Traveling about 60 mph on smooth road. Heard a "bang" and felt a shudder from the left front. Now the left front seems a little lower than the right. Car ('97 S500) seems to drive well and does not have any creaks, groans, etc. from the front. It does have some vibration around 52-59 mph - but that was there before the noise. Any ideas? thanks....

You may have run over something and busted one of those big hydraulic bushings on the lower control arms. Tie rod adjusters may have come loose, or any one of about 13 solid bushings up there. I replace them as a group whenever one looks bad.

Finally, your vibration is either a tire weight slung off, your wheels are just shot (that aluminum they made those 140 wheels out of is awful). Or some idiot dealer/shop hauled your car in with the car strapped down with 10 tons of weight - tires now permantnely out of round.

Oh - check your shimmy damner, but that'd be my last place to look (too obvious)

Check to see if the coil spring or spring perch broke.

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Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

Certainly could be. If, however it was a spring, the car would be bottomed out - you'd know it.

If it was one of the rubber bushings on either end of the spring maybe.

I've never seen a perch broken on a 140 - just made so much better than the 124s. Like a broken spring, when the top mount fails you'll know it. And the bottom is sitting on the control arm so unless that's cracked.

How about your shocks? Bottom sits on a pin that could also break, top sits in the wheel well. Usually not much load on the shocks unless someone tried to "lift" it. Could also be the shock itself (internal)

Owning a W210, I would disagree.

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Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

I had one front spring broken on my 1992 500SEL and didn't even know it. I even towed a 2000lb boat with the car before I found out it had been broken all along.

Mechanic showed me the spring (it was definitely broken) but the ride height problem wasn't visible to the naked eye, either before or after the repair. I'm sure it was different - don't get me wrong - but I just couldn't see it by looking casually at the car (it didn't lean in any direction).

The amazing thing is, the car handled just fine before I had the spring replaced! Even while towing a boat, I didn't notice a difference.

So definitely look at your front springs. I was told this is a very common occurrence with older W140's because they are so heavy.. don't know if it's absolutely true, but it sounds quite logical to me.

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'83 300SD 335,000km (207k) mi SOLD
'87 560SL 163,000km (101k mi) SOLD
'86 300SDL 356,000km (220k mi) SOLD
'92 500SEL 250,000km (155k mi) SOLD
'90 300SL 140,000km (87k mi) SOLD
'01 S430 260,000km (161k mi) SOLD
'03 SL500 167,000km (104k mi) SOLD
'07 S550 4MATIC 235,000km (146k mi) SOLD
'07 GL320 CDI 4MATIC 348,000km (215k mi)
'13 GL350 BlueTec 4MATIC 170,000km (105k mi)
'14 SL550 72,000km (43k mi)

Ditto's on the broken spring. When they let go they make a very distinctive noise, but they usually break very close to the end and it doesn't affect ride or height very much at all.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

Just had exactly the same on my W124

No discernable change in ride height, but a 3" section of coil broke off at the bottom of the spring.

30 mins each side with the JTC spring compressor

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1989 W124 300E
1991 R129 500SL

Weight on the 140 is a plus and a minus. Most of the issues I have had with my suspension are "crushed" and flattened bushings. But all that weight makes a car that feels great and is rock solid on the road.

My Car is a 99 model and the only thing left for me to replace on my suspension are some bushings in the rear that I have not even started to hear yet that my mechanic indicates should eventually be replaced. I have done my front swaybar bushings and my front liquid filled joints. New brakes and rotors all the way around and new wheel bearings and new Continental tires. The car drives like its on rails.

An interesting bit of trivia on the 140. When it was discontinued for the 220 they started at the same time production of the 240 chassis car. That car is also known as the Maybach and is based on the 140 design with some modifications. Mercedes also obviously loved the 140 as much as we do because they used it as the basis of their world class supercar.