Mine broke last week
 

Thank God it happened while the car was parked! MB really needs to issue a recall before someone is killed! Any help in getting this "goodwilled" would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I know the car is ten years old but to dismiss this as a normal wear item is asinine.

-Tom

Gang, I apologize to the forum for my remarks above.

I am a firm believer in these stories and saw rust in the spring perch to frame welds on my car today.

It is sickening how MBUSA tries to conceal this.

It seems as though the sealant is very thin and can be picked at (exposing rust) very easily. My car was up in the air this afternoon at Downtown LA Motors and I began to look at it with the Shop Foreman (Harry). I intend to fully reveal whatever rust is there and take some photos of everything. Again, I apologize for questioning the stories that I read and thank you for sharing them.

More later and thanks again for the valuable info. Wow.

Even more remarkable if your car has always been in Southern CA.

Roughly:

1998 - 2004 ILLINOIS

(Looks like it was moved to Wisconsin and sold as STARMARK car with 75K miles in April 2004)

April 2004 - Present Los Angeles, CA.
-----------------------------------------

Interesting how this thread was resurrected today. Earlier this night, I received a phone call from my brother in law. The spring perch has failed on his E420 and it is being ramped to my dad's. I needed to contact my sister(who was unreachable by phone, but local) to inform her of his plight and she will be picking him up. AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT WITH A NEEDY TODDLER AND A RAMBUNCTIOUS 4 YEAR OLD KID!

The E420 that the spring perch failed on used to belong to ME! That was MY car!

I decided to part with it after my sister totaled her 300TE wagon when she hit a patch of ice and slid the vehicle sideways into a tree. She needed a car, and I had enough of them.

I am starting to wonder what the response is in Europe, since their cars are exposed to winter conditions as well. Granted they don't hold on to their cars as long as we do, but their inspection programs are much more rigid.

Mine is finally fixed. MBUSA paid half($770) and it took five weeks. They replaced the frame from the firewall to the bumper.

If you have a W210 PLEASE check your perches because you could be KILLED if they give way on the road!! It is a pain but I implore you to get it checked!! The wheel and spring COLLAPSE and cause one side of the fromt to LOCK UP; you can imagine the loss of control!! DO NOT PUT IT OFF you may save the lives of your family or other innocent drivers. I cannot believe that MB is not RECALLING these cars! Sure it's costly but so is a wrongful death suit - could be hundreds of millions if the car hits a schoolbus for instance! They will have to recall these cars at some point but in the meantime people will DIE!

I cannot overstate the importance of getting YOUR car checked!! PLEASE!!

I can believe it. They way they figure it is just like Ford with their TFI issue. Lets say it happens 100 times. Out of that, 10 are severe and 20 are less severe and the rest are non issues. They figure out the total probable cost and if it doesn't exceed their cost to fix every one on the street, they will not do it. So, enough people have to get hurt and dead, sue and win enough money before it becomes an issue. It is all a numbers game. What's so hard to believe about it?

My 99 E320 has 82k miles. After reading this thread, I sort of drove in fear until I could inspect the spring perches this past weekend.

I just want to be sure I'm doing the right thing, but a visual inspection of the perches shows absolutely nothing. The rubberized coating and paint is completly intact, there isn't the slight notion of a problem. Aside from pulling it all apart including the springs, is there anything I should be able to see that indicates a problem with rust?

I do think they are a bit flimsy, design-wise, but they look ok to me.

Does anyone know what the dealer does when they inspect, other than look at them?

It's my understanding that they all look perfect until they fail, and only then do you see the rust underneath.

All you can do as a propholactic is to ensure that they're sealed.

I am going to take it to the dealer anyway soon to get the brake fluid flushed and changed. I'll ask them to inspect it and see what they have to say.

That is not true. What happens most often is that the spring perch fails a visual inspection and shows corrosion/rust. Catastrophic failure is rare, a repair warranted by visible rust/corrosion is not.
Paul
_______
98 E300

Not a sign of any corrosion on my spring perches, and this is a car driven in the north of England, a very rainy and salty place indeed. They're completely clean, as is a fair bit of the underside of the car. 1997 W210 saloon, with 167 000 miles on the clock.

The only signs of corrosion on the chassis (apart from external bodywork) are on the usual places you'd find on any other car - the odd nut/bolt, fixing, rod ends, theres also a fair bit of rust on the shockers but all thats happening is the black painted finish is flaking off. They still work fine.

I'm a bit concerned that people think this is such a major safety issue - obviously you don't want a collapse while driving, but I'd rather have one of these collapse while driving, than suffer a rear tyre blowout. I know which is more dangerous, and which is more common.

Hmmm
 

Many of these cars are driven at 90-100 miles per hour = 144.841 KPH to 160.9344 KPH every day for an average of 23,000 miles per year = 37014.91 kilometers per year.
A tire failure is easier to control than a wheel that has retracted into full contact with the fender = the car resting upon the sub frame at speed...

In Michigan, USA each winter there are roughly 800,000 tons of salt spread upon our roads per year.:eek:
I live and drive around Detroit, it is common for a black vehicle to turn white from salt coating in winter.:(
Any break in the weld seam sealer will allow this highly corrosive/intrusive slime to enter, and begin eating metal from inside out..:(

I think I was wondering if it was best to just scrape the coating off, have someone run a welder and weld it with a bead instead of the spot welds. Not just any hack but a professional body shop or welder.