300e Control arms or bushings
 

Recently bought some control arm bushings(mB original) since they are on sale on Fastlane and cheaper than the aftermarket.
Problem arose now cos I have asked a few mechanics about installing them:
(1)moonlighting MB mechanic says he has no press,maybe cheaper installing the new WHOLE control arms
(2)shop with press says with old car and rusted arms,most of the time you may end up cutting the arms with torch,dont touch them unless i am prepared to buy NEW ARMSWhich comes with bushing and bjs.I only have bushings.
Is this the opinion of the board that it;s better to buy NEW ARMS,its no pt buying bushings cos it's difficult to change out.?

I don't know if i can represent "the opinion of the board".. But i had all my control arm replaced. And the price for the labour was by far the biggest part of the charge. -Meaning the control arms are fairly cheap compared to what you will pay for the time the mech will spend replacing the bushings in your old control arms.

That's my opinion.

Freestyler

The subject is sorta like saying its a lot easier to replace the whole head than to replace the valve guides.

I almost never see bushing problems on 201 or 124 cars. I see real problems with bushings on 202, 210, 140 and all the related models (208, 170) and will probably see them on 220, 211, 203 and 209 cars soon. If you look closely at the bushings you will see why.

The only reason to replace the control arm is that one is not tooled to do the job properly. We usually do the job on the car and the labor to do the bushings are less than to replace the arm. (this might not apply to 201 and 124 as they never need replacing and I can't remeber whther we do them on the car).

Then look here.

My mech told me that this was very common for older w124 & w201.

Freestyler

Well, since MB doesn't offer bushings for 3 out of the five rear links, and since I have never heard anyone call them control arms, I mistakenly assumed you were talking about front suspension parts. All the rear links except the bottom one should be replaced as units. If MB doesn't offer a bushing its because replacing it wouldn't be a good repair. besides the links are dirt cheap.

labour vs parts cost
 

mb mechanic says 6 hrs for labour replacing bushings
6 hrs=600 CAnadian $+100 for bushings+bjs 100$=800C$(with old rusty metallic arms)
I suppose cutting the control arms off and replacing them(with the included bushings and balljoints)would be much less.
?1 hr=100+700 for the control arm sets=800C$(with brand new arms)
Is the math correct?
unless like Steve says,the W124 control arm bushings does not ever need replacing/then the math is purely academic

My original reply only applied to front end bushings. The rear bushings are never replaced separately except on the lower arm. They also are a common problem as stated.