Junster

Hi,

Just became a new member and I could not help looking into the coil spring perch area after reading all kinds of postings about the problem. Sure enough... I noticed passenger front spring perch showed some rust outside and when I got done peeling away the black rubberized stuff I saw this.

The rust was on the surface of left & right top side of the perch and the right top side is worse and actually showing a gaping hole where it meets the body panel. However, the welded wing section on the bottom is rust free for both panel side and perch itself. (well covered with paint)

From the previous postings and pictures on the internet showed majority of failure looks a lot worse than this and the welded section gave away not the top.

So, do you think I am doomed for imminent failure anytime soon? Can I get by few more years with cleaning and sealing with POR 15? This car is 99 E320 135K and was mostly garage kept. It was my dad's car which he left me after passing last year. We gave him this car as a retirement present back in 1999 and has much sentimental values.







After a quick cleaning up with dremmel wire brush, left panel looks OK.



I am concerned about the left side meeting with panel where I can't really get to clean all the rust out. Welded section looks OK.



I think the factory failed to seal the top of perch meeting the body panel and left a small gap causing water intrusion over time. I wish I saw this site years ago. A simple dab of caulking would have fixed it.



I am planing to clean the left over rust trails as much as possible and paint it with POR 15 on order. I am even willing to find a local welder who is willing to add a small wedge on top of perch to reinforce. $1500 repair cost for a $4000 car seems too much.

Thanks for reading this.

kajtek1

Welcome to the forum.
Good part your perches are still holding.
Problem with diagnosis them is that spot-weld is very hard to inspect and with all that protective coating most of the owners don't know they have a problem till springs start flying.
You chose to not disclosure your location, so with drastic differences in labor cost around the World, I can not give you realistic fix advice, but even in expensive CA I can find a welder who will put couple of wedges for much less than $1500 .
MB did make perch reinforcements, what is very cheap, but those seem to be available only in Europe and not really advertised.

kajtek1

On the 2nd look, your perches were already welded. Somebody did sloppy job.

Junster

Thanks for the reply... I live in NJ but not near the coast. My dad never drove the car in bad weather or at night. 8)

>>>On the 2nd look, your perches were already welded. Somebody did sloppy job.

You mean the factory welding? We never had such repair on the car. Only thing the dealer did was to replace CAT under warranty in early years of our ownership. The rest was just usual stuff. Oil change, Battery, Brakes and Air condition recharge.

I went ahead and cleaned more of the hard to reach rust trail. I also scuffed more paint off the factory welding area and noticed clean bare metal under it. Paint was not pealing and it was hard to get it off. So, I am going to give it a good rust prevention coat (POR 15) and keep an eye on it.

As far as welding is concerned, I think it would be hard to find someone or shop to perform a such small job. All it needs is 1 in triangle shape metal plate welded to top of perch and against the frame well. The car frame and perch sheet metal material is so thin so I don't think anyone would attempt to weld it with flux core type. It might do more damage than good.

kajtek1

Picture might be a bit misleading, but on 1st photo I see a crack along a weld.
Factory perches were not welded, only spot welded.
I am a welder and crack along weld happens when wrong rod is used, or there is wrong heat penetration.
Either way, that should be easy to reweld right for minimal cost.

Junster

Yes, it is misleading and it does looks like welding beeds. It is just rusty crap stuck to the frame on top of the perch.

Good to know you are a welder. Would you recommend a newbie buying one of those cheap Harbor Fright welder and attempt this? Or a bad idea?

kajtek1

When I always encourage DIY to learn new skills, spring perches is not the item you want to learn on.
Beside good welders are not that cheap.
I do have 150 lb 230V welder at home, but when I had big construction going, I bought 2500lb Perkins-powered welder not only for speed, but also for quality.
Spring perches although probably doable with stick-weld, should be done with wire feeder.