Mercedes w210 E430 (no titivating allowed)
Discussion
r129sl said:
It was a really good buy this car. Not classic, not stylish, and certainly not perfect, but cheap, fast, comfortable, effective, a real delight to own. Cost per mile over 26,000miles, excluding purchase, is 32.9p. Add in the purchase price and assume it is worthless, and the cost rises to 44.5p per mile. I might get new wings and have it, er, titivated...
Of all your cars, the 210 is my favourite.Your 124 diesel estate must feel very slow after stepping out of this one.
No real updates with this one: it just does what it is supposed to. I have just this moment stepped out of it in Caernarfon, having driven here from Monkseaton, just outside of Newcastle. 258miles, 3h25, 75mph average and 25.7mpg. I beat Google Maps by over an hour! But most of all it was as easy: no mean feat given I set off after 8pm. I did have a little run in with the law: ambling along at 100mph where the M1/A621(M)/M62 meet, an unmarked black three series bombed up behind out of nowhere, tucked in front of me, slammed on its brakes, lit up a sign in the back window reading "70MPH", then raced off, cutting across four lanes of motorway. Road safety in action.
I replaced the front anti-roll bar drop links and one of the rear ARB drop links today. To do the front, it is necessary to drop the roll bar off the car. Irritatingly, Euro Car Parts supplied the wrong ARB bushes but it is the drop links that usually need doing and so it was here. The car is much quieter and smoother up front.
Unfortunately, one of the pair of rear drop links I ordered was defective (Euro again) so I could only do one side. There is still some knocking from the other side.
Here are good clear instructions for the fronts: http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?thread... Contrary to some posters in that thread and the hilariously easy Auto Doc vid ( https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&a... ), it is not possible to remove the drop links (at least on my E430) with the bar in situ.
And here are good clear instructions for doing the rears: https://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210-e-class/1509... The only addition I would make is that it is worth loosening the rear shock bottom mount a few turns to aid removal and replacement of the drop link from the control arm. It is pinched in place otherwise.
Unfortunately, one of the pair of rear drop links I ordered was defective (Euro again) so I could only do one side. There is still some knocking from the other side.
Here are good clear instructions for the fronts: http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?thread... Contrary to some posters in that thread and the hilariously easy Auto Doc vid ( https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&a... ), it is not possible to remove the drop links (at least on my E430) with the bar in situ.
And here are good clear instructions for doing the rears: https://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210-e-class/1509... The only addition I would make is that it is worth loosening the rear shock bottom mount a few turns to aid removal and replacement of the drop link from the control arm. It is pinched in place otherwise.
Your rattle should go away. I'm not sure about your E430 but when I did my E55, i also found that the provided sway bar bushings were too small. A quick check on EPC revealed that I needed bushings with a 140 part # from a W140 S500.
Stick to Lemforder where possible. FEQ, URO and Meyle are generally junk.
Good luck.
Stick to Lemforder where possible. FEQ, URO and Meyle are generally junk.
Good luck.
I did the near side tonight. It took about ten minutes, so much easier second time round. The only downside was that on the way home I drove through a lot of mud, which fell out of the wheel arch and onto my head as I dismantled the car. The w210 is much easier to work on than the w124, I am very impressed by it. If only they didn't rust. There are very few decent ones about these days, even fewer with a big engine and high specification. Maybe Japan can supply.
I am using TRW parts, they were the best Euro could offer (see above for qualification of that statement). TRW is a ZF Group brand (like Lemförder, Sachs and Boge) so shouldn't be too bad.
When driving today, I noticed a bit of a twanging from the offside rear, a new sound. I inspected yesterday's work and could see nothing obviously wrong. The spring looked fine. The shock likewise. Neither spring nor shock had any obvious play. I wondered whether I had over-tightened things, so I backed it all off a fraction. I haven't had a chance to do a test drive yet, we will see if the new twanging and the old pattering noises have gone. Fingers crossed.
I am using TRW parts, they were the best Euro could offer (see above for qualification of that statement). TRW is a ZF Group brand (like Lemförder, Sachs and Boge) so shouldn't be too bad.
When driving today, I noticed a bit of a twanging from the offside rear, a new sound. I inspected yesterday's work and could see nothing obviously wrong. The spring looked fine. The shock likewise. Neither spring nor shock had any obvious play. I wondered whether I had over-tightened things, so I backed it all off a fraction. I haven't had a chance to do a test drive yet, we will see if the new twanging and the old pattering noises have gone. Fingers crossed.
r129sl said:
I did the near side tonight. It took about ten minutes, so much easier second time round. The only downside was that on the way home I drove through a lot of mud, which fell out of the wheel arch and onto my head as I dismantled the car. The w210 is much easier to work on than the w124, I am very impressed by it. If only they didn't rust. There are very few decent ones about these days, even fewer with a big engine and high specification. Maybe Japan can supply.
I am using TRW parts, they were the best Euro could offer (see above for qualification of that statement). TRW is a ZF Group brand (like Lemförder, Sachs and Boge) so shouldn't be too bad.
When driving today, I noticed a bit of a twanging from the offside rear, a new sound. I inspected yesterday's work and could see nothing obviously wrong. The spring looked fine. The shock likewise. Neither spring nor shock had any obvious play. I wondered whether I had over-tightened things, so I backed it all off a fraction. I haven't had a chance to do a test drive yet, we will see if the new twanging and the old pattering noises have gone. Fingers crossed.
Your twanging noise could be a broken spring. They sometimes go at the bottom of the coil, where you can't see the break. Had both of them go on my 210. I am using TRW parts, they were the best Euro could offer (see above for qualification of that statement). TRW is a ZF Group brand (like Lemförder, Sachs and Boge) so shouldn't be too bad.
When driving today, I noticed a bit of a twanging from the offside rear, a new sound. I inspected yesterday's work and could see nothing obviously wrong. The spring looked fine. The shock likewise. Neither spring nor shock had any obvious play. I wondered whether I had over-tightened things, so I backed it all off a fraction. I haven't had a chance to do a test drive yet, we will see if the new twanging and the old pattering noises have gone. Fingers crossed.
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