124 wagon drivers look at this.

[Bio300TDTdriver]

I posted in the diesel forum as I have a TD, but this may apply to all wagons.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=196276

Chris

[Bio300TDTdriver]

Anyone else out there with a 124 wagon that has this problem?

[Pete Geither]

I will check my wagon, but this looks like a very rare situation. The only thing that occurs to me is that the vehicle was grossly overweighted with cargo and abused at the same time. Definately not a normal occurance.

[Bio300TDTdriver]

Thanks Pete,

I will check back later to see what you found.

Chris

[Bio300TDTdriver]

Any of you gas guys want to crawl under the back of your car for me?

Chris

[Chas H]

Originally Posted by Bio300TDTdriver

Any of you gas guys want to crawl under the back of your car for me?

Chris

I recently changed the accumulators on my '95 wagon, didn't see anything like your car. Is there any sign of buckling in the bodywork?

[Bio300TDTdriver]

None what so ever. That's what is so strange.

Chris

[Pete Geither]

Just checked mine and no cracks whatsoever. Mine is a bit different than yours though. There is no hole in my crossmember where your cracks are crossing through. I wonder if this was a weak area and they made a change later in the era.

[Bio300TDTdriver]

That would surprised me. I need to look at some other '87s I guess.

Thanks for looking.

Chris

[david s poole]

one would almost think that the car had to have dropped from 15ft or so to have cracked the frame like that.i would have it over to body/frame shop with a view to getting it welded.you might also have your rear wheel alignment checked.

[Bio300TDTdriver]

I'm having the dealer look at it tomorrow.

[A. Rosich]

Chris:

I hope my personal experience on the subject will provide you and other members some light on your failure.

My first W124 wagon was a 1986 300TE manufactured on April of the same year.

Bought it used imported from Germany in 1990.

Had it serviced at the dealer always.

On January 1996 had the regular oil change service and was notified by the dealer that the rear subframe had developed tiny cracks. The only way to prevent a big failure (exactly like yours) was to replace the subframe, which at the time was about a US$4,500+ job here.

The dealer offered a free x-ray analysis of the subframe and provided with a detailed estimate of the job to be done. The also concluded that with the state of the roads here, the subframe will fail in less than year.

Completely shocked about the news, I began a very detailed search of the subject. And here is what I found:

1/- The rear axle subframe failure was typical of the first four years of production of the W124 T-series (1986-87-88 and 89 model years). Not ALL models will present the problem, but many did.

2/- Depending on use, loads and climate, the subframes will fail from three to six years.

3/- Mercedes-Benz was well aware of the problem (appears that it evolved from a bad manufacturing process of the materials on the part).

4/- After several formal complaints, Mercedes-Benz AG decided to provide a free subframe replacament (parts and labor) on all wagons (and some sedans too) from date of manufacture up to ten (10) years of age, regardless of how many owners, mileage or countries the vehicle have pass through.

I did do a very detailed compilation of information and went back to the dealer. My wagon being manufactured on April 1986 had ONLY three months left for the warranty work to be perfomed.

Although the dealer did not mentioned ANYTHING about the warranty issue at first, when I presented all the documentation they just took the car and perfomed the complete rear axle subframe replacement, no questions asked. I ended up paying cero, but only because I did all the research.

The work is kind of major (as I over saw it every day): all suspension parts have to be removed, rear cargo floor area has to be removed, many electrical and most hydraulic lines have to be removed for the job to be perfomed.

So, the matter is well documented and vastly known by Mercedes-Benz AG. Although, I doubt the warranty work for the rear axle subframe did apply to American sold models, as the MBUSA treats this problems separate from Germany and worldwide complaints.

Anyway, by now all W124-Ts will be out of the warranty span of 10 years. Don't feel your problem is unique. On the contrary, it used to be quite common and well documented.

[Bio300TDTdriver]

That's what I wanted to hear, that it was a known problem. It was also what I didn't want to hear $4500.

Thanks for all the information. You are the first person who has heard about the problem.

Chris

[A. Rosich]

Well, to enlighten the matter a little deeper:

A got informed that two other T-series owners at the time had the job performed on their cars (previous of my work) and that they fully paid for the job.

Three other jobs were perfomed under warranty previous to mine and that one more job was done after it (to a later year model).

I would guess that about 25 to 30 W124 wagons were imported totally into the country (excluding 1990+ models, like my E 320 T which were not affected).

So, seven jobs were perfomed at the dealer to correct rear axle subframe failures. Don't know of out of dealership repairs, but if we stick with the original numbers, I will say that about 30% (one out of three) of the wagons here failed.



I am sure many owners will be driving around without knowing, or not until the rear subframe completely fails and the cars falls to the ground.

Anyway, it became customary at the used car lot of the dealer to perform x-ray analysis on rear axle subframes on W124 wagons and sedans manufactured from 1985/6 up to 1989.

[Chas H]

Very interesting, but I would not call the broken part on Chris' car a subframe.
To me, the subframe is bolted to the defective chassis sheetmetal pressing.
But it's likely just a difference in jargon.