Need new lca's on W124 300-24

[BlueMR2]

My Lower Control Arms have been showing signs of ball joint failure.

Unfortunately being a 24 valve model they cannot have the ball joints alone replaced and need new arms.

These are £373 each from Mercedes.

According to some of the MB forums i have read the FEBI replacements are not that great and the gsf replacements are made by CCP iirc which is a company in taiwan i have never heard of before.

Has anyone any experience using non oem replacements on the 24 valve cars or know anywhere that sells originals cheaper.

[r129sl]

This is one part which everyone agrees may be replaced with a pattern item. I can't believe Febi are dreadful. I've seen TRW at 217Euros as well.

[Egbert Nobacon]

Have used Febi previously and they've been fine.

It shouldn't be that difficult to ascertain who makes them for Mercedes and source that brand direct if you're concerned.

Ask "Bolide" on here - he will no doubt have had to replace these in the past when prepping his.

Edited by Egbert Nobacon on Monday 28th January 09:01

[anonymous-user]

I've used a lot of Febi items on customers' W201 and W124's and found them to be pretty good quality really, there are never any comebacks.

[BlueMR2]

Rat_Fink_67 said:

I've used a lot of Febi items on customers' W201 and W124's and found them to be pretty good quality really, there are never any comebacks.

I've sent you a message, although it may take a while to arrive at the current level of performance, seems to have been slow for weeks.

Maybe the Febi ones will be ok then. Anything else often worse for wear when these get replaced.

What front springs and dampers would be good value to do at the same time?

Hopefully then drain the gearbox and diff oils and refill.

Already done oil and spark plugs, got the coolant and new thermostat to do next.

[P.Nott]

Have you considered this as an alternative:-

www.balljointrestorers.co.uk/

It may be counter intuitive to consider this, but they have a very good reputation for restoring existing worn ball joints, providing a greatly extended useable life. A friend of mine had the ball joints on his XJ6 restored by this company and 25000 miles later they are still as tight as ever.

Edited by P.Nott on Tuesday 29th January 10:19

[BlueMR2]

P.Nott said:

Have you considered this as an alternative:-

www.balljointrestorers.co.uk/

It may be counter intuitive to consider this, but they have a very good reputation for restoring existing worn ball joints, providing a greatly extended useable life. A friend of mine had the ball joints on his XJ6 restored by this company and 25000 miles later they are still as tight as ever.

Edited by P.Nott on Tuesday 29th January 10:19

Thanks for that, but unfortunately I don't have the tools or a safe place to have the car up in the air to remove both arms.

Based on the amount of squealing in the cold weather, i'm not sure i'd trust them not to shear off at some stage which seems a common way of failure on these.