Lower Control Arm Fails-BOOM-Rust. Need tips on repair.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 494
Likes: 13
From: Amber waves of grain.
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet
Lower Control Arm Fails-BOOM-Rust. Need tips on repair.
Lower Control Arm Fails-BOOM-Rust. Need tips on repair.
Have spent about an hour reading posts on the forum after doing a search for "control arm". Seems no one has had a catastrophic failure, but me.
Just came off the highway on commute home after a late night at the office. Hwy speed is 78 MPH for about 60 miles. Had been off the hwy about 8 minutes, stopped at a car wash bay, after wash, when pulling out of the bay at about 2 MPH, boom. See pics.
Looks like the rust gremlins struck again. I am surprised. My 19 year old Grand Cherokee, that has not been pampered like my CLK, has good A-frames. The CLK LCA's are made of thin pressed hollow steel structure. If this had failed on the hwy, I might not be here tapping on my keyboard.
Parts.com has LCA at $269 a side ($538). Ebay 4 Bilsteins at $300.
Have read enough about this that I am confused. Will do both fronts, and also new Bilsteins or KYB shocks, and ball joints.
Can anyone provide a How-To on replacing the LCAs, ball joints, and shocks?
Do new LCA come with the bushings ?
The fender is eff'd up. I, myself, replaced both fenders, hood, grill, bumper cover with new, last August, after a deer hit me. Good grief, but I love this car.
Have spent about an hour reading posts on the forum after doing a search for "control arm". Seems no one has had a catastrophic failure, but me.
Just came off the highway on commute home after a late night at the office. Hwy speed is 78 MPH for about 60 miles. Had been off the hwy about 8 minutes, stopped at a car wash bay, after wash, when pulling out of the bay at about 2 MPH, boom. See pics.
Looks like the rust gremlins struck again. I am surprised. My 19 year old Grand Cherokee, that has not been pampered like my CLK, has good A-frames. The CLK LCA's are made of thin pressed hollow steel structure. If this had failed on the hwy, I might not be here tapping on my keyboard.
Parts.com has LCA at $269 a side ($538). Ebay 4 Bilsteins at $300.
Have read enough about this that I am confused. Will do both fronts, and also new Bilsteins or KYB shocks, and ball joints.
Can anyone provide a How-To on replacing the LCAs, ball joints, and shocks?
Do new LCA come with the bushings ?
The fender is eff'd up. I, myself, replaced both fenders, hood, grill, bumper cover with new, last August, after a deer hit me. Good grief, but I love this car.
Last edited by Pancho; Mar 11, 2011 at 09:59 PM. Reason: spelling, syntax
Super Member
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 502
Likes: 3
From: Bay Area
02 clk 55, 13 GL 450
Dude that sucks!! I agree Ive never see a failure there 
Good thing you werent at speed but still looks like you tooka good %^!(** hit! I just swapped my LCA bushings for poly's and the tougest part was the springs and ball joints. With the right compressor the springs should be a snap. The ball joints are just a matter of applying pressure with a splitter and some good hard wacks with a BFH! That one hanging from your spindle may be an issue because you cant use the spring tension to help you seperate. Not sure if you have the adjustable bolts on the LCA, but if you do just make note of the orientation for reassembly till you get in for the alignment. I believe the new LCA's come fully assembled but if you want to upgrade the bushings to solid poly, use the w202 bushings... they are the same size. I couldnt find any listed for the w208 
Good thing you werent at speed but still looks like you tooka good %^!(** hit! I just swapped my LCA bushings for poly's and the tougest part was the springs and ball joints. With the right compressor the springs should be a snap. The ball joints are just a matter of applying pressure with a splitter and some good hard wacks with a BFH! That one hanging from your spindle may be an issue because you cant use the spring tension to help you seperate. Not sure if you have the adjustable bolts on the LCA, but if you do just make note of the orientation for reassembly till you get in for the alignment. I believe the new LCA's come fully assembled but if you want to upgrade the bushings to solid poly, use the w202 bushings... they are the same size. I couldnt find any listed for the w208
Member
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 179
Likes: 1
From: Isleworth Nr London UK of A
W208 CLK55
Jesus - good job you we not still on the freeway - glad your ok - the bad side of this does not bear thinking about
Never ever seen one go like that before - weird no vibration or noises prior to it going????
Never ever seen one go like that before - weird no vibration or noises prior to it going????
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 494
Likes: 13
From: Amber waves of grain.
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet
Hey guys, let me run something by you.
The vehicle is still in my garage, untouched. A couple of my friends have looked it over, and they seemed convinced that this should not have happened to a 10 year old car--any car--much less a Mercedes. I haven't found anyone that has had an A-Frame (LCA) member fail due to rust, on any car. One of my friends told me today that the more he thought about it, the more motivated he became, and he called MB Corp. (not dealership) customer service and told them about it, and they seem very interested and told him that I should call them. Another friend told me that this might be indicative of a failure that might start occurring more often, as these cars are getting older. This car spent the first 8 years of its life in Massachusetts--long winters, heavy snow & ice, with a lot of salting.
I keep all of my cars for a long, long time. Right now I have a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 1997 BMW Z3 1.9; and my beloved year 2000 CLK, all of which I bought brand new. I've had a host of cars before this that I have owned the same way, and never, never, have I had this suspension (LCA/A-frame) member fail on any of them. I am beginning to think that this is a very dangerous MB/CLK problem that I should get more involved in, rather than just fixing the car.
Give me some feedback. I need some opinions on this.
Thanks.
PS. Here are some more photos.
The vehicle is still in my garage, untouched. A couple of my friends have looked it over, and they seemed convinced that this should not have happened to a 10 year old car--any car--much less a Mercedes. I haven't found anyone that has had an A-Frame (LCA) member fail due to rust, on any car. One of my friends told me today that the more he thought about it, the more motivated he became, and he called MB Corp. (not dealership) customer service and told them about it, and they seem very interested and told him that I should call them. Another friend told me that this might be indicative of a failure that might start occurring more often, as these cars are getting older. This car spent the first 8 years of its life in Massachusetts--long winters, heavy snow & ice, with a lot of salting.
I keep all of my cars for a long, long time. Right now I have a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 1997 BMW Z3 1.9; and my beloved year 2000 CLK, all of which I bought brand new. I've had a host of cars before this that I have owned the same way, and never, never, have I had this suspension (LCA/A-frame) member fail on any of them. I am beginning to think that this is a very dangerous MB/CLK problem that I should get more involved in, rather than just fixing the car.
Give me some feedback. I need some opinions on this.
Thanks.
PS. Here are some more photos.
Super Member
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 502
Likes: 3
From: Bay Area
02 clk 55, 13 GL 450
Hey guys, let me run something by you.
The vehicle is still in my garage, untouched. A couple of my friends have looked it over, and they seemed convinced that this should not have happened to a 10 year old car--any car--much less a Mercedes. I haven't found anyone that has had an A-Frame (LCA) member fail due to rust, on any car. One of my friends told me today that the more he thought about it, the more motivated he became, and he called MB Corp. (not dealership) customer service and told them about it, and they seem very interested and told him that I should call them. Another friend told me that this might be indicative of a failure that might start occurring more often, as these cars are getting older. This car spent the first 8 years of its life in Massachusetts--long winters, heavy snow & ice, with a lot of salting.
I keep all of my cars for a long, long time. Right now I have a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 1997 BMW Z3 1.9; and my beloved year 2000 CLK, all of which I bought brand new. I've had a host of cars before this that I have owned the same way, and never, never, have I had this suspension (LCA/A-frame) member fail on any of them. I am beginning to think that this is a very dangerous MB/CLK problem that I should get more involved in, rather than just fixing the car.
Give me some feedback. I need some opinions on this.
Thanks.
PS. Here are some more photos.
The vehicle is still in my garage, untouched. A couple of my friends have looked it over, and they seemed convinced that this should not have happened to a 10 year old car--any car--much less a Mercedes. I haven't found anyone that has had an A-Frame (LCA) member fail due to rust, on any car. One of my friends told me today that the more he thought about it, the more motivated he became, and he called MB Corp. (not dealership) customer service and told them about it, and they seem very interested and told him that I should call them. Another friend told me that this might be indicative of a failure that might start occurring more often, as these cars are getting older. This car spent the first 8 years of its life in Massachusetts--long winters, heavy snow & ice, with a lot of salting.
I keep all of my cars for a long, long time. Right now I have a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 1997 BMW Z3 1.9; and my beloved year 2000 CLK, all of which I bought brand new. I've had a host of cars before this that I have owned the same way, and never, never, have I had this suspension (LCA/A-frame) member fail on any of them. I am beginning to think that this is a very dangerous MB/CLK problem that I should get more involved in, rather than just fixing the car.
Give me some feedback. I need some opinions on this.
Thanks.
PS. Here are some more photos.
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
2000 E-55
Same failure end of 2012
FWIW - I know this is like 2 years since last post,
but I just had the exact same failure on my 2000 E55. Rotted LCA which failed in the same location. I have a mechanic who previously worked at the local MB dealership for many years (northern Virginia area) and he showed me a drain hole on the bottom of the arm that gets plugged which exacerbates the problem. We looked at the left side LCA ands it was also plugged, but there was no evidence of rust. What we did find on both sides though was the first 3 inches of the bottom of the coil springs had snapped off from the rest of the spring. Hmm....
but I just had the exact same failure on my 2000 E55. Rotted LCA which failed in the same location. I have a mechanic who previously worked at the local MB dealership for many years (northern Virginia area) and he showed me a drain hole on the bottom of the arm that gets plugged which exacerbates the problem. We looked at the left side LCA ands it was also plugged, but there was no evidence of rust. What we did find on both sides though was the first 3 inches of the bottom of the coil springs had snapped off from the rest of the spring. Hmm....
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 494
Likes: 13
From: Amber waves of grain.
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet
FWIW - I know this is like 2 years since last post,
but I just had the exact same failure on my 2000 E55. Rotted LCA which failed in the same location. I have a mechanic who previously worked at the local MB dealership for many years (northern Virginia area) and he showed me a drain hole on the bottom of the arm that gets plugged which exacerbates the problem. We looked at the left side LCA ands it was also plugged, but there was no evidence of rust. What we did find on both sides though was the first 3 inches of the bottom of the coil springs had snapped off from the rest of the spring. Hmm....
but I just had the exact same failure on my 2000 E55. Rotted LCA which failed in the same location. I have a mechanic who previously worked at the local MB dealership for many years (northern Virginia area) and he showed me a drain hole on the bottom of the arm that gets plugged which exacerbates the problem. We looked at the left side LCA ands it was also plugged, but there was no evidence of rust. What we did find on both sides though was the first 3 inches of the bottom of the coil springs had snapped off from the rest of the spring. Hmm....
Your left LCA could very well be rusted on the inside. You'll need some sort of arthroscopic probe to get into it and see. These LCAs are just pressed sheet metal, and MB metallurgy is shoddy, as evidence by 4 coil springs (yours and mine). Your LCA could very well be rusted on the inside. I replaced both. Imagine if your LCA had failed at 75 MPH. MB does not care.
Last edited by Pancho; Jan 9, 2013 at 09:16 PM.
