£1000 superise estimate on my W209

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

reggie musson

Active Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Messages
192
Car
CLK 2.7 Diesel
The display in the dash on my 2004 W209 CLK 2.7 D was telling me to visit the workshop due to break pad wear, although my new pads and discs had only covered 3,500 miles. Mercedes looked at the problem and found a fault in the sensor and while they had the car on the ramp gave it a health check and found both rear suspension springs were broken and two front cross strut bushes need to be replaced urgently.
The cost for all this was just under £1,000 :doh: OUCH !!!!!!!! although they didn`t charge me for inspection.
I decided to ring around to beat the price down and found a very respected garage to do the work for £400 although the springs will be pattern parts. One thing that puzzels me that the garage that is going to do the work found only very slight wear in some of the cross strut bushes but none of these needed to be replaced yet, although they found play in one track rod end so they are replacing that instead.
All this rather puts me off taking my car to Mercedes again.

Be interested in any comments you have, Reggie
 
The pad wear sensor is about £5

Broken springs really are unacceptable at that age, will MB not contribute towards these? Saab had a problem with broken springs and were replacing them free on cars up t 8 years old What did your last MOT find if anything and when was it in terms of time and mioeage?
 
MB pick on those bushes/arms for some reason. We get loads of customers asking for a quote on them and when we check they are usually perfectly serviceable.

Ask your indie to use genuine springs, the parts arent much more expensive than pattern parts and you get the correct springs, i,e, the ones rated for the options on your car.
 
MB pick on those bushes/arms for some reason. We get loads of customers asking for a quote on them and when we check they are usually perfectly serviceable.

Ahem...:rolleyes:

Disks, pads or bushes...
 
The display in the dash on my 2004 W209 CLK 2.7 D was telling me to visit the workshop due to break pad wear, although my new pads and discs had only covered 3,500 miles. Mercedes looked at the problem and found a fault in the sensor and while they had the car on the ramp gave it a health check and found both rear suspension springs were broken and two front cross strut bushes need to be replaced urgently.
The cost for all this was just under £1,000 :doh: OUCH !!!!!!!! although they didn`t charge me for inspection.
I decided to ring around to beat the price down and found a very respected garage to do the work for £400 although the springs will be pattern parts. One thing that puzzels me that the garage that is going to do the work found only very slight wear in some of the cross strut bushes but none of these needed to be replaced yet, although they found play in one track rod end so they are replacing that instead.
All this rather puts me off taking my car to Mercedes again.

Be interested in any comments you have, Reggie

Sounds like common problems on mercedes of this age, my car has suffered from all of those and so do alot of others. Springs snap on all makes of car and I don't think 7 years is anything out of this world. Jay is right - mercedes do pick on the strut bushes and definitely get genuine springs!
Whenever I take my car to Mercedes (robinsons) for a service they always seem to find about £1000 worth of extra work that needs doing! I always end up taking it to my trusty Indy and getting done for about the quarter of the price!
 
Last edited:
i know springs are breaking all the time on mercedes but a question

why those a spring brake they are tested at the factory yes a few will get trough but is the quality control guy blind or what

my only other thought was that if the shock goes it puts pressure on the spring they snap
also if the spring is not fitted right ie; sitting in the bottom grove of the housing in the notch it will snap

or is it just cheap metal this drives me crazy in the last few years we all have seen thousands of posts about springs snapping and discs and pads wearing to quick
 
You only have to look at the state of our roads to know why springs keep snapping!, My local garage does on average 10 per week, trouble is in this country we just sit back and put up with it!! (put-up and shut-up)
 
As I have only had the car since June so don`t have any details of the last MOT inspection report just have have the certificate
 
You can go on-line to check ALL the electronic MOT history back to about 2003.
 
Sounds like common problems on mercedes of this age, my car has suffered from all of those and so do alot of others. Springs snap on all makes of car and I don't think 7 years is anything out of this world. Jay is right - mercedes do pick on the strut bushes and definitely get genuine springs!


My 23 year old 124 CE hasn't had springs in the 15 odd years that I've owned it. They just don't make them like they used to. If they keep breaking, I can't see the point in replacing them with an apparently inferior product, ie, original.

I stopped buying MB tailpipes for the car because they kept failing mots, and the non genuine one has been on for a good few years now.
 
i know springs are breaking all the time on mercedes but a question ...

My understanding is that springs break on almost all makes of cars in the UK, or at the very least that the issue is not limited to Mercedes Benz cars.

Having said that... I lived and worked in Africa and the Middle East where the average road is far worse than the UK, and I am sure that this is also the case for many other parts of the world (South America, parts of Australia, etc).

So it is not entirely clear why broken springs appears to be a UK-specific issue.
 
Very often they only break on the tip of the coil as you all probably know. I find a good clean out in the wishbone seating area, followed by some copper grease around the bottom coil prevents the corrosion. It doesnt stop the springs snapping altogether but it helps with the corrosion.
 
My 23 year old 124 CE hasn't had springs in the 15 odd years that I've owned it. They just don't make them like they used to. If they keep breaking, I can't see the point in replacing them with an apparently inferior product, ie, original.

I stopped buying MB tailpipes for the car because they kept failing mots, and the non genuine one has been on for a good few years now.


Yes your right they don't make them like they used to and as your example points out, as far as exhausts are concerned this is probably a good thing!

Non genuine springs don't seem to last any longer and can give a inferior ride, stick with MB springs:thumb:.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your interesting replies.
The motor is now fixed with, dare I say it, PATTERN PART SPRINGS !!!, but they seem fine and the car handles as it feels it should, so be interesting to see if they last the test of time.
PLEASE NOTE: I am normally dead against any such economy as using pattern parts, but things are a little tight just now.
 
Yes your right they don't make them like they used to and as your example points out, as far as exhausts are concerned this is probably a good thing!

Non genuine springs don't seem to last any longer and can give a inferior ride, stick with MB springs:thumb:.

I had one of these many years ago now, and will always be the best car I ever had, look after it
 
I stopped buying MB tailpipes for the car because they kept failing mots, and the non genuine one has been on for a good few years now.

I've been around a few W124s. In my experience pattern rear boxes last about four years and MB rear boxes about fifteen

If your rear box is failing more quickly that that then you must be doing short journeys and not getting the exhaust system warm enough to evaporate all the condensation in the box

Nick Froome
the independent Mercedes Estate specialists
 
I've broken front springs on 1 year old Fiat Stilo and my modeo zetec-s (heavy duty sports springs) in the last 5 or 6 years, both times with the spring tops where the coil reduces in size. Its very common with more modern cars as springs are generally more rigid, but not necesarily stronger than they were in the 80's and 90's. If you ever have to get your spring compressors out on a newer car they are a pig compared to older cars.

I did find an article on this a few years ago regarding the overall changing face of production car spring elasticity (it did mostly blame the germans :) with the saloon car handling wars) which is why peeps will be driving around in a 1983 Sierra with original springs, but an 02 mondeo may well have new springs fitted.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom