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Old 09-24-2012, 11:17 PM
Turbo300Mercede Turbo300Mercede is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: North Alabama, USA
Posts: 149
[QUOTE=sixto;3017236]Did you replace the carrier bushings on the outboard ends?

Yes, about two months back. They helped some also with the twitchy driving.
Everything I do seems to help a tiny bit, but just not a eureka moment where one thing fixes the entire issue.
Here is what I have done so far in the following order:

1) Outboard rear carrier bushings, both sides.
Some slight improvement in ride. The rubber was torn, but there was still grease inside, so I suspect very little wear had begun.

2)Next:
Front LCA sportline bushings. The sportline bushings are made of noticeably stiffer rubber than the originals and
Front sway bar bushings.
This was a definite improvement. Slightly stiffer ride, little more road noise, but a driving improvement. Still twitchy, but a little less so.

3) Next:
Station wagon rear sway bar links. (had to shorten the lower bushing lengths to fit) and
Rear cradle subframe bushings. Used the two sportline line ones and the two replacement ones.
Took this for a ride and there was a slight improvement. (not worth the effort on the cradle subframe bushings for the slight improvement. While I thought the originals were worn, they were not. But this was not obvious to me until I had them out in my hand)

4) Next:
Rear LCA inner bushings
Rear Wheel Bearings
Axle boots
Dirty Road Axle seals / wheel bearing seals
Again an improvement due to the one bushing that was soft/worn, but still has a little of the highway "twitch".

Up to this point this is the best the car has ridden in the year and half I have owned it. Bought it with 198K miles, it now has 228K miles.

I tugged and pulled on all the remaining links in the rear. No torn rubber, no in/out movement. Easy to flex around without the hub in place, but no sign of dry or worn out rubber.

This is the first 4 wheel independent suspension car I have owned. Are they inherently twitchy with normal road undulations / slight irregularities in the road? Or should it be as stable as a rock under all conditions?

I am beginning to question my ability to diagnose this issue.
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