Hello everyone,
I haven't updated this thread for a while.
I decided to sell most of the cars as the storage space had become an issue. I tried to find a place to store them but it seemed impossible to find something for a reasonable price and big enough to store all of them.
I still have the S600
I thought I'd post some pics of the car but also mention what I've done to it lately.
Unfortunately I haven't driven the car as much as I would have liked to but I don't think I'm the only one that has felt this way. It's not as if we can do much this days or travel. Hopefully things will improve.
One of the things that was bugging me was that both passengers rear doors, the chrome strip at the bottom of the doors wasn't as shiny as the rest of them. It was just the back doors that still had the original ones as the others ones I changed. I ordered 2 new ones from Mercedes.
Recently I noticed that the drivers side rear
shock absorber had started to leak.
I went online and found a reconditioned shock for an S600 and it was for sale at a great price!
Little did I know that the 2006 model has different
shock absorbers to the 2007 model onwards
I returned the shock and thought I would be able to find one for my car just as easy.
How wrong was I!
It's near impossible to find the same
shock absorber that my car has unless you go to the dealer.
Mercedes wanted £1500 just for one supplied only!
After speaking with a friend of mine that he has a friend abroad that deals with mercedes only, he was able to find me a rear
shock absorber from an s class that had been written off and had only done 40k+ miles. £500 later, i had a
shock absorber for the car and it did look like new. Normally I wouldn't have bought a second hand one but my friend assured me that this was in as new condition so I went for it and it did turn out to be a good one.
As I was checking the car, I noticed the rear subframe bushes were gone in the car, the ones that are closer to the rear doors. This explained why the car didn't feel so great when going over speed bumps or pot holes. It's as if the rear end moved from left to right. Even on the motorway if going over an uneven part of the motorway, the back end felt loose. The bushes that were further back [ the bigger ones ] were still in as new condition, not perished or cracked. I think the ones that are closer to the back doors are a weak point as this cars get older.
I ordered 4 genuine bushes from Mercedes.
I read online and saw that there is a special tool from usa to remove the subframe bushes and that was around $400 or so. ( there are probably tools here in uk for the s class bushes but I didn't see any ) I didn't want to spend that kind of money for a tool I only needed once.
I thought I could make a tool myself
Don't laugh when you see what I made but I will post some pics of my work of art LOL
and you'll see what an amazing tool I made for the bushes
Changing the rear
shock absorber was very easy but the subframe bushes were a bit of a headache. If I was to do them again, I think it would take no more than 3 hours to change the bushes.
The car drives much better now.
Here are some pics of the car taken at random places
The bushes arrived plus the chrome strips
It might not seem that bad but they were not that good and needed changing
New one
I noticed the passenger side coil pack, the last coil was a bit loose but the 3 wires were still attached. I thought it's better to repair it before any of them broke
Now some pic's of the special tools
.... How much did the tool cost to make? £6. What did I use to make the tools?
Some old brake pads..... a pice of spring from a broken spring and a long threaded rod that went through the middle of the tool so I could pull the bushes out. As you'll see in the pic's, the brake pads also had lines welded to make them stronger, otherwise they would bend under pressure. The reason why a piece of spring was welded to the side was so it would not let the brake pads push outwards when it was under pressure but it didn't take any of the space when the bushes would come out.
A hole was drilled in the middle of the brake pad to put the threaded long bolt and a nut with washer and a plate was put at the top to pull them out.
)
