Hi -- I'm at a friends place for a few days and he's got a pretty complete shop at his place so we're doing some work on my 97 E420 -- replacing bad cats and engine mounts. What other items should I check/replace while we're at it? Anything inexpensive that we "might as well" do?

The car is driving pretty well and I'm hoping that replacing the engine mounts (one is certainly bad and engine is jumping) will smooth out some vibrations. We'll check the lower control arm bushings as well, though the dealer just said they don't have replacements in stock here in Spokane, WA. I'll ask again tomorrow when I pickup the engine mounts to be sure.

The car does pull to the left a bit but that could just be an alignment issue, which I'll have done after we finish our projects. In addition to pull to left while underway, braking for stoplights causes some pretty substantial left rotation of the steering wheel.

Should I replace the shocks or springs just for fun? The car has about 150K miles on it and I don't know it's history as I've only had it for 6 months. Are the shocks hard to find? I'm kind of surprised that a couple of local auto parts stores didn't have them as I thought they'd be fairly standard.

Any other ideas? I'd really like to take care of anything low cost that could be a problem while I have my friend helping me and the resources at his shop.

Maybe sway bar links and bushings? Flex discs? Ball joints?




Muffler bearings?

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D