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#1
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W210 control arm snapped ! Benz quality WOW
I am shocked, wife called on her way to work and said the car got slugish and is making a very loud noise from the front wheel so she pulled over and will call a tow.
anyway I get home from work to diagnose it and I see this ! it turns out to be a common issue ! I did the brakes not too long ago and saw nothing indicating anything out of the ordinary special we got tires and alignment about 6k miles ago shop never mentioned a thing ! Anyway Pelican parts will be hearing from me soon for new replacment parts.
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2003 GX470 1998 E300 3.0TD 2002 Dodge 2500 4x4 cummins 1998 Dodge 3500 5 speed Cummins |
#2
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Not sure the failure wasn't because of deferred maintenance from looking at the pics?
What are all the stats on the car? Miles? Front end parts (shocks) etc. replaced? Worn/aged bushings not replaced? Lower ball-joints replaced? Steering parts/bushings aged? Rust issue(s), esp. front spring perches? |
#3
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Importec is has way better pricing--the Euro catalogue is South San Fransisco Import Parts, WAY better selection and pricing than WorldPac that drives peach parts.
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#4
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Don't blame the car company.
How many miles? Any rust?
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Only diesels in this driveway. 2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black 2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k 2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k |
#5
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Your 2 piece spring doesn't look to healthy either. Glad I don't live in the rust belt.
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CENSORED due to not family friendly words |
#6
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That looks like a failure suspiciously near to a weld
As for condition those parts look used but don't seem especially or excessively rusty to me - wow guys if you want to see rusty come and live over here for a few days!
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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver 1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone 1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy! 1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits! |
#7
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Car is a NJ car all it life not much rust on body 205k miles
tie rods is only thing was replaces since we owned the car about 60k miles ago drove fine no weird noises or clunks, welds did fail. How do you maintain a control arm ? you replace it ? I always thought bushing gets changed in and out but not the control arm its self !
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2003 GX470 1998 E300 3.0TD 2002 Dodge 2500 4x4 cummins 1998 Dodge 3500 5 speed Cummins |
#8
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Yup... weld attracts the rust... metal fails at the weld. I wonder if an aluminum alternative exists?
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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread "as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do! My drivers: 1987 190D 2.5Turbo 1987 190D 2.5Turbo 1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!! 1987 300TD 1987 300TD 1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere! |
#9
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I find it odd there is a parts sticker on the arm, that suggests the arm wasn't that old. I blew up the pic but cannot make out what it says.
However, at first glance it doesn't look like a OE parts sticker to me. Perhaps the OP can take a better pic of it?
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Mac 2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d “Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22 |
#10
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If that is an OE part, I'd be fussing at dealer and MBUSA. That sort of failure is totally unacceptable. MB has done recalls for failing control arms in the past (R107 for instance). How does the other side look?
I would never use an aftermarket control arm. I'd take a used OE control arm over aftermarket. Have you searched online to see if this type of failure is typical for your model car?
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Respectfully, /s/ M. Dillon '87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted '95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles '73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification" Charleston SC |
#11
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I have seen a few dozen or so pictures on the internet about W210 control arms breaking right at this spot.
I think one should have a cleaning interval for the control arm cavity too, salty mist can get into the arm from the spring hole. A good dousing with body cavity wax inside the arm may help here.
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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model) 1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017) 2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017) |
#12
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This happened to a friends 97 E300D at around 310,000 but no idea if it was or wasn't the original arm.
For what its worth the arm did not look visibly rusty when it broke.
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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500 Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i |
#13
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Many here will incessently flame any criticism of M-B designs, often w/ no technical basis. From what we can see in the photos, it doesn't look like rust contributed. It looks like classic "metal fatigue" failure. After say 1M cycles at a given load, it fails. Statistical, but often it can be predicted amazingly accurately. One example is coiled garage door springs. You can get more life from thicker springs, but none have infinite life. Not much you can do to mitigate other than avoid pot-holes and rough roads. Forged parts are usually less sensitive to fatigue.
Control arm failure occurs on many cars, especially 1980+, as they strived to lighten everything. As in your case, it usually doesn't cause catastrophe. The car just drops and drags. I posted about a temp chain repair to drive my 1984 300D home when the K-frame weld broke loose on one side. Several readers here flamed me about how irresponsible and dangerous it was to drive that way in their "expert" opinion. But I used 2850 lbf rated chain (much stronger than sheet-metal K-frame) and have an M.S. in Mech Engr, so ignored the fussing. Plus, the car drove perfectly straight and felt very solid. I responded w/ links to cars w/ broken control arms, none of which caused significant collateral damage.
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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's 1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport 1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans |
#14
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I'm not sure why anyone is surprised here. All W210s are prone to rust, especially if they've ever been exposed to road salt. This is a manufacturing defect on MB's part which they have never owned up to. My suggestion to the OP is to replace BOTH front lower control arms and closely inspect the spring perch and the rest of the front suspension.
1996 E300D front control arm collapse | Mercedes-Benz Club of America Lower control arm failure due to rust - MBWorld.org Forums Lower Control Arm Cracked - Mercedes-Benz Forum
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CENSORED due to not family friendly words Last edited by tjts1; 05-21-2015 at 01:32 PM. |
#15
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Well that's it then - design fault!
Are there similar problems with W201s and W124s?
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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver 1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone 1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy! 1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits! |
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