Do I need to compress spring/strut to do tower/mount? (w124) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

pawoSD · #30 09-28-2009, 01:17 AM

I took the cheapo route this weekend and swapped in some new strut mounts....as mine were beyond shot and squeaking and clanking. My drivers strut is extremely dead, it almost did not want to go back up (did very slowly) after it was pushed down by hand!

Passenger side was a little stronger. Both are original. I'll replace them later on when I do my tie rods/center link so I can have an alignment done with all fresh parts. For now it drives fine, a bit wallowy but not that bad....and all the noises are gone!

I was actually able to pull apart the old passenger side strut mount by hand in two pieces!

I did the job by putting a floor jack under the jack pad at the corner I was working on, then I lifted the car (with strut bolt loosened already) until the strut just started to leave the mount. I then stopped jacking it up, compressed the strut, quick removed and swapped the mount, re-bolted it all together, and lowered the car down. I did it all with the wheels still on and sitting on the ground.

When I do the struts themselves in the future (gotta save some $$

) I will put the floor jack under the hoist pad of the chassis, and a jack stand under the control arm. This way, should my jack release pressure unevenly or too quickly it will just set the weight of the car on the stand/control arm rather than dropping the control arm and over-extending it. Much safer IMHO....and more controllable.