W210 SLS rear strut service kit ??

[_Taz_]

Hi folks as the post says, i've FINALLY found the root cause of the flaming knocking on the rear of the car ( nsr ) in this case.

It ALWAYS culminates in a bloody knock when you come off a bump ( rebound ).

After driving about with the rear seats down, jack out of the car, spare wheel, any other crud from the back etc & using some carefully placed plasti-gauge to see what moves about ( in particular the rear subframe bushes, which I will change anyway ), I've traced the fault to the top & bottom mounts of the hydraulic strut ( which is not leaking thankfully ).

So, although I ask my local merc stealer in the morning, is there a replacement bush kit for the top of the struts ( a very POOR design with a safety wahser that happens to smack the bodyshell when the rubber degrades & ALSO a major source of water into the cabin ! ).

Is there also a replacement ball joint for the bottom part ( the bit that has the 2 off M8 bolts that fasten to the lower wishbone ).

I reckon MOST SLS have this issue & owners unnecessarily replace the subframe bushes etc ( as the mounting points for the upper SLS requires quite a bit of trim removal ).

Mercs, don't you love em' !

 

[proser]

Yes I have replaced the rubber bushes for the top, parts available from the local dealer. Not sure about the bottom ones though.

Part nos.

A2023280139 - outter top rubber bush
A2013261868 - inner top rubber bush

A2029900099 - Repair Kit, spring leg mounting bottom. Not sure if this includes the bottom bush/mounting but the description and pic does indicate is does.

 

[_Taz_]

Cheers Proser, I've ordered them bits yesterday, however did the new parts make any difference, as my car thumps like a good un' coming off a bump, I know it's this part as I've marked it, even placed a piece of rubber insertion between the metal surfaces & the sound has changed dramatically ( for the worse ! ).

 

[proser]

I replaced mine as part of a bit of a overhaul of easily replaceable suspension parts, but did notice a difference is the height of the rubbers.

 

[_Taz_]

hmmm....

mixed results, MOST of the knocking has gone, the old top strut rubbers were totally squashed ( as if they have been doing the damping, not the strut / sphere ! )

I did drive about after doing a proper oil change ( some very nice Motul 5/40 ) which runs much smoother than whatever was in it before

Anyhow, I'm now wondering if this beast is suffering from the dreaded sphere death ( approx' 145k on the clock ?!? )

When I try to push down on the rear of the car, there is just no real give & to be honest the ride from the **** end ( xcuse' the pun ! ) is very hard compare to the suspension at the front end.

Is there a drain plug so I could quickly diagnose the fluid condition near to the spheres ( I reckon the NSR is knackered ).

On a side note I did notice a fluid bottle on the NSF engine bay ( assume this was steering / suspension fluid ? ) looked quite black to me, rather than being clear, which may indicate dead spheres ?

Lots of Q's, I've looked on the forums for quite a while & I'm leading to the idea that the thump on the rear when coming off a BUMP is the fact that the sphere is dead = hence NO rebound = that clonking noise from the rear ?

I'm not going to let this lump of steel beat me, incidentally, it's very easy to work on this car compared to my 450hp coupe ! ( that's a FIAT BTW ! with less rust ! ).

cheers

 

[E320Trip]

I recently changed spheres. I believe my old ones were ok as the new ones made a bouncy w210 estate or s210 estate (i'm not sure what the correct name is actually!) a little smoother maybe but not much softer. It is still a bit on the firm side for me. In the process of changing the spheres I driove the car without properly pressurising the system. Very little movement / hard. I assumed that was because the car was sitting on what must be rather rigid rear springs instead of hydraulics. So IF your self levelling valve is operating ok (and level is ok) then I would assume that the sphere is dodgy. I have original 2 probably ok spheres if you want to go to the trouble of changing spheres for 80,000 mile ones. It was a pretty simple job on mine though. My job would have been a lot simpler if I hadn't bothered changing the oil. A mercedes mechanic told me afterwards that they NEVER change the hydraulic oil. I am only guessing, but if your sphere has failed your fluid reservoir level may have dropped a little.

 

[E320Trip]

You wouldn't know how easy/difficult it is to change the rear springs on your car?

 

[_Taz_]

rear springs were dead easy, didn't even use spring compressors.

I've worked on all sorts of cars & this was easy enough.

Remove wheel ( after jacking car off ground )

support mass of wishbone on a jack ( to allow it to be lowered in a controlled manner )

let the weight of the suspension push it fully down, then just take the weight of the wishbone, undo the lower SLS bolts ( 2 off ), the ARB drop link & then lower away - there is very little compression anyway compared to other cars i've worked on, pull down a bit to release the spring from the bodyshell / wishbone, inspect the rubber seating rings, fit new springs & raise wishbone to realign ( CAREFULLY ) then bolt back togethor.

time per side, approx 1.5 hrs ( incl of tea breaks ) :bannana:

Don't attempt if you are NOT comfortable doing this sort of work.

 

[E320Trip]

Thanks for confirming the method Taz, I'll investigate a bit more before I change mine. Just a thought on your problem. I changed my struts recently with almost no improvement to ride. The upper strut bushes were absolutely fine. If yours were badly worn then it might be that they were taking the pressure that should have been taken up by the spheres.