I don't see anyone addressing why the rear springs are breaking. It is totally obvious to me. No bottom rubber seat on the lower control arm. Metal to metal contact with the spring and the lower control arm breaks the paint causing rust and also all the force is on the bottom very end of the spring, the only part of the spring supported by the control arm. I wonder why nobody has come up with a fix for this design fault. I put a thin piece of tough rubber into the control arm to try to protect paint from being rubbed off the spring, but a redesigned arm with a proper rubber piece like what is used on the top of the spring would fix problem for sure I think. Why do manufactures screw their customers and the reliability of their cars over a few dollars. They make the decision for us, and are idiots, thinking we wont pay a little more for something that won't break. I would gladly pay a little more for a better product.

 

thinks your analysis goes a bit too deep. Springs rust all the time and don't break. I don't think its a rust issue. The problem is minor and very easy to fix. I wish all my Benz problems were this easy.

 

Not all 'common' problems with vehicles are someone's 'fault.' The car this thread was made about is now almost 15 years old. Some problems don't show up until cars are built and then put on the road, you can't account for every single problem in the environment of engineering testing.


If you really don't expect that you're going to have any problems ever on a 15 year old car (no matter who the manufacturer is) then you are sadly mistaken. Just wait until you get some real German car problems. Plus, as efzauner said, this is such a minimal and easily repairable problem that it is not even worth wasting time to redesign a major part of the vehicle at this point.

 

Fwiw, you are actually 100% correct!

Also, many/most cars do have some sort of rubber/poly insulator between the spring and any metal suspension part.

Also, it depends on if a vehicle is designed to last over 100K miles.
Such as 200K+++ miles. Think of Camry, Fusion, Accord, or an E-Class.

From a design point of view, metal on metal done because of low-cost or pure stupidity. About 95% of the design choices for something like a vehicle is done because of cost reasons.
Of course, that's not counting the fugly and stupid style choices (think of any new Toyota - Warning: Barf bags needed!).

When there is spring on metal contact for suspension spring, rust will happen depending on time and conditions. If the car is kept in desert Las Vegas, then rust may take a few thousand years. :-)
For a daily driver that is driven in snow,m especially in areas that use road salt, then after 10-30 years, a metal to metal spring will rust to the suspension part.

Imho, the W203 class is an ~10 year ~100K vehicle. Inho, in a number of ways, the W203 is even worse than the GM cr*p that was produced at that time.

From a business point of view, the C-Class makes a lot of sense to the customers that MB cares about and is targeting.
That is - the person that buy a new car every 3-7 years.

Imho, if someone wants a long term long mileage vehicle, then buy a Camry. Although, *I* personally like the Fusion more.
That's also why the used Camry prices are higher than than a comparable C-Class used vehicle.





[On Soap Box, semi Off Topic]

As for fugly/poor/stupid/fugly styling designs, a good example is the top of the line 2017 plug-in Prius Prime:

Btw, don't like the stupid, moronic, fugly, asinine, white trim on that ~$50K Prius Prime, well - too bad!
And, yes, the moron(s) in charge of the latest Prius completely f*****ed up the styling - on one of Toyota's best selling, most important, and most profitable cars. The stupid, fugly completely symmetric dash was done to be CHEAP - to allow for minimal changes between left and right-hand drive versions. Add in the fugly styling in every aspect/area of the car, and you have a massive failure for Toyota in sales and public opinion.
See:
2017 Has Been The Year Of The Toyota Prius’ Decline
July 18, 2017
http://www.hybridcars.com/2017-has-b...prius-decline/
(RedGray comment: In other words, no one want to by a massively fulgly vehicle who's styling was done by idiots.)

Imho, the difference in driving a 2017 Prius verses a Ford Fusion hybid, is like driving something that some clueless ricer teenagers threw together over the weekend, verses something that was designed by real engineers, real designers, real stylists, real ergonomic engineers, real saftey engineers, etc.

Also, compare the very nice MB 2017 C300 Sedan, to the fugly 2017 Prius (both are close to the same cost, depending on options).

MB 2017 C300 Sedan:




The fugly 2017 Prius:






The point is, that just having a very good vehicle design and reliability (imho, the 2017 Prius is likely one of the best built and most reliable vehicles) is only part of having a successful product.
At the same time, having a nicely styled vehicle (imho, some of the 90's and 2000's GM cars) doesn't help if it's a POS design and it quickly earns the very bad reputation that it deserves.



.

 

since we are reviving a necro thread anyways...

my 2001 mercedes c240 had 3/4 broken springs (2 rears, 1 front) at about 90,000km but at year 12 started hearing clanging sounds from the back. ignored it since we couldn't find a problem, it was intermittent and the car drove fine.

Live in toronto so lots of salt.

Finally located the problem after a few years which was the broken springs.

In case people are looking, I bought my springs from http://germanparts.ca/ (I'm not affiliated) but they were advertising on kijiji.

Got aftermarket springs for about $65 each (canadian).

Have been in my car now for 3 years and seem to be fine.

 

If anybody needs a pair California salt free front springs, I'm swapping sport springs and struts into my 02 c320 so my stock spings will be available shortly.

 

UPDATE 12 MONTHS LATER: The rubber mat material I put under the rear springs HAS held up so far, over 20,000 mi. What I used is .055in rubber mat from local Menards hardware store that I just happened to have on hand from another project. Thin enough to not interfere with the locating notch on the control arm but seams to be tough enough not to break down under the weight and pressure of the spring. Got to be better than just the paint. On a side note, I would have never believed that it would only take 10 min to replaced a rear spring and I have yet to be pissed-off working on this car, which is a good thing. For now, I will only buy Mercedes. I am that impressed by their later engineering. The early stuff, not so much. I have witnessed, and head of a few other early, (90's) MB ignition switches fall apart because only the edge of 3 screw heads hold the bakelight portion of the switch. And that portion of the switch holds many spring loaded contacts that, when it falls away from the cam, all close and shorts and burns the wire loom all the way to the battery. And the old hay filled seats sucked along with the door panels that sagged from the filter material that rotted after a few years. No car is perfect. And quality and engineering change with time. Some get better and some fail miserably. I think MB has improved greatly since the 90's.

 

Yee gads! Pictures of Priuses!?!>?!
Ripping my eyeballs out is less painful!!