E300 Front Suspension Rust, spring perch
 

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Serviced my 1998 E300D yesterday and inspected the front suspension, found the top retainer for the coil spring has rusted through and has bent up at a 30 degree angle. Inspected the rest of the car and discovered the right front has also begun to rust. Appears the sealant used to keep water out of the welds failed and retained the water to cause the failure. No other indication of rust anywhere else on the car.

This doesn't increase my trust that MB builds a safe car.

Any thoughts on how best to handle the repair?

Spring perch failure has been discussed here.

WOW. Scary stuff. So scary I ran out and checked the '99 E300. It is covered by undercoating but looked OK overall. Is it worth cutting out the undercoating a little bit to check for rust or would it be obvious if there is some?

Bad weld!
 

What a coincidence..........
I have a 1998 E300DT and the A/C compressor went bad. Brought it to my MB dealer here in Englewood NJ, last Friday. Supposed to be done in one day. Went to pick up the car and was told..."have some very bad news for you, come look". Went into the shop where the car was on the lift. The mechanic while taking out the old compressor noted the left front coil spring was at right angles in the middle pressing against the shock. The strut tower was almost completely rusted through and the spring was ready to pop out. They said they have seen this before a few times... attributed it to bad weld at the factory with water and then rust breaking down the weld. They checked the car on car-fax, saw it was never in an accident and said Mercedes will do the repair with no charge. I think a 10 year rust warrenty is in effect. So now the car is in a body shop for a few more days.
Just goes to show.... nothing is perfect.....I am very glad the mechanic picked it up as the whole wheel was ready to buckle.
And just an interesting thing to note. A few weeks ago, there was a what looked like a new Lexus GS 300 on the FDR drive in NYC with the left front wheel buckled under the front. I couldn't help at that time wondering what happened....I don't know... was it a weak weld or did the car hit a big pothole with such force to break the joint. In all my years of driving the collapsed front wheels have been on old cars esp. limos and taxis.
I just read the link on the weld problem, and am very disappointed with Mercedes with all their talk about laser welding and structural might, that this sort of weakness was not remedied years ago.
RSL

RSL

Just got my car back from the body shop. MB picked up the tab for almost $1300. They replaced the top spring perch on both sides. I'm glad Mercedes agreed to pay the cost but I'm still disappointed the engineering was so poor that the repair was necessary in the first place.

i dont think it is much the bad engineering, but the cheapness of the accountants trying to cut every corner possible...resulting in cheaping in the rust proofing of the cars...:mad:

The top of my W126's spring perch looks perfect. :D