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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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, |
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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. |
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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. |
"DCX QUARTERLY EARNINGS FALL 30%. Daimler-
Chrysler AG says its net earnings in the first quarter declined 30% to $374 million this year, dragged down by a $1.2 billion operating loss for its Mercedes Car Group." Toyota's net profit grew to $2.9 Billion for the quarter. GM's automotive operations lost $1.3 Billion. |
Inted you are seeing exactly what I have seen. Lexus takes the Germans technoligy and improves on it to make it reliable. They also let MB come out with something first.
It is a very good stratigy and is proving to be very profitable. However I would never buy a Lexus because where is the fun? I was checking out a new LS430 the other day and it felt very much like a W140. Infiniti on the other hand has some cool stuff out their. I will probably get one someday. Their 3.5L V6 is a very impressive engine. |
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I meet the same type of people that you do except I tell them that the parts for my E320 rear brake job (rotors & pads) cost me only $150 since I am able to do the labor myself. They get upset since they usually spend at least $1,000 for service on their cars. I have been offered to service their cars but I decline telling them that I can't afford the liability. |
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MB has to spend more money in R & D to develop quailty products and avoid problems like the spring perch failure.
Toyota spends a lot of money in development and it shows in the products. "GM will spend $8 billion on new products this year, up from $7 billion last year. That sounds like a lot, but Toyota by comparison spent $15.3 billion last year, according to BusinessWeek." Even BMW considers Lexus to be the benchmark. "Reithofer says Lexus was BMW's quality benchmark, not vehicles from German rivals Mercedes-Benz AG or Audi AG. BMW's ambition is to overtake Lexus in the J.D. Power and Associates vehicle dependability study in the United States, he says. In last year's survey, Lexus was the highest-ranked brand for the 10th straight year. BMW, the best-ranked European brand, took the fifth spot." In many ways, GM and MB are similar, they have the resources and long automotive history, but are failing to produce technically superior vehicles. |
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Also interesting is that the value of GM stock is now lower than that of Harley Davidson. Simply amazing. |
Staying on-subject
I find the design flaw which causes the perch failure to be excusable...after all, these cars are now up to 9 years old and it is hard to foresee every possible failure mode in every component.
What I find absolutely INEXCUSABLE is the foot dragging on performing a recall on what must be a priority-one safety related failure. Mark my words, MB will HAVE TO RECALL THESE EVENTUALLY when enough people who experience failures complain to NHTSA, so, why not just do it now and get it over with? I'll tell you why...they know every month they put it off another few hundred cars will hit the crushers or junkyards for one reason or another and then there will be that many fewer left for them to foot the repair bills to fix. But how many people will be injured or killed until they are forced to own up to this??? Also, to say they will only pay for repairs for the original owners is ludicrous - how can there be any moral distinction between an "original" owner and "current" owner when it comes to a safety issue. I can see it if you are talking about cosmetics or convenience issues like dashboard cracks or window regulators (both of which they deny knowing of systematic failures) but when the passenger's lives are at stake how can they say they will only cover "original owners". |
I wonder how many 1989 Lexus' are on the road.... first year built....as a 90 model.
I wonder what shape they are in? I wonder how they ride> I wonder how difficult they are to maintain after 15 years? just wondering. |
Mercedes covered the R107 subframe problems for years and years beyond the warranty period. They replaced many 3.5L six slug diesel engines way beyond the warranty. And so on...
Those days are gone. Now they try to weasel out of paying out a dime. Is it our fault? We expect them to compete on price. I don't think so. Acura is covering all those bad five speed automatics, on a car that is the price leader in the segment. |
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2. Some that were taken care of are still in nice shape. However the same can be said for any car. 3. If they are sorted pretty well, I think the suspension is cost prohibitive to rebuild 4. From me research they are great until the break. LS400's can bit just as hard as a MB in poor shape. |
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