Down South

Hello MBWorld. My girl has a 2003 C320 with about 110k miles on it. Recently there has been this strange squeaking (rubber rubbing against something) type of sound. She took the car in and the dealer said the "strut torque" (that's what was on the paper they gave her) needs to be replaced. Can anyone tell me what this part is? If you have a picture or a part number I'd greatly appreciate it. I want to order the part online and have it put on.

Leon

phister

strut torque or torque strut refers to the control arm and the car has an upper and lower control arm. Its most likely the bushing that have gone out. you can buy the bushings or the whole control arm. i go to rmeuropean or mymercedesparts for my parts, they are OEM parts.

Glyn M Ruck

They probably mean the castor arm, control arm or thrust arm bushings. Common problem. All VIN's





https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...h-bulletin.pdf

mdavidian

I was told by dealership my torque strut bushing is cracked. Well, I incorrectly assumed it was the lower control arm, when actually it is the upper control arm. I don't have a press and don't want to spend 200 on a tool I will most likely only use once so I want to remove the arm and take it to a shop to have bearing pressed. Glyn posted a PDF of the service manual, but it doesn't say whether you need to compress coil/spring. Does anyone know if this step is necessary?

Laloggia

Just had the upper and lower control arms replaced on drivers side (c230k). Was getting bad knocking while breaking and some shimmy. All fixed now. The strut needs to come out on the bottom to gain access to the control arm bolts. The car was on a lift and strut was supported with a tall jack. No strut compressor was used. Sway bar also needs to be unbolted. I do most work myself, but left this one to the professionals.

toni.jagerman

Hello guys, could someone share what is the correct way of replacing the lower control arm.
W203. I replaced it yesterday myself and was proud of it until I noticed that my steering wheel is not straight. I hope I have not messed up big time. ESP malfunction is on since.
Please help.

phister

take it to get aligned

toni.jagerman

Thanks Phister, one more detail I did not mention; when replacing the new arm I tightened the nuts in both ends of the arm while the car was on jack-stand, only later to discover in forums that the final tightening should have been done while car resting on the wheel(/ground). My question - will the alignment fix the problem? or should I redo the tightening in a proper way before that?
Thanks again.

phister

retighten the proper way first before doing the alignment. that might correct the issue but you'll still want an alignment

Laloggia

X2 on alignment. It will be way off after replacing the control arms.