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W210 DANGEROUS FLAW please read (crosslinked in post #1 to all on topic data)
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=147997
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Our trusty 1989 190E 2.6 has developed some alarming cracks on the front suspension. The top spring mounts have begun to peel away from the frame, with cracks progressing upwards next to the frame. The right side (with cracks on both sides of the mount) has a measurable tilt on the mount.

Obviously it has to be dealt with immediately. Has anyone experienced this before? Are replacement mounts available from Mercedes to weld on? How awful a job is it? Thanks for your input!

I can't help you with any specifics, but I expect this will be a very expensive repair relative to the value of the car. What is the total mileage and does the car show evidence of structural corrosion?

Duke

That is my concern: that it may not be cost-effective to repair. The car has 325,000 km on it, and is in nice shape cosmetically and mechanically. It has been a Vancouver, British Columbia car for most of its life, so has seen very little road salt. There has been a little surface rust on the sheet metal under the trim, which I touched up with paint. There is no other structural rust (other than the suspension cracks rusting where the paint has been breached). Maintenance is up to date, and the air conditioning has been converted. It would be a real pity to lose it.

Having grown up in Seattle I know that structural corrosion is not a big issue in the Pacific Northwest, so that leaves the cause as just plain old fatigue or overloading in service due to something like fast driving on poor roads - something on the order of what a pro rally car sees.

I recall one other report on this forum of spring perch failure on a 201 or 124, but I think that car may have had a lot of other structural corrosion.

Let us know the repair estimate and your course of action. I'll be giving my spring perches a thorough inspection at the next maintenance interval!

Duke

I had this problem on my old 201. I removed the spring and took a wire brush on my grinder to the area to determine the extent of the damage. The area around the upper spring mount was fine, with only a little rust. The factory attachment is not the best on these and failure is common from what I could determine. I ground back to bare metal all around, re-aligned the perch with a hammer, then re-welded with my MIG, making the whole attachment a solid seam. I then added reinforcements on either side, primed with epoxy primer, seam-sealed and undercoated. The repair was doing fine 2 years later last I saw it. Total cost about $10 as I already had the tools. It took me about 3 hours to do, and much of that time was spent getting the spring in and out as I had never done that before on that car.

Failure of these parts are quite common for W201, W124 and even for W210

This is a the driver side of an 1997 E50:


In case there is no or not much structural rust at that W201 the repair shouldn't be very expensive. The part (upper spring mount) is available at the dealer and costs Euro 35 in Germany.

Every good bodyshop should be able to replace this part and give the car another live.

bis denn,
Christian

1989 300TE
1984 2.3-16

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Thank-you all for your assistance. I have found that the local dealer can supply the upper spring mounts for about $60 Canadian each. Before the screen flashed away, I saw that their cost is $36.

A local bodyshop guessed at about $500 or $600 for the whole repair, and has done it before on an older Mercedes. On that car, he reinforced the existing mount rather than putting on a new one. That is probably fine in my case, as the damage seems to be confined to the cracks, rather than generalized rust. He is going to have a look at it tomorrow.

Unfortunately I do not have any welding equipment, and not much welding skill, or I would try it, as Benzfan did. Maybe this is an excuse to get a MIG welder. I am sure it is OK to learn how to use it, on a critical suspension part.