W201 Lower Control Arm (Sport) Hitting Brake Rotor
 

Hey everyone,

I bought a set of Lemforder front lower control arms for my 93 190E 2.6.

The Lemforder arms came with sport suspension bushings. As I understood it that was the only difference between stock and sport arms..the bushings.

I had my shop install the arms and evidently when they put everything back together the rotor was rubbing up against the control arm.

I do have a bigger brake kit (E420 Front, SL600 rear) and am currently running R1 Concepts rotors.

I was hoping some of you out there might have some thoughts on this issue. I am drawing a blank

Thanks!

Kris

If you have E420 front brakes the standard control arms wont work, you need the non-replaceable ball joint type arms in which the ball joint sits more slanted and downwards to clear the rotor. They have a triangular cross section.

The arms that came off must be like the W124 E420/E320 arms.

No, that can't be. I had my front lower ball joint replaced about 20k ago. Just the ball joint, not whole arm. Unless there was a replaceable ball joint variant..

oh, why not compare new and old parts to see the difference, As far as I know and also seen e.g. on my car which is a 1995 diesel with smallish lucas brakes, the ball joints are replaceable, but on every E320, E420 Ive seen they are one piece due to the brake design.

By your reply - all bets are off, pictures may help though.

Agree, they would but sadly I get home after the shop closes.

I'll have to talk to them tomorrow and see what they said. I wasn't able to talk to them very much today.

I would think that somewhere..on the old arm is a part number that could be very helpful, but I didnt think of asking for one until after they closed.

I spoke with a fellow 190E guy and he too has stock 190 arms with bigger brakes. Although I'm not sure if his are 400E brakes or E420 brakes. I'm also not sure if there is a difference between the two. He said his rotors didnt rub, but were close.

Hmm XXXX says those are EXPENSIVE!

If these are the non-replaceable ball-joint type then I didnt have these units. I had a ball joint replaced around 207k miles @ ~ $120 or so.

So either there exists and variant of 124/129 arms that have replaceable ball joints AND work with the bigger brake setup

OR

The stock arms do work....

The ball joints may be different now.

The larger 4pot calipers + rotors WILL work with standard LCA's, but....its close.

I can only guess the new ball joint is different and now there is no tolerance. Only choice is getting the updated LCA's. Its really the best option.

The best option yes but not really financially.

I came across this thread on 190Rev last night.

Problem. Big problem. - 190 Revolution

In summary 4 options:

1) Replace LCA with E420 unit
2) Replace bushings and ball joint in original control arm
3) Shim rotor away from ball joint area
4) Grind down ball joint area so that rotor clears.
5) Swap 124/129 hubs onto car.

1 is ideal. However that would incur an additional $360 in parts and $300+ in labor. So $700 PLUS the money I already owe the shop for the current labor they have performed.

2 is OK but I liked the idea of new arms. This would cost at least another 2-3 hours in labor plus parts. So minimum $150+

3 is iffy. I'm not sure of the effect of moving the rotor outwards. It might effect pad ware, but thats not really a big deal. Most likely I'd forget the washers were there and in the future change the rotor and be confused

4 is cost effective and probably what I'll have them do. The guys in that thread seemed to be OK with that.

I certainly don't want to sink ANOTHER $700 in to this project.