grease, so after packing the bearings themselves I put a new seal on the rear bearing and filled the hub up 2/3's. If anyone has more information please feel free.

[Will_w202]

had mine done under warranty at 70k......8 years. I bet you notice a big difference in ride quietness? I did. I now have 134k 2 years later, and I get the feelign that rubber is more prone to degradation with age rather than mileage. Thoughts? I'm hoping not to touch the suspension again until 200k/2yrs

[georgeb]

To be honest the ride quality and tire wear were the reasons I got under there to begin with. The ball joints were in very poor shape. My vehicle has almost 170m on them and there was quite a bit of play. The rubber on all the joints looks good. I was all set to just order all new front end components and do everything in one shot but everything besides the balljoints looked in good shape. So I decided to just do the lowers and right after I had the car aligned with 4 new tires. Seems very tight and responsive now. The lowers seem to be the weak link in the W202 suspension so I figure next time I do them i'll probably do the uppers and the drag link too.

[Will_w202]

yeah, luckily CPO replaced everything up front except shocks between 65-90k, incl steering box and drag link, control arms, and ball joints/all bushings. The steering work made the biggest difference, not surprisingly.

[Ethan]

George

Why did you pop the upper ball joint?

What did you mount the Pitman arm puller against to pop the ball joint taper?

Wish you had posted this thread three months ago before I pulled my steering knuckle off to do the ball joint?



Scott
C-class 1998 unbelievable how well this car is made

[georgeb]

Ethan the steering knuckle is one big piece where the hub sits on the spindle and behind the hub is the lower balljoint and tie rod end. There is a nother piece of the steering knuckle that extends upward and thats where the upper balljoint attaches. The pitman arm puller I used was a u shaped tool with a bolt in the middle. The legs of the puller have feet on them. To remove the upper I loosened the balljoint nut about 1/4 inch. The nut is what holds the balljoint against the top of the spindle attaching piece. I slipped the feet of the puller between the balljoint and the top of the knuckle attaching piece and then you apply pressure by tightening down on the balljoint nut by tightening down the bolt of the puller on it. Thats all there is to it. You tighten it down pretty good and give it a few taps with a small sledge or a hammer and it just pops right out. You may have to turn the wheel in or out to get access to be able to slide the puller in there, I think I turned the wheel all the way inward.