W126 420SEL Lower Control Arm Rust
 

Afternoon all,

Just got my 420SEL back from the dealership and they found rust on the driver's side rear lower control arm.

Here are some pictures..
W126 420SEL Left Rear Lower Control Arm - Imgur

This rust is in an entirely different location than that of the other cars I've had to replace those arms on..

I know it should be replaced and it will however I had a tripped planned next weekend down to Cincinnati (600 miles total) and wont be able to do anything on the arm until well after that...

Any thoughts on this whole thing?

That's nowhere near as bad as it was on my brother's old 300D......the shock went through it one day and it still held together until I was able to replace the arm!

His rusted all the way around and then the shock fell through.

My dad's old 300sd parts car has an arm that split and bent....car was sagging but still drivable.

I would rate that rust as "could patch it/paint it and drive a long while yet" or "fix when you have the time within the next year or two".

Thanks for the input. I didn't feel that it was a stop driving the car now type of thing either. I've got a 400-600 miles trip this weekend after that ill start hunting down an arm. I've done three other 126s.. Passenger sides, never a drivers though.

I've seen 3 w126s with rotted control arms so far in 3 months. Two at an indy and yours. The one at the indy near me was so bad it was horrifying. I would love to have taken pictures of it now lol. My advice is the same as pawo's. Weld it up, POR15 it and get a few more years and in the mean time pickup a spare until rust is prevalent again.

Here are some pictures from my one 300SD's arm when we replaced it back in 2011:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/303427-w126-trailing-arm-rear-lower-control-arm-rebuilt-replacement.html

Heres the pictures from the other 300SD... From January 2013 or so... also has pics of some of the rust and some sealing efforts.

1982 Mercedes 300SD Rear Control Arm Replacement - Imgur