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But when I was about to swap the arms I noticed a few differences between the one from my car and the Lemforder.
The original Mercedes has a ball joint that is "flexible"? It can easily be wiggled around its base, unlike the Lemforder that seemed fixed despite the existence of the rubber part that suggests some kind of damping.
On the yellow side, I noticed the Mercedes original had a bigger space and what seemed to me an adjustment room for alignment?
I only replaced the right side and I can't really tell much the difference between both sides. (Left is still using the original arm). I felt though that when stationary as I turned the steering wheel all the way to the right, the front right side seemed to raise more than the left side when I do the opposite thing. Maybe it's just uneven snow, or maybe because I have in my head that the joint ball isn't as flexible so it wouldn't bend.
I think you bought the wrong one. There are two different available from Lemfoerder. One with a round hole and one with the oval one for adjustment. https://webcat.zf.com/?SPR=1
The Mercedes OE is a combination of A 204 330 44 11 (without the bushing) and the bushing A 203 333 10 14. If your old has the oval hole and the adjustment screw your caster and camber is eventually out of spec now.
The new ball joint is usually very tight and can't be moved with hands, thats normal.
The W204 arms work on the W203. My understanding is that the only real difference is that the rubber bushing is updated to last longer. I'm running W204 arms for all 4 front ones as we speak. When they replaced mine, 3 of the rubber bushings had cracked clean through.
If your car is stock height or very slightly lowered, adjustments generally aren't needed. I bought the adjustable bolts and after an alignment it turned out the stock configuration was still the best one (other than toe adjustment, which is done separately without touching the control arms). It might give you peace of mind to order the adjustable (ie oval hole) version, but as mentioned before, it probably won't be necessary.
Last edited by slammer111; 02-12-2017 at 07:35 PM.
02-12-2017, 02:41 PM
