Wednesday, April 20, 2016

W210: Damn Mercedes, back at it again with the afterthought


Seems like the work flow hasn't stopped at all lately. This time around it's a 2000 E320 with the notorious snapping control arm!

Drain holes plugged up and years of rusting got it to this point.


Luckily there was about an inch and a half of metal holding this together, so the wheel didn't totally escape the fender well. You can see it's been rotting away for quite a long time.

Pulled the arm off and got a better look at everything. The fresh brake is about 3/4 of the contact surface of the cast steel ball joint section. These arms have a tendency to rust and break here as the drain hole gets plugged up with road debris and water will just sit in the arm. Proper prevention is routine clearing of the drain hole and spraying WD40 in the hole every couple months. 


Spring was also cracked, but I couldn't do anything about it. Car sits level and all, so I let it be. New LCA and ball joint should, honestly, outlast the rest of the car.


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