I have read on this forum and others that the W210 models have a tendency to wear out lower control arm bushings which leads to a shimmie or shake at approximtely 55mph. My 1997 E300D with 170k miles on it developed such a shimmie gradually over time. I wasn't all that wild about taking on the job of replacing the lower control arms since they looked on the surface to be ok. However, when inspecting under the car I noticed that the bushings attaching the anti-sway bar to the frame looked worn on the outer edges. So I ordered them up (about $4 each) as well as a couple of anti-sway bar links (about $14 each) connecting the bar to the lower control arm. It took a while to figure out how to get the links off the bar without dropping the entire bar on one's head as I laid on my back under the car ..... but I did it. I drove the car around town for about a week and really didn't notice any handling difference .... but yesterday and again earlier this morning I took a couple of freeway runs to the airport and back and the shimmie was entirely gone. Is it just cooinsidence? Has anyone else experienced such results from such a repair? It just seems odd that a simple repair costing less than $100 would correct the problem when everything I've read todate indicates that the lower control arms have to be replaced at 10 times the cost. Any thoughts?
David Roseman
Long Beach, Ca
06-20-2008, 03:15 PM
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