shaun.barnard

Starting my own general thread instead of posting all over and also keeping the forum a bit tidier.






Question: When I had the car by the dealer one of the things that they said needs replacement are the castor bushes. I'm assuming these are the bushes in the front upper control arms? Ive read here that these are common problems but I don't seem to find which ones are the most likely to be replaced ?(keeping in mind that the lower control arms have similar bushes) If I know this I will buy the bushes separately instead of buying the whole kit and just have them pressed in?

ghiaguy

I had upper control arms replaced about six months ago and the front end feels much better now. About a month ago I went to the dealer for Teleaid disconnection and they mentioned that my "Thrust Bushings" up front had significant play and they could replace them for $900... I think I'll pass...

shaun.barnard

Ive got a knocking sound at the left when going over bumps and I know the shock is leaking oil but I don't know what to replace first, the bushes or the shocks, do you think that sound can be made by a bad shock?

ghiaguy

If the shock is leaking I would replace it right away. That is likely your noise, but if your control arm bushings are bad enough I suppose it could make a clunking noise over bumps as well. The shock is your priority IMO

shaun.barnard

Yes I think so too, shocks are priority.

link146

Front strut arm bushing go bad and make tons of noise. You may want to check them as well as sway bar bushings. New strut arm links and sway bar bushing cleared all my noises.

benzslo

You really need it shown to you by the mechanic. Torque arms also may be called caster arms, etc. These are notoriously bad and often feel clunk/looseness turning up driveways, braking etc. Sway bar links heard a lot on cracks in road or parking lots. Check the joints too. Get with your mechanic. Likely not the struts.

shaun.barnard

Well this weekend I've decided to get busy with my brakes, spray-painting the rear callipers, was going to go with black but since I am replacing the pads with ceramic I thought silver wouldn't get too dirty and I suppose whatever dust does come on, the pressure hose should be able to clean it without taking the wheels off. What a mission to get the rear callipers off with the brake shoes sticking to the drum but after a lot of swearing I found out it is quite simple if you know the little tricks involved.

shaun.barnard

After a lot of searching the net I found that our cars only have the 5 jack places and the diff has the cooling fins so was sceptical about jacking the car there to get the jack stands in but after looking at the structural integrity of the cooling fins I found that it would be strong enough to jack with a piece of plank wood between the jack and the fins and it worked quite well.

shaun.barnard

Taking the rear discs in tomorrow to resurface them if they have enough "meat" left to do it.

C230 Mulac

Get some drilled rotors!

Stoptech makes decent ones for not too much $.

If you want to spend some $$ and get some really nice ones, Disc Italia makes some sick rotors I had on my C230, but the ones for the c55 are much more expensive!

http://www.brakeworld.com/Product/Pr...1-brake-Rotors

shaun.barnard

Hey man if I was in the US there would be a lot of things I would buy, but the shipping kills us in SA. I was looking at a set of drilled as I think it would compliment the front nicely but anyway the brake place showed me hairline cracks on the one rotor from hitting it with a hammer getting it off (marks of frustration lol) so I have ordered new ones today and getting my new fronts tomorrow so slowly but surely getting the car sorted.

C230 Mulac

Oh crap, I didn't even notice that, whoops...

Which ones are you getting, OEM?

shaun.barnard

Yes front from the dealers and rear aftermarket





And after a bit of silver engine enamel spraypaint





Took a pic of the old ones still on the car, amazing how ugly these things rust

ghiaguy

Why the engine enamel paint? I don't think I would put anything on the rotor face

shaun.barnard

The engine enamel was the only high heat paint they had and the rotor face has mostly that coating that the original rotors come with which I read on a few forums that you don't have to remove it? There is a bit of overspray from the high heat paint but I doubt that should do any harm.

shaun.barnard

Thought that while I was at the dealer to get the pilot bush to replace the leaking one, a lt of oil to top it up and the dipstick cap clip. They don't have the dipstick and say they get quite a few inquiries about the dipstick but they don't know about it



Can somebody confirm if this is the correct oil they gave me? Our boxes are 722.6 correct?

maverik259

yes we are 722.6

and you say "overspray" however that newspaper is covered in paint which I would not expect if you were just painted the center iron that sits on the hub...or is all that overspray from you attempting to paint the outer edge and veins that run inbetween the plates?

Saaboteur

When I bought my last set of rotors - Zimmerman coated - I just left them. The coating on the rotor faces wears off right way (obviously) but the centres remain coated. Good to go, should be no rust issues!

shaun.barnard

Yeah I sprayed it at an angle to try get deep into the veins and a coat on the outer edges cause it gets rather rusty there as well.

shaun.barnard

Well, brakes done, new rotors and ceramic pads;


Before;

And After;

C230 Mulac

Looks good man!

Now make sure you bed them in properly...I made that mistake once in my life haha

saer1one

Those wheels look as fresh as the rotors..!

shaun.barnard

Thanks man. Yes I studied the braking in period because I also never knew about it but luckily I researched it before I fitted them.


I just scrubbed the wheels on the face and at the back where all the brake dust collects with a household scrubbing brush and soap water and also used a wire brush in a drill to clean the wheel bolts heads and spray painted them with the same spray paint I used for the rotors, amazing what difference those small thing do for appearance

C230 Mulac

The wire brush on a drill thing is actually an awesome idea, I may have to try that. I've been doing a lot of stuff lately getting my car ready for the summer, might as well make it look pretty too