MOT failed mercedes w211 coil spring broken

[mondotex]

Hi All,
My car is mercedes w211 e280 2009.

Yesterday Failed MOT offside rear coil spring broken,
I didn't notice any difference in driving with broken coil spring is this normal?

Also I have called my local MB for both rear coil spring the quoted me £207 for both rear coil spring + seals,
Problem is the don't have them in stock if I order them I need to wait 5/7 days.

My MOT expires on this Friday, (lesson learned to book a MOT 3/4 weeks before it's expire)

My other option is to buy coil springs from GSF parts the quoted me for both £98 coil spring brand is (lesjofors) I think the are without seals.

Should I get these or order them from MB dealer and wait until the arrive?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DSM10000]

Depending were the break is in the spring it may not be noticed

Mercedes coil springs are specific to the vehicle and it's range of optional extras. The springs come with a code of coloured dots. I would be inclined to wait for the correct parts.

 

[m80]

Go to the Sachs website, very possibly they will guide you to the correct springs.
With the number you may well find ebay suppliers can get them to you in a couple of days.

What are the seals you speak of?

 

[ALFAitalia]

They nearly always fail by the last turn of the bottom of the coil snapping off...it barely affects ride height at all so easily missed. I didn't even spot them on my wife's 70,000 mile A Class when I d my pre mot check.... and I'm an ex tester! In the case of the A Class, and my old ALFA it was caused by poor spring design...the bottom end of the spring was cut square leaving a sharp edge which touched the underside of the next coil up on compression. This wore through the paint and started on the coil itself allowing rust to get in until they snapped. If the ends were chamfered it probably would not happen. Good news was that being an old 2006 car I picked up a new pair of old stock ones for just £40 and apart from rear wheel removal, not a single bolt needed to be touched to replace them just using my old spring compressors.

 

[190]

I didn't spot a broken front spring on my W204 during a pre Mot inspection because it snapped very near the end.

Both of the MB's I've owned snapped one front spring and in both cases I replaced only the one broken spring. In neither case did it cause uneven ride height with the correct colour coded replacement spring and in neither case did the other spring break even after many more years of use.

 

[geoffus]

I didn't spot a broken front spring on my W204 during a pre Mot inspection because it snapped very near the end.

Both of the MB's I've owned snapped one front spring and in both cases I replaced only the one broken spring. In neither case did it cause uneven ride height with the correct colour coded replacement spring and in neither case did the other spring break even after many more years of use.

Same here, the wife’s front spring broke on her W246, replaced just the one from EBay, 35,000 miles later and the other side is still good, no difference in ride height, braking or handling. We don’t take it on track days though, but it seems fine for normal use.

 

[Trickythemerc]

I went through a couple of broken springs, front and rear. Fitted Eibach and no problems so far.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Personally I would only ever fit springs or shocks in pairs.

 

[Pontoneer]

Hi All,
My car is mercedes w211 e280 2009.

Yesterday Failed MOT offside rear coil spring broken,
I didn't notice any difference in driving with broken coil spring is this normal?

Also I have called my local MB for both rear coil spring the quoted me £207 for both rear coil spring + seals,
Problem is the don't have them in stock if I order them I need to wait 5/7 days.

My MOT expires on this Friday, (lesson learned to book a MOT 3/4 weeks before it's expire)

My other option is to buy coil springs from GSF parts the quoted me for both £98 coil spring brand is (lesjofors) I think the are without seals.

Should I get these or order them from MB dealer and wait until the arrive?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

The main difference between genuine springs and decent aftermarket ones ( of which I personally would only fit Bilstein ) are that the M-B ones are coded to the car , according to its spec , hence only ordered against the chassis no . Genuine springs are marked with various coloured paint markings , which should match up with the original ones on your car , these reflect slight differences in weight according to the spec of your vehicle , as well as different suspension setups such as standard , Sportline etc .

Aftermarket springs are not always as precisely coded to individual cars , but if you buy OEM parts , such as Bilstein , and check your chassis no against the manufacturers website , you should obtain a part of equal quality to the original , but I would in such cases always replace in pairs as there may be slight differences in spec .

In conjunction with the springs , you should ideally also replace the rubber shims , which are also coded to the car , and come in different thicknesses ( recognised by the number of ‘bumps’ , which can range from one on the thinnest , up to four bumps on the thickest ) .

In an ideal world items such as springs and shocks should be replaced in pairs ( as with tyres ) across an axle , but as with a punctured tyre , you can get away with replacing a single broken spring , as long as the one on the opposite side is at the very least inspected and found to be in good condition .

When inspecting springs , check the surface paint finish : if this has deteriorated , leaving any or all of the spring showing bare metal , which usually rusts in our wet climate and especially after being sprayed with road salts , then the corrosion which sets into the metal can leave the spring extremely susceptible to failure .

Springs also seem prone to failure in periods of very cold weather , such as we have been experiencing recently .

As has already been stated , failure close to either end of a spring can be difficult to spot , and a broken spring does not always manifest in an obvious change in driving characteristics.

I always check my springs if I have the wheels off for any reason , whether to change tyres , or just inspecting or changing brake parts . Also worth checking suspension components such as ball joints or drop links for anti roll bars when any wheels are off .

 

[Petrol Pete]

I did the whole lot on my C55 AMG , as said , try to get the correct colour coded spring from a decent manufacturer , on the rear I found SACHS (Front ? I had to buy from Mercedes , mainly due to AMG spec and they weren't actually that expensive, just hard to get hold of) , also mentioned is the thickness of the top 'rubber' . A close look might find the part number or better still count the burls moulded into the rubber itself , VIN wont help here as part catalogue will give 5 different part numbers for the same rubber.

What I almost never seen mentioned is the stainless steel shim (shown in pictures) , it sits between the steel spring and the steel cup area on the suspension arm , in my mind it is possibly sacrificial and acts as a bit of a 'twisting' buffer between the parts grinding together , probably helping springs from cracking. Cheap as chips directly from MB.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Good post....note the horrible sharp cutoff edge to the end of the spring that i mentioned in my previous posts........its that rubbing against the next coil that often (but not always) causes the spring failure.

 

[mondotex]

Go to the Sachs website, very possibly they will guide you to the correct springs.
With the number you may well find ebay suppliers can get them to you in a couple of days.

What are the seals you speak of?

He said with coil springs you should also replace seals, which are included in MB dealer price.

 

[del320]

Can this thread be moved to the correct Wheels, Tyres and Suspension section?

Anyhoo - Springs nowadays are merely consumable items!

I'm proud to state my C124 has failed its MOT three times because of broken springs Two front and one rear.

I should have recorded this in my restoration thread, but towards the end of last year, I decided to have the whole suspension redone.

This was precipitated following the discovery of yet more corrosion around the floorpan which would have been an MOT fail. This was not recorded and rectification work completed, so on 15 December, I got a clean a clean MOT with no advisories. Long time since I had one of those...

Anyways, I had H & Rs and Bilsteins fitted all round, so doing something I vowed I would never do - bling up the car and ruin its ride!

OK, it's not toooo bad, but it ain't no improvement:







Oh yes - new s/s exhaust from manifold...

 

[mondotex]

Can this thread be moved to the correct Wheels, Tyres and Suspension section?

Anyhoo - Springs nowadays are merely consumable items!

I'm proud to state my C124 has failed its MOT three times because of broken springs Two front and one rear.

I should have recorded this in my restoration thread, but towards the end of last year, I decided to have the whole suspension redone.

This was precipitated following the discovery of yet more corrosion around the floorpan which would have been an MOT fail. This was not recorded and rectification work completed, so on 15 December, I got a clean a clean MOT with no advisories. Long time since I had one of those...

Anyways, I had H & Rs and Bilsteins fitted all round, so doing something I vowed I would never do - bling up the car and ruin its ride!

OK, it's not toooo bad, but it ain't no improvement:

View attachment 166791

View attachment 166792



Oh yes - new s/s exhaust from manifold...

View attachment 166793

Nice ride!!!
May I know how much you have spent since owning this car.

I used to own VW passat 08 plate,
Had it for 2 years never had to spend any money on it,,
But since 1+year of owning a mercedes w211 almost spent £1200.