MercC350Coupe2011
Active Member
Hello everyone. I am in a weird situation and I don't know what my next steps should be.
I have got a Mercedes C350 petrol coupe 2011 (reg number GN11OFD and vin number WDD2043572F731254. The car has 96k so I decided to change all four shock absorbers to give a refresh in ride and handling behaviour.
I have checked with Mercedes and Autodoc for the correct part numbers by giving them the vin number and of course verify that we are talking about the same model and all the details. I have decided to go with Bilstein and I have got A2043233000 fronts and A2043260600 rears.
We have put them in the car and everything seemed to be ok. When we tried to adjust the geometry we realised that the front camber was way off in both sides. Not just a little bit but so much that the only reason for that was to not have the correct shocks. I checked the mercedes front shocks part numbers that we took out and surprisingly they have got a different number (A2043202766). I have searched a bit for those and I found out that these are for the saloon w204 and not for the c204 i have got. However I don't believe they made a mistake in the factory!
I call Mercedes dealer to see if we have made a mistake with the part numbers. Mercedes verify that the new part numbers are correct but the factory mercedes front shocks are not for my car!! Here I realised that something really dodgy is going on. Just to be clear here the rear chocks give correct geometry and the old and new parts have the same numbers.
I start calling different Mercedes dealers and they all say that the new ones are the correct but the factory shocks are not for my vehicle! How is it possible that the shocks fitted from Mercedes in the factory are not for my vehicle? I have verified many times to clarify that we are talking for the same vehicle. All agreed that the old factory shocks are not correct for this vehicle and the new ones are the correct fit. However, the old factory shocks give correct camber angles and the new ones completely off.
What do you propose to me to do? Mercedes dealers keep saying that the old factory front shocks are not for my vehicle. This doesn't make any sense. I believe that the car had correct shocks from the factory (that's why it gives proper camber angles) ands something is going on with their part number systems.
Ps Bilstein won't accept refunding the dampers since they were fitted in a car. So it is not an option to keep buying sets of front shocks until I find the correct fit. On top of that I don't want to pay lots of money for keep swapping shocks until we find the correct ones.
I have got a Mercedes C350 petrol coupe 2011 (reg number GN11OFD and vin number WDD2043572F731254. The car has 96k so I decided to change all four shock absorbers to give a refresh in ride and handling behaviour.
I have checked with Mercedes and Autodoc for the correct part numbers by giving them the vin number and of course verify that we are talking about the same model and all the details. I have decided to go with Bilstein and I have got A2043233000 fronts and A2043260600 rears.
We have put them in the car and everything seemed to be ok. When we tried to adjust the geometry we realised that the front camber was way off in both sides. Not just a little bit but so much that the only reason for that was to not have the correct shocks. I checked the mercedes front shocks part numbers that we took out and surprisingly they have got a different number (A2043202766). I have searched a bit for those and I found out that these are for the saloon w204 and not for the c204 i have got. However I don't believe they made a mistake in the factory!
I call Mercedes dealer to see if we have made a mistake with the part numbers. Mercedes verify that the new part numbers are correct but the factory mercedes front shocks are not for my car!! Here I realised that something really dodgy is going on. Just to be clear here the rear chocks give correct geometry and the old and new parts have the same numbers.
I start calling different Mercedes dealers and they all say that the new ones are the correct but the factory shocks are not for my vehicle! How is it possible that the shocks fitted from Mercedes in the factory are not for my vehicle? I have verified many times to clarify that we are talking for the same vehicle. All agreed that the old factory shocks are not correct for this vehicle and the new ones are the correct fit. However, the old factory shocks give correct camber angles and the new ones completely off.
What do you propose to me to do? Mercedes dealers keep saying that the old factory front shocks are not for my vehicle. This doesn't make any sense. I believe that the car had correct shocks from the factory (that's why it gives proper camber angles) ands something is going on with their part number systems.
Ps Bilstein won't accept refunding the dampers since they were fitted in a car. So it is not an option to keep buying sets of front shocks until I find the correct fit. On top of that I don't want to pay lots of money for keep swapping shocks until we find the correct ones.