Gentle Words of Caution. 124'S

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trapperjohn

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
7,306
Location
Lancashire
Car
124 300D 24V Estate
Every now and again you know you have to do some routine maintenance of a more than the normal kind, even to these noble beasts.

So up for change were the rear subframe bushes both fore and aft of my 124 Estate. I may add that the milage is now around 227K and this car works for a living.

So the parts were ordered from ECP, this was my choice. Merc are shoving up the prices of 124/190 parts on a too regular basis for my wallet. They were promptly delivered and at an agreeable price.

The car then went up on the lift and the rear subframe was removed. Whilst the frame was off the mounting points for the frame were given a detailed inspection. Rust and pin ***** holes were found in one of the mounting points for the frame and also in one of the wheel arches. These were welded up and made good. Also the brake lines and hydraulic lines were attended too whilst they were most "getatable" The whole of the under rear end was treated whilst the frame was off too. The old bushes were "popped" out (yeah right, various methods of extraction were applied) And the new bushes popped in.

At the front end, new track rod arms were fitted.

The car now "wafts" better than ever before.

The very week before my car was fettled as above another 124 Estate was in and was found to have a sub frame mounting point that had sheered off completely. It was rattling like "billyo" against the underside of the car held in place by the subframe.

So beware you 124ers. If you get a chance have a good look at your underpinnings.

Big thanks to Ian and the Team at 124 Works:rock: for sorting this and for keeping at it when the job "grew legs"

I think Ian has some pictures of the job which he will put up when time allows.

CHEERS

Edit. The naughty word police did not like pin p r i c k. Wow and this in the technical section too.
 
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I need to have a look at mine at some point, but it's on the daily driver so she's got to earn them first. Depending on what it's like under there I may do some waxoyling while I'm at it.
 
Missed a bit and Silver Saloon reminded me of it in his post about subframes.

Remove the rubber bung from the rear subframe mount and fill it full of waxoyl. We did that too.
 
There was a thread not long ago on here where the guy described doing a welded repair on the rear subframe front mountings- complete with pics will see if I can find it.
 
I had mine repaired and welded few years back at the chassis where the subrframe attached, it was totally rotted, you could pock some hole through it with a screwdriver, and the car was only 11 years old at the time, this tell something about the way they build mb...
 
I had mine repaired and welded few years back at the chassis where the subrframe attached, it was totally rotted, you could pock some hole through it with a screwdriver, and the car was only 11 years old at the time, this tell something about the way they build mb...

The w124's are very well built.

I had the same thing with my rear subframe mounts . The underseal cracks in time and allows water to flow along the crack into the mounts.

Had it all welded up , good as new. There is a thread on it somewhere.

EDIT : i should clarify , this was on my old w124 , not on the CLK's or the A class.
 
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I think thats what happened with my A160... I know he welded the sub frame to the rear chassis
 
Good post! Need to bear this in mind too.
 
i think that thread is called 'my 124 she's back' or somthing.
 
We have had a few members over on the 190 forum with snapped subframes in the last few years !! They are basically the same as the 124 subframes so peeps do indeed need to keep an eye on corrosion in this area now that the cars are getting on in age.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I need to get a break pipe and fuel line replaced, so and Ideal time to drop the sub frame and replace the bushes at the same time.

Were the sub frame bushes from ecp any good? anybody know the main dealer prices for these?
 
ECP parts were what I fitted at my request and they appear to be more than up to the job.

Main dealer prices were very "heavy" compared to ECP. Try Franey on here too he has some good deals going.
 

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