W203 Bushes, ball joint, tracking rods at 55k

[vijilants]

The only thing here is that my V70R at 75k miles has not had anything replaced, and will not need anything in the foreseeable future, and thats going over the same bumps and humps

Yep, my Honda had done 69000 miles of daily driving in London and was continually going over humps and didn't have a single suspension component replaced.

As far as Mercedes are concerned it either has to be poor suspension design or poor component quality.

 

[stevesey]

My 202 has 159000 and there is no evidence that any suspension components have been replaced, the only thing in the records is a steering damper. i find it quite disconcerting that it would be normal to replace ball joints and bushes at these low mileages, are these poor quality parts? i would doubt that they are any different to that used on any mass produced car, so the cars design must put too much load on the various parts, put in persective i had a 13yr old vauxhall cavalier with almost 200k on the clock, suspension wise it had one front shock and two sets of rear shocks and thats it, no joints no bushes no track rods no springs...

True the Cavs suspension was pretty bullet proof - then came the Vectra and new rear bushes where needed every 40K or so. It's not just MB who get things wrong.

 

[crockers]

My W203 has 45k on the clock and is now just over 2 years old. If these suspension components "wear" out before the 3 years are up are they covered under the warranty or classified as fair wear and tear like brake pads etc ??


One panicing crockers....

 

[R2D2]

My W203 has 45k on the clock and is now just over 2 years old. If these suspension components "wear" out before the 3 years are up are they covered under the warranty or classified as fair wear and tear like brake pads etc ??


One panicing crockers....

Yes mine were. I insisted they checked them them and ended up with completely new front suspension. I also complained that the ride had deteriorated and that I believed the shocks were going and they replaced them as well. Good Luck!

 

[crockers]

Yes mine were. I insisted they checked them them and ended up with completely new front suspension. I also complained that the ride had deteriorated and that I believed the shocks were going and they replaced them as well. Good Luck!

At what age and mileage?

 

[R2D2]

just under 3 years -42k

 

[skymastor]

is this kind of thing normal on a W203 at that sort of low mileage.

Secondly, is it a major job ? Or one of those that is OK to be entrusted to a competent garage ?

Hi Ekko Star,

Last summer I replaced the front left and right upper and lower suspension thrust arms on my yr 2000 80K W203. They were very worn as they had not been replaced since new. I also replaced the front anti-roll bar bushes too as these were also worn. I did get a quote from a stealer for only half of this work (i.e half the amount of thrust arms replaced) and they were wanting over £600!

Anyhow, like I said above, I replaced all the front suspension arms with components that I had ordered through my local auto spares shop (apart from anti-roll bar bushes that I ordered on-line from MB Oxford) and did the work myself. I got all the parts for just under £190. After, the difference in drive was well noticed. So to your questions, to me it was not such a major job (with the right tools and equipment that is and I'm sure a local garage will have these and will be competent) and gauging by the condition of the original parts that I had removed, I would also say that this kind of wear and tear would be normal for a car with that sort of mileage.

Hope this helps...

 

[voy2age]

i had to change one lower ball joint (C220 coupe) last year, cost £35, its a nice easy job to do, the mileage on the car was 82,000 miles, i did not bother changing the other side (some people say you should) and i have not noticed any difference in the way it drives with just the one side changed.i check the wheels for play every 3 months or so (just incase the bearings need to be tightened) so that was i how i noticed it,