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Well my grandson to whom I gave my 1990 190E has decided he wants a 4X4 pick-up truck which I suppose is a more suitable vehicle for a young man who loves to hunt and fish in the north woods. I know have the car back in my posession and will keep it as a special use car and not as a daily driver. I noticed when driving it home that the ride quality is not what it should be and began to wonder if the struts are worn since they are the originals? I have read that the old "bounce test" is not a good indicator since the struts are both gas and hydraulic and even though the car may not bounce when the front is pushed down and released it may still be worn struts. Is there a test that would establish whether or not the struts need replacing or should I just assume at 130000km on not so good roads that they should be replaced?
Well my grandson to whom I gave my 1990 190E has decided he wants a 4X4 pick-up truck which I suppose is a more suitable vehicle for a young man who loves to hunt and fish in the north woods. I know have the car back in my posession and will keep it as a special use car and not as a daily driver. I noticed when driving it home that the ride quality is not what it should be and began to wonder if the struts are worn since they are the originals? I have read that the old "bounce test" is not a good indicator since the struts are both gas and hydraulic and even though the car may not bounce when the front is pushed down and released it may still be worn struts. Is there a test that would establish whether or not the struts need replacing or should I just assume at 130000km on not so good roads that they should be replaced?
Sounds like the 4x4 truck would be better suited for his needs so I'm glad he realizes this and you have your car back. Special use is good. That's what I do with my car as I have a daily driver for the routine stuff that takes the door dings, rock chips, etc. You should probably hook your W201 up to a trickle charger and put Stabil storage in it to keep the fuel from turning to varnish and gumming up your engine and fuel delivery system. That's what I do with my car. BTW, I've never known the old "bounce" test to not be a good indicator so I would go ahead and try that first. Any further description of "ride quality" would also be helpful. It's possible that after all of these years that the gas in the gas struts may have dissipated.
Sounds like the 4x4 truck would be better suited for his needs so I'm glad he realizes this and you have your car back. Special use is good. That's what I do with my car as I have a daily driver for the routine stuff that takes the door dings, rock chips, etc. You should probably hook your W201 up to a trickle charger and put Stabil storage in it to keep the fuel from turning to varnish and gumming up your engine and fuel delivery system. That's what I do with my car. BTW, I've never known the old "bounce" test to not be a good indicator so I would go ahead and try that first. Any further description of "ride quality" would also be helpful. It's possible that after all of these years that the gas in the gas struts may have dissipated.
Thanks for the advice. I do keep the battery on a "trickle" charger and use fuel stabilizer so those two are covered. I am not sure what to do with the car since like you I also have a small SUV as a daily driver. There are no car shows within hundreds of miles so that isn't a good reason to keep the car. I should probably just sell it to someone who will give it a good home.
Thanks for the advice. I do keep the battery on a "trickle" charger and use fuel stabilizer so those two are covered. I am not sure what to do with the car since like you I also have a small SUV as a daily driver. There are no car shows within hundreds of miles so that isn't a good reason to keep the car. I should probably just sell it to someone who will give it a good home.
Replace the struts. It’s an ancient car. The bounce test is meaningless because of friction in the suspension. If the ride feels bad, replace the struts.
Thanks for the advice. I do keep the battery on a "trickle" charger and use fuel stabilizer so those two are covered. I am not sure what to do with the car since like you I also have a small SUV as a daily driver. There are no car shows within hundreds of miles so that isn't a good reason to keep the car. I should probably just sell it to someone who will give it a good home.
Sadly, selling may be your best option if you have no real use for the car as in shows, MB club activities, etc. You might advertise it on a couple of the good online auction sites such as the MB Market or Bring A Trailer as a 1 owner car. These sites tend to attract the MB enthusiasts.
Replace the struts. It’s an ancient car. The bounce test is meaningless because of friction in the suspension. If the ride feels bad, replace the struts.
The bounce test is a tried and true test that my engineer father taught me when he was teaching me how to take care of a car. It's probably likely that the struts on the OPs car do need to be replaced.
It was on Pelican Parts website that stated the "bounce' test was not a valid test. Being an older woman maybe my body isn't strong enough to enduce a proper "bounce". LOL
190E 2.6L 1989, 190E 2.6L 1988, BMW 535dXdrive 2014, BMW 428i 2015
My struts/shocks were original at ~170K miles and other than ride quality I could not tell that they had no pressure on them. Bounce test did not work if they still have oil in them but no air. Oil is enough of a frictional agent that it dampens the bounce test and makes it pretty useless.
Unfortunately, the only way to tell they are bad is to take them out and then had pressure test them, at which point you will be inclined to just change them out like I did a few years back. Mine were all bad of course.
Hope you keep the car Laura, but if you decide to sell it, BAT is your best bet due to your location, Hopefully you grand son will want it back some day as a second car as an alternative.
But may I ask, how bad is the ride quality? Maybe you are just not used to the new to you car now as it has been gone for 2-3 years.
My struts/shocks were original at ~170K miles and other than ride quality I could not tell that they had no pressure on them. Bounce test did not work if they still have oil in them but no air. Oil is enough of a frictional agent that it dampens the bounce test and makes it pretty useless.
Unfortunately, the only way to tell they are bad is to take them out and then had pressure test them, at which point you will be inclined to just change them out like I did a few years back. Mine were all bad of course.
Hope you keep the car Laura, but if you decide to sell it, BAT is your best bet due to your location, Hopefully you grand son will want it back some day as a second car as an alternative.
But may I ask, how bad is the ride quality? Maybe you are just not used to the new to you car now as it has been gone for 2-3 years.
Thank you for the advice. I did notice when I changed the strut mount that the strut rod took very little pressure to depress and that had me wondering. I have looked for new struts and the Sachs brand seem to be the most reasonable price for a brand I recognize. I will keep the car for the time being since it has been with me for so long.
190E 2.6L 1989, 190E 2.6L 1988, BMW 535dXdrive 2014, BMW 428i 2015
Sachs is the original OE manufacturer. So you can't go wrong there Laura. While that is out you should probably have the boot and bump changed too. They are also made by Sachs and the kit does not cost much.
Thank you for the advice. I did notice when I changed the strut mount that the strut rod took very little pressure to depress and that had me wondering. I have looked for new struts and the Sachs brand seem to be the most reasonable price for a brand I recognize. I will keep the car for the time being since it has been with me for so long.
Very little pressure to depress the strut is a good clue that it needs changing. It's best to change struts in pairs. Glad you're keeping your car.
The procedure requires you to remove the struts, but I wouldn't just necessarily replace them, because if you spend the money and replace them and the problem persists, then you're now worse off with less resources to purchase the parts you really need. Unless of course you are just able to replace parts whenever you want to.
Thank you so very much for the instruction to test the struts. It's way to complex for me so I will probably just replace them. I do very much appreciate your contribution.
190E 2.6L 1989, 190E 2.6L 1988, BMW 535dXdrive 2014, BMW 428i 2015
There is a layman's (or laywomen's) way of applying Ismalley's test while the struts are in the car.
The way the strut is tested is to measure how much resistance there is to compression and when you let off the compression how quickly does is recover.
You can imagine how the springs and the rest of suspension gets in the way of measuring this with an installed strut.
However, when struts go, they are usually not equally bad. With mine the passenger side was considerably worse than the driver side.
Long story short you can apply equal downward force with your body weight instantaneously and observe how much resistance there is comparatively between the left and right for front and rears. If they are considerably different you know the less resistive one is shot. A new strut will have severe resistance particularly if it is a HD or sports strut. And if they are not equal, like mentioned before they are replaced in pairs.
There is a layman's (or laywomen's) way of applying Ismalley's test while the struts are in the car.
The way the strut is tested is to measure how much resistance there is to compression and when you let off the compression how quickly does is recover.
You can imagine how the springs and the rest of suspension gets in the way of measuring this with an installed strut.
However, when struts go, they are usually not equally bad. With mine the passenger side was considerably worse than the driver side.
Long story short you can apply equal downward force with your body weight instantaneously and observe how much resistance there is comparatively between the left and right for front and rears. If they are considerably different you know the less resistive one is shot. A new strut will have severe resistance particularly if it is a HD or sports strut. And if they are not equal, like mentioned before they are replaced in pairs.
- Cheers!
But there is no baseline for her to compare it against in regards to an unworn suspension. Plus there would be too many variables like weight of the engine, tire pressure, suspension bushings, etc. To be honest, if you are just going to replace the struts without testing, it's best to just do the complete front end. If you get those new struts installed and the car still feels the same you'd probably be tempted to just get rid of it, because at that point you'd only keep guessing at which part is affecting your ride quality until you eventually end up replacing everything anyways 🤷♂️. I personally think that spending how ever much time or money to do the job and get your desired outcome is well worth it. Plus, seeing as this is not a daily driver for you, you may have the leisure of not having to have it done all at one go. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.
The procedure requires you to remove the struts, but I wouldn't just necessarily replace them, because if you spend the money and replace them and the problem persists, then you're now worse off with less resources to purchase the parts you really need. Unless of course you are just able to replace parts whenever you want to.
Typically, you're correct about just throwing parts at a problem. The particular car in this case happens to be well cared for 1 owner car so it's highly likely that the struts have gone bad. As I've previously noted it's also not necessary to go through such an elaborate procedure to test the struts.
The reason I suspect the struts may be worn is because when I changed the strut mount it was necessary to depress the strut rod. I noticed while watching a youtube video to learn how best to change the strut that the young man seemed to have to push down hard to depress the rod. I am not a big woman nor at almost 80 years old am I very strong. It seemed to me that the rod descended without much effort for me. Not a very scientific way to assess a possible problem admittedly!
In any event the strut mounts were installed. When I did the bounce test the car barely deflects so it made me wonder if that is not a good way to check struts for weakness. The 190E currently has 1320000km on the odometer and car is driven year round in some pretty extreme cold and on poor roads. I watched a video on how to change the struts and think that with help from my grandson it is a doable project for me. My garage is well equipped with tools left by my late husband. There are no dealers or garages specializing in Euro cars anywhere within 300 to 400 miles away.
190E 2.6L 1989, 190E 2.6L 1988, BMW 535dXdrive 2014, BMW 428i 2015
You are always one step ahead of everyone else Laura. That is the perfect way of testing the shocks (at least the front ones) while they are in the car. It is easy to undo the mount. You should be also able to tell the difference between the right and left that way. Expected behavior is the when undone the shock should fully extend on it's own and it should be rather difficult to push it down with steady force. Again, the left and right should be same, if they are different you have your answer.
It seems you already observed an abnormality but you can check again.
You are always one step ahead of everyone else Laura. That is the perfect way of testing the shocks (at least the front ones) while they are in the car. It is easy to undo the mount. You should be also able to tell the difference between the right and left that way. Expected behavior is the when undone the shock should fully extend on it's own and it should be rather difficult to push it down with steady force. Again, the left and right should be same, if they are different you have your answer.
It seems you already observed an abnormality but you can check again.
- Cheers!
Dolucasi, Thank you. I recall that their was not what I would call a measurable difference. I have changed shock absorbers on the rear several years ago and I remember that the resistance was quite strong with those compared to the front struts. The rods did rebound slowly. I think maybe I will just change them to be on the safe side.
Dolucasi, Thank you. I recall that their was not what I would call a measurable difference. I have changed shock absorbers on the rear several years ago and I remember that the resistance was quite strong with those compared to the front struts. The rods did rebound slowly. I think maybe I will just change them to be on the safe side.
I think you're wise to change the struts given the ease with which you could push on them with so little resistance. Because of so little resistance it's sure indicating that they need to be changed. Given the mileage and age of the car, I think it's a good idea to change the struts. Safety is #1 so that's always a good reason for a replacement, especially anything to do with the suspension system.
The Sachs struts arrived today. I will need help installing them if I attempt the job with my grandson to help. I can barely budge the piston with my body strength so the original ones most probably need changing. The car rides well but not like aa Mercedes should so I am pretty certain new struts will change that. Thanks for the help.
The Sachs struts arrived today. I will need help installing them if I attempt the job with my grandson to help. I can barely budge the piston with my body strength so the original ones most probably need changing. The car rides well but not like aa Mercedes should so I am pretty certain new struts will change that. Thanks for the help.
Let us know what the ride is like once the struts have been changed.
Nice Laura! I just did my rear struts and put new bump stops on my fronts not long ago. makes a huge difference in our cars both driving and visually. Ppl actually noticed something was different about my car and that was the only change I made recently.
had trouble pushing the strut rods down and even with my full strength I couldn’t get it down but I did find out that full strength is not necessary!! With the bottom bolts in place but slightly loose Have your grandson compress it at an angle instead of straight up and down, it should go down steadily then you can maneuver the strut in place while he keeps it down
Last edited by BetterDaze; Sep 1, 2023 at 11:46 AM.
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