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.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

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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2002 G500 74K
1998 E300 200K and rising
1995 S600 73k


"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering
if they've made a difference. The Marines don't
have that problem."-Ronald Reagan

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them
what to do and they will surprise you with their
ingenuity."-General George S. Patton

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.

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Zafar
94 E320 58000 Miles

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

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2007 C 230 Sport.