Nice job Keep it up and I like the running commentary. As mine is getting put to bed for the winter, I have no excuse not getting some things done and upgrade with what I have stocked up Unfortunately I don't have a closed garage but only an open but covered space. It stays dry all the time though. Now, considering winter and colder temperatures that is going to be the only negative factor stopping me working....

 

I am very fortunate to have a 2.5 car garage. A lot of the houses in the older ('50s, '60s construction) in my city have this style of garage. Love it. So there is room for two cars to park, plus ample space for storage, or in my case, a very large work bench and all of my tools.

Typically in the newer neighbourhoods, and especially the very newest developments (say in the past 10 years or so), the lots are narrower, the streets are narrower and no one has 2.5 car garages. So we are very lucky and just love our house!

 

Our old house in Millwoods had a big barn in the backyard.
Thanks for keeping us posted.

 

A barn! That's cool! If I had a barn, I'd put a hoist in it so I could work on my car like a pro...

Funnily enough, a friend of mine has a house in a different part of the city (west end, near WEM, for Ob1) that is about the same vintage, or maybe 10 years younger than mine. He only has a 1.5 car garage, which would be a major turn off for me. Yet, another friend who lives not a kilometer away has a 2.5 car garage too.

Some of the weirder ones have tandem 2 car garages, so one car in front of the other. The weirdest house I saw must have been a tandem garage, with garage doors on both sides. I've seen some of the newer townhouse/condo type developments with tandem garages, can't say I really like the idea much. Cool if you are single and have a project car, but not cool if you are a multi-person, multi-car family. The most ideal is my parents' place - triple car garage. When I still lived with them, I had my whatever project car I owned at the time apart in the third bay almost constantly.

But back to being on point - new KMac bushings should be pressed in tonight, and will soon be picking up the newly acquired four square driver set.

I have noticed one thing about the bushings though - on the stock ones, the bolt goes right through the middle. On the KMacs, the bolt is offset to one side of the bushing. Any insight into their installation into the lower control arm appreciated.

 

Picked up the triple square drivers and got my control arms back from my buddy too.

The KMac bushings are just pressed in like any other bushing. The eccentric bolt rotates the entire poly bushing which is inside the metal sleeve, so there's no need to line up the bushing in any way. I guess in principle it works the same as the stock adjusting bolt, but just on a larger scale. There are serrated edges between the washer and the inner part of the bushing to keep everything in place.

As for the old bushings, the rears were completely toast, and coming apart or completely apart in two of the three 'spokes'. I was getting some clicking noises at low speed, so I surmise it was these bushings. I can see how W208 solid ruber bushings would be an excellent upgrade. The front bushings are no problem, they are two piece but pretty solid.

Took a few pix of everything, including the newly acquired triple square bits. Tomorrow - reassembly of everything!

 

Didn't the back end feel loose with all the play in the bushings?? Keep the pics coming

 

SAABOTEUR: your LC-Arms, are they manufactured by Lemfoerder?

you say w208 uses full solid bushings?
I saw a set of brand new LCA for w208 and the inner large bushings came hollow the same as for w202??????????
which means if I buy new w208 complete LCA I will get hollow bushings installed on those arms.

buying the w208 bushings in a kit they are solid,when checking webshops.
what's the deal?
bushings for w208 supposed to be better than w202?

 

DRBC43AMG: the cracked/busted rear bushings - those are the rear on the front lower control arms, not at the rear of the car. The car felt pretty normal, actually. The only issue was some intermittent clicking at low speed. Anyone with decent mileage on their cars, you should check out the bushings. Unfortunately, their condition is not very easy to determine with the control arms on the car.

Kowalski: I just thought w208s had solid bushings instead of the hollow type? Just from reading other posts. If they are, then excellent upgrade I think. If they aren't - then solid poly ones would be the next best choice. The control arms - I dunno which brand. I didn't replace them, I just re used the stock ones and installed the KMac bushings. They still have stickers on them with bar codes - I'm surmising they are original?

Anyway, it was another very solid day of wrenching today. Spent most of the morning mucking around, trying to line up the lower control arm with the ball joint on the upright. Did not realize until this morning that there is an alignment pin on the ball joint. Complete pain to sort out, and the actual threaded end of the ball joint was quite difficult to properly line up with the control arm. Stupidly, I was fiddling with it every which way, and not having any luck and just getting more and more frustrated. Then, I simply let the control arm hang down onto the ground, and the ball joint lined up no problem. Nuts.

Then I found that the threaded rod on the other ball joint was damaged when I used my 'extraction tool' (hammer) to disengage it from the upright. And for the life of me I could not fix it, so off I went to the parts shop and picked up two new ones. Whew! So, now the whole control arm has fresh bushings and ball joints, woot!

At the rear, I also managed to replace all of the various arms - the 'radius rod', the 'thrust arm' and the 'toe arm', plus the camber arm. The camber arm was replaced by the Speedybenz arm. All were pretty easy to remove and replace, but I did have to take the disc off and bend the dust shield back (another, not very subtle redneck move) to get to a couple fasteners. All were very dirty and slightly rusty, but I hit them all with the wire brush to clean them up. Everything was lubed with anti-seize on the re-install. Oh, I have to say - it is much easier to get at all of these arms when the spring and shock are removed.

The springs...sheesh, I'm glad I had the spring compressor, but damn I do miss the coilover and double wishbone setup on my S2000! Much easier! I had to go back and forth a couple times on each of the springs to get them to line up properly, which was quite time consuming.

So...I've finished three corners. Just the left rear to do now, plus reattach the rear calipers and the plastic splash shield below the engine. Then alignment, and done!

Some pix of all the new parts, and an ever increasing pile of dirty, worn out parts!

 

congrats man!
now you can be proud of your self by doin' such a pain in da buttjob.
it must have been very painful for you not having a hoist so you can lift your car?


I wonder why Vogtland uses such a feminine color on their lowering springs?
C43 is not a girly car!

About your Speedycamber arms?
Are they thick and solid rods?
Does it say anything about which way the rodend should be bolted: where the bolts go in marked with: IN=near to the spring/shock OUT= dustshield
Are these arms marked for: Left side/Right side?
Did you coat them for rustprotection?

You will have a new car feel with this suspension upgrade

 

Good Job Saaboteur!

At least the color is red which matches some brake calipers like the one in the Porsches, instead of the purple coils I've seen elsewhere...

 

vogtlands are pink or purple?
they look kinda female or something else?

 

It's done! A bit more leisurely pace today, started after watching the last F1 race of the season and seeing Vettel become champ. Just finished a Red Bull in salutation!

The Vogtlands are actually pink-ish in colour, maybe more of a fuscia. Kinda girly.

The Speedybenz camber arms were marked for inner and outer. The inner rod is left hand thread, the outer is normal right hand thread. The rod ends are typical race style ones - pretty beefy components. I applied anti seize to just about everything, and also used some CV joint grease, per Speedybenz's instructions, on the machined spacers for the rod ends.

It would have been nice to use a hoist, but not necessary. I did most of it sitting or kneeling on my garage floor, with an comfy pad beneath me.

The only issue today was that the left rear's thrust arm (the lowest arm). I left it on the car, as I could not get enough torque on it to remove it, as the four square bolt head was stripping. I'm going to have to cut it off and get a new bolt later on.

Car now has a two finger gap all around, as compared to previous where the rear was probably a fist and a half gap. The front is lower too, but not by as much. I dunno...I think the previous owner may have had Euro spec AMG springs at the front, but not the rear. When I was reviewing the service records at the dealership last year before I bought the car, I found a note about the front springs being changed as they thought they had the wrong ones in there.

There's some slight variation though - the left side is just a touch lower than the right. I'm guessing the springs and shocks need to settle a bit, along with a proper alignment. I've only driven it around the block twice, and as I paid absolutely no attention to the alignment settings when I removed and reinstalled everything, the car is all over the place. Or rather, it runs in a straight line, but the wheel is cranked a quarter turn right, and the stability control is constantly being triggered. I just need to make it about 9km to the shop tomorrow morning though, so all should be good then.

I'm still getting a worrying squeak/grunt noise from the left front on bigger bumps. I noticed it before the suspension work, but after much investigation, I haven't been able to find anything wrong in that corner. Just have to keep an eye on it I guess. It sounds like fender rub, but I can't find any sign of it anywhere.

Done for now though!

 

congratulations. you've made it in time before snow starts dropping.
Looks like you've got winter tires already so you're good to go.
Get your alignment done before anything else. Your car looks very nice.

Like I said, I plan to visit YEG sometime end of spring so if your wheels are still
available I'll pick it up from you. I've been itching to replace the wheels on my E55 and yours would look nice on mine.

 

congrats buddy.
don't drive your car until tomorrow for alignment, you might get a nasty tyrewear?

your car looks more european in rideheight now.
if you stand behind your car and inspect it, is it the left or right side being higher or leaning?
my car has a tad leaning to the right side, is it because there is more deadweight on the right side like battery and stuff?
on the left side I'm the deadweight, it doesn't even up the leaning?

anti seize grease what is that?
is it grease that prevents rusting or what?
or is it grease that prevents parts to expand under pressure?

happy motoring

 

Copper grease

 

oh it's copper paste.
that I know what it is.
thanx

 

Ob1 - if the wheels are still here in the spring, you are welcome to them! I hope they shift before then though!

Kowalski - anti-seize paste is this silvery coloured goo. I apply it on all suspension components so as to allow easier disassembly. The car seems to be slightly lower on the left than the right. Hard to notice with the naked eye. I'm hoping the variation is just down to the need for alignment.

Dropped the car off at the Benz specialist shop (a bunch of long time techs left one of the Mercedes' dealers and set up their own joint) last night, they should be working on it now.

Been worrying and wondering what the hell the noise on big bumps! As I posted earlier, it sounds like tire rub, but I cannot find any sign of it on the fenders. It only occurs on larger bumps, and only on the left front corner. Sounds like a screech noise.

New lower control arm bushings, new ball joints, new shocks, new springs. Did not replace the upper control arm though. Perhaps the brake rotor dust shield is touching the inside of the wheel? Odd that, but never know. I've asked the shop to check it out, hopefully they will find something easy.

 

Thanks Saaboteur, I stand corrected. I will have to find that silver grease then.

 

Re: anti-seize compound - I use the Permetex stuff. I think it has a high nickel content, actually. I've got regular, and high temperature (for exhaust manifold bolts).

 

Just picked up the car from the shop. A note on them - they are called World Class Auto, and are a group of 5 or 6 guys that collectively left one of the two dealerships in town to form their own operation. Been around only since June. Very friendly and informative. When I arrived, there was a Maserati 3200 convertible outside, nice.

Anyway, car is lovely now. The ugly noises were likely due to the suspension shifting around - the tech mentioned that the lower control arm bolts were really loose - thought I tightened them up enough, but I guess not. So hopefully that is the culprit. Car tracks nice and straight and very smooth, the old shocks' were perhaps a bit jolting, but now the car is like driving on glass again.

The tech couldn't manage to get the front alignment where he liked, particularly in camber and castor and recommended I go to a #5 pad up front. Fortuitously, they had those in stock, plus the extra bolt I needed for the thrust arm, so I'm all set. Just need a couple more hours' work on the car, then back to sort out the front alignment. He said he just needed a bit more ride height up front, then would be able to get the alignment exactly where he likes it. He's an older dude, and I'm sure he knows his stuff.

 

No worries. I do hope they're still around though.

re: the noise, do they come from the front? check the inside of your front tires. that would mean it's rubbing against one of the bolts.
If it's from the rear, don't worry about it. It may be coming from the inner fender well plastic cover.

Also, I did not read what size spacer/shim you used on the springs. And finally your front stabilizer bar seems to be rusted pretty well. Do you plan to replace those soon?

(R)Ob1

 

Didn't notice any ugly noises on the drive back to the office from the shop, but did not hit any huge bumps either. I'll try my back alley when I get home tonight, but hoping that the issue was due to the loose bolts on the control arm and nothing else.

Car currently has #4 pads all around, but per the tech's recommendation, I will be putting #5s up front. There is a touch of rake right now with the #4s all around, and I think I will just gain 4mm on the front, so it'll probably be about even all around when I'm done.

The sway bar - meh - the paint is flaking off of it. I think I will just hit it with some rust converter and leave it for now. Or move to California and never worry about rust again...

 

Drove the car around town this evening running errands, plenty of bumps and train tracks and such - no problems, thankfully. Hopefully will have the new #5 pads in over the weekend, tidy up the alignment on Monday, then good to go!

 

I like reading your updates

If possible, could you give us all the alignment settings when you get everything adjusted well.?
Thanks and enjoy the

 

Here's what it's at right now:

Front:
left camber: -1.1*
right camber: -1.2*
left caster: +4.4*
right caster: +4.75*
partial toe: +.2* on both sides

Rear:
left camber: -.55*
right camber: -.6*
partial toe: +.3* both sides

The tech said he's quite happy with the rear, but would like to see front camber down to .6 or .7. I'm not too bothered with the ultimate handling setup, just want something that will be comfy to drive and easy on the tires (the S2000 takes enough of a toll on my tire budget).

The tech also said that while the KMac gives more adjustability than the stock adjustment bolts (which I had before), it's more difficult to adjust. You can't adjust camber and caster independently, you have to play with both bolts together. Bit more of a pain, but I don't do my own alignments, so I'm fine with that.

Looking at this old post, and BongC36's comments:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c36-amg-c...nt-issues.html

I think I'm right in there at the front, with the exception of camber. The tech said I just need a touch more ride height and then he'll be able to hit the camber where he wants it. Another reason I'm missing the coilovers on my S2000 - five minutes on that and I can move the ride height wherever... Ah well...that car has no torque, so there are trade offs with everything...