I have a '99 E320
 

Today I was driving on the highway, when I decided to change lanes, and suddenly I hear a loud noise, like something breaking inside, and the front of the car falling to the left and to the front. I stop to see what happened, and it looks like the strass, I think that's what it's called, that spring thing in the front, just broke.
Is this common? I could never imagine a Benz having a part break like that!!!

Any idea how much this will cost me? can you recommend a good repair shop in the Dallas area?

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

There is a problem with these cars associated with the entire spring tower coming apart from the unibody. If that is what happened you ought to first report it to the NHTSA and then demand to speak to the MB regional service rep and havd them repair it. It's a known defect on this era W210 body.

I believe it is called a spring perch failure:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=95120&highlight=w210+spring

Please follow up and let us know if this is the problem you experienced.

Update since the spring perch failure:

I took the car to a body shop, had the broken spring fixed and the other side reinforced. Complete costs were about $800 including the tow truck. Is this too expensive?

And now another small problem arises: the radio is demanding a code input now. I attempted a few random numbers with no successful results. I then proceeded to input 12345 and okayed it. The radio then displayed "Wait..." The radio, cassette, nor the CD player now work. Can anyone help?

You'll have to look in your papers that came with the car to find a radio code. If you cant find it, you'll have to visit an MB dealer, and they'll look up the code for you. The radio askes for the code any time the battery is disconnected. Sorry to hear about the spring perch failure.

If you are the original owner .......
 

you should take the car and the bill to the dealer for some degree of reimbursement. Mercedes is fixing this problem at no cost to customers. I think the problem is that there is a pocket created where the spring perch is welded to the rest of the car where water, salt, etc., sits and causes corrosion. Seems to me that this is potentially a serious problem and merits a recall but the only way to get that is to inform the government. Raise a fuss with the factory representative and try to get some of your money back. Make sure the front end of the car is in alignment after this work.

The W210 should be recalled for this defect. This is a serious safety issue.

It is only a myth that MB's are safer than other cars. A 2005 Toyota Camry is probably twice as safe as a W126 or a W124.

If you could back that up with actual facts, that would be something. :rolleyes:

Any car built today is leaps and bounds safer then 20 year old designs.

You should not have to pay a penny to fix that spring perch. I would be on the phone to MB of North America.

If you think so.
A Mercedes vs. a Toyota. :D
Excuse me......I can't stop laughing.

The whole topic of design in safety performance is quite subjective. Best to avoid it all together and stay on base. What is fact is that 20 year old designs being inferior is only a half-truth. Not quite complete.

I no longer have a 210, but I still love them. I never had a hint of rust anywhere near the spring perch and the car never gave me any trouble for the short time I had it(20K miles approx). Save for the xenon headlamp ignition box fiasco. At least it remains in the family.

Good luck,

MBs are absolutely among the safest cars on the road for their time periods. It is not logical to compare a brand new Japanese car to an 80s MB with regard to safety. There simply has been too much progress made in that time for the MB to be competitive with the new designs. With that said, brand-new MBs are, as they have always been, among the safest cars on the road.

I'd much rather be in a new Lexus than in any 1980s Mercedes in the event of any type of accident.

02-05 Lexus ES330 has better crash rating in frontal crash than 02-05 E Class

http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/0207.htm (02-05 ES)
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/0308.htm (02-05 E)


http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/97005.htm (97 E) 1 "P"
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/96031.htm (95-2000 LS) Highest Possible
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/96028.htm (97-01 Camry) 1 "A"

All the cars above are not too bad, but look below for a vehicle to avoid!! You have to see the pictures on this one!

For comparison 97-2000 Pontiac Montana/Chevrolet Venture most area's are Poor
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/96026.htm

"RESTRAINTS/DUMMY KINEMATICS: MARGINAL After moving forward into the airbag, the dummy's head and neck were snapped rearward as the steering wheel intruded. Then the dummy's head was hit from behind by the seatback and head restraint as they tilted forward because of floor buckling. The seat continued moving forward and pushed down on top of the dummy's head, bending its neck back even farther."

Mercedes is no longer way out front (traditionally with Volvo) on the safety front. The Japanese have made huge strides, and that is good. ALL cars should be well made.

The big disappointment is that Montana and it's ilk. People buy mini-vans 'cause the think they're safe. What garbage.

The redesigned 210.

http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/00027.htm

It does better than the 211.

Have you ever heard of an LS400/430? :D

Last I checked quite a few MB owners are defecting to Lexus and they have been cleaning MB's clock since 1990 or so.