Lowering Springs/Sway Bar Links
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 113
Likes: 17
From: Winterpeg - CANADA!!!!
19 C43 Wagon, 16 C450 AMG, 13 C350, 99 ML320 on 20's
Lowering Springs/Sway Bar Links
Hello,
Just had my car at the dealership as there was a knocking noise coming from the front end. My car only has 44,000KMS on it and I was told that it needs new sway bar links/bushings because my car is lowered. They want to charge me $1200 CAD to do this job……..lol. Can lowering a car affect the links?
Thanks,
Just had my car at the dealership as there was a knocking noise coming from the front end. My car only has 44,000KMS on it and I was told that it needs new sway bar links/bushings because my car is lowered. They want to charge me $1200 CAD to do this job……..lol. Can lowering a car affect the links?
Thanks,
Member
Joined: Dec 2021
Posts: 130
Likes: 20
From: Alberta, Canada
GL350, C43 Wagon, 911 C2S
Depending on how much you've lowered it. If it's just a bit then it probably won't have much of an impact on their endlinks longevity but if you've lowered it by more than a few cms then their life will defnitely be reduced. The stock end-links are sized length-wise for stock ride height and reducing (or increasing for that matter) the ride height will then put additional stress on the wobbly bits of the endlinks. Once you've gone past a certain point in lowering you eithr need to get adjustable end-links or shorter ones. I'm not sure what's available for the C43 though. Here's an example. You could just replace the current ones with stock ones but you'll likely run into the same issue in another 40k kms.
As for the sway bar bushings, there's no reason I can see for those requiring replacement. My guess is that's just typical $tealership practice for trying to empty your wallet.
Replacing the endlinks is a 30 minute job. All you need is a ramp, a couple of appropraitely sized wrenches and then a torque wrench for tightening the new ones. It's easiest to do when the suspension is fully loaded rather than with the car up on jack stands.
As for the sway bar bushings, there's no reason I can see for those requiring replacement. My guess is that's just typical $tealership practice for trying to empty your wallet.
Replacing the endlinks is a 30 minute job. All you need is a ramp, a couple of appropraitely sized wrenches and then a torque wrench for tightening the new ones. It's easiest to do when the suspension is fully loaded rather than with the car up on jack stands.
Last edited by MartinC2S; Feb 14, 2023 at 03:49 PM.
