Safety tip -- or how not to remove a W210 spring
 

This guy is lucky he wasn't seriously injured; what a bozo. He even admits he didn't look at the directions, although he's never used the MB-type spring compressor. (It's also a knock-off design.)

Sheesh.

Saturday Mechanic - YouTube

Fun starts at 10:25 mark on clip
 

Wow.

the one spring cup is slotted - under those circumstances I would have never ever tried to pry the spring in any way. There is a reason the OE style compressor is not slotted.

Just more complicated than necessary and DANGEROUS

Delta, the reason I included the whole clip was to show how little the "mechanic" knew about the vehicle on which he was working. If the proper tool is used (and used properly), only one bolt needs to be removed (lower shock mount) in order to change the springs. All the rest of that was stupid assumptions that increased difficulty and complexity.

That's only made more evident when he later uses Vise-Grips to clamp part of the tool to the new spring he's installing.

None of that is necessary if you actually know what you're doing. ;)

Yikes!- this is one of the reasons I took the 190 to the shop to get it's Koni's up front, KYBs in the back, and the H&R spring set installed...

I have a Klann spring compressor aftermarket copy and I don't understand how it can "slip".
He either did it incorrectly, or that is a very, very poor compressor badly designed. The plates look different from my one.

Once the plates are in place, the compressor locks them in so they cannot rotate.

Vice Grips? Really? Come on...You are asking to lose a finger, or worse. Hope he has a medical power of attorney when he's in a coma at the hospital ;)
Scary video...

If you notice - in the full length video i.e. one of the plates is slotted, and when inserted into the top obviously from the outside in - leaves an open space towards the chassis, when prying the spring outwards - the plate with spring will slide across the shaft and and release itself from the tool, launching the now free to shoot spring.

IMO this is an example of not using common sense.

OTOH I have just seen one of my neighbors replace springs and bushings on a 202, he loosened the arm bolts, tied a nylon ratchet strap in the spring and chassis and lowered the arm slowly, at the last 1 or 2 inches he pushed the arm and yanked out the spring - replacement was reverse with the help of a tongue shaped flat bar tool inserted from the lower arm hole to keep the spring in place.