Recently I went to check my brakes and noticed that my rear suspension was wet and needed to be replaced. I found a place that sells the strut cartridges, however, I looked at the suspension for a while and could not figure out how to remove the existing strut cartridge.

If anyone has replaced their cartridges before could you please tell me how to get started and if there is anything else I should know about?

Also, are there any recommended brands or types of cartridges that anyone likes more than others?

Thanks,
James

Brand - Bilstein.

Couldn't figure out how to remove? It's best to have a shop manual or cd, but it's really extremely straightforward. A word of caution. If you are not much of a Do It Yourself Mechanic, then maybe better to pay to have it done.

That caution out of the way. You simply jack up the car at the rear spring pad with a floor jack. Insert a Jack Stand at an appropriate contact point under the car. Then use a bottle jack under the control arm to allow easy manipulation of it's height. Remove the plastic undershield under the control arm. Remove the trunk fender liners. The top of the shock bushings and nut will be revealed. Remove them. Remove the bolt at the bottom of the shock.

Now you will discover the difficulty of Gas Pressurized shocks. Some prying, swearing, and leveraging will be necessary to get them out and back in. You need some jacks, a few tools, and a torque wrench. If you don't have these things, then their cost may be more than you say by doing it yourself.

Steve

best done with two people... a strong teenager to compress the shocks..and a paying father who can help direct the shock in the correct position. Shouldn't take but 45 minutes a side...

just keep the rear wheels on the ground when doing the rears.

__________________
1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

We got the father son tandum going on. Thanks for both of your replies.

Does anyone have any pictures or detailed descriptions from a CD or manual they wouldn't mind posting? I will probably undertake this repair on Thursday afternoon, so if anyone does it would be greatly appreciated.

The best strut cartridges I could get on short notice are KYB, please let me know if these are bad or problematic. Thanks,
James

Yikes! I have read some really bad things about that brand.

Take them back. Order Bilsteins on the web, like on Fastlane or one of the many many online sources. You can get overnight delivery if necessary. I would think you want nothing but Factory or Bilsteins on a 400E. With all that power you want good shocks and you really want the correct shocks and struts front to back. You could really screw up the handling by mixing up the front to back shocks.

There was a post a couple of weeks ago from a guy who wrecked his 400E at 15 MPH.

Steve

Yeah, good looking. When I went to order them, I noticed that the KYB's had a very low rating even though they were more expensive. They also had a Monroe Sensa-Trac Monotube Shock, which as it turns out is designed for the W124 chassis. Since I have been driving with a broken strut, I figured this was better than nothing.

I did read about the 15MPH accident. Steve, do you recall why that occured, or maybe you could post the link? In the meantime I will do a search.

Please let me know if anyone has heard of the Monroe's. I have to take my car back to school friday and don't really have time to order anything off of the internet. For future refrence, what sites do people on this board order parts online?

bilsteins...

my son's car had monroes or something else on the back.. when we got it I knew there was something wrong immediately.. it was a handling issue...nothing to do with going over bumps.
it's much better now. I am going to try to get some incremental improvement by replacing or having him replace those dog-bones in the rear.

now we are trying to sort out a loose steering issue.. we think it's the idler arm bushing...

__________________
1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

Did you say it was better with the Monroe's? If not, did you change out the Monroe's for Bilsteins? Please let me know a good site to order some Bilstein's from if you know of any. Thanks.
James

bilsteins...I was fortunate to get them from someone off of e-bay for a very reasonable price.

somehow else may know wherer to get them.. I think they run about 110 each....but they are known to last 100k miles.

anyway, the car handles much better now. I think they would be that much more important with your 400e.

__________________
1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

I have had great service and a lot of free shipping from these guys.

http://www.bestforeignparts.com/epcvsoapimc.epc?cookieID=1PH16DLIS1PH16EVZL&drillid=8&subcatid=801043@@Rear+Shock+Absorber&clientid=bestforeignparts.com

If it were me I would buy the Heavy Duty but you are very safe with the
regular shock. Changing these things is really simple so before I wasted
money on the KYB's I would change them out at school. I never needed two people to change rear shocks, just takes some playing around to get them in.

MBZ033758
BILSTEIN Rear Shock Absorber
w/o Sports Suspension
Bilstein # B 36 1518
Note:
Heavy Duty
Bilstein # B 36 1385 Available 0.00 77.55

always buy bilstein for mercedes. yor ride will be different using any other brand. It will not handle ike what you are used to. I think the E420 or any other w124 comes with the HD bilstien. If you want better handling get the sport bilstein. I changed the suspension on the 300E with the sports and h&r springs, great handling. My stock E420 rides really good nice and plush for german standards but handle is not as good as my 300E. I can goo faster around the corners than the E420. Then sports will be stiffer, but only really noticeable around train tracks and pot holes. I live in san francisco and there are more pot hole than gopher hole in any city park. I call it pot hole city. Then choce is your comfort or handling? OEM is HD bilstien.

Ahem, OEM is not Heavy Duty . It is Comfort. HD is between Comfort and Sport. I replaced Originals with HD's on prior 300E and handling improved. Sport would not be a good choice for a car with normal standard springs. Sport is for the stiffer, shorter Sportline springs.

Steve