I have a 1991 190E, it's been in my family for a long time and has 130,000 miles. It seems to be falling apart. Nothing has been much of a problem till lately. AC compressor went out $1200, then Altenator $250, Starter $175, then ball joints (cheap)$125. Then the transmission started shifting hard and then slipping at take off, turns out needed tons of work and had to be rebuilt
$1000. The day after the trasmission was done started to clang when you stopped or put it in/ change gear (foward to revers) turned out U-joint and the 190 has what they call a non-servicable u-joint that was $500.
I'm now having rear end problems and about feed up with taking it to the shop. I've put more into it in the last 2 months that the blue-book of the car now. How much could it cost to rebuild the rear end? Anyone got a used one?
Looks like CV joints on a front wheel drive car??
I do most of the work on my American made cars can I replace it with out buying special tools?
Might just sell it...

Sounds like fun! It seems that you are getting to the "rearend" of your problems! I have heard in the past that when you replace or repair something in a driveline, the things that follow are not far behind. I am pretty confident that you will get it all sorted out, however I think that a Mercedes Benz is far easier to work on than any american car (except the old ones). You will find that with any Mercedes they are built to be repaired. They put things in the right places to get access and etc..
The rear end going out is not common. It could have been run dry of lubricant, but I have never seen one go bad. The half shafts do get a little problematic at higher mileage, but my SL has 133k on it and has the same driveline, the only thing that has been replaced is the rubber flex discs. Do you live in a bumpy neighborhood? go fourwheeling on the weekends? Maybe it is time to get a second opinion on your repairs? I had a 1973 280C that was in the shop all week, I would get it out Friday, by the time the weekend was over something else would go wrong and back in the shop on Monday. I eventually replaced the entire driveline (except the rear end), but the car had 450,000 miles on it, same transmission, but the half shafts and center bearing were replaced.
Are you in the MB club? if not you should join, other members including myself will be glad to help you out and take a look at your car. Good luck!
Brian

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Brian W. Heitman

www.MBCA.org/northtexas

Join MBCA!!!

also, there are several vendors online where you can save a lot of money on parts. fastlane being one of several.