W208 CLK Inner Arch Rust Rotten
 

Hi Folks,

To my horror over the weekend I noticed whilst under the bonnet that the inner arches are pretty much completely rotten on my 2000 CLK Convertible. I could push through if minded as when exerting minimal pressure on the arch liner, I can see the rust move / disintegrate. The question is firstly is this an MOT failure and secondly what would be involved in having this corrected by a body shop. The exterior of the car is more or less rust free and looks pretty much immaculate so such a shame this has happened behind the scenes. It must have been like this for some time, this car hasn't seen rain for 2 years.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...959339cdd4.jpg

The nearside (shown) is far worse than offside but it's not far behind.

Thanks all...

Before spending any more money, consider having a good hard look at the whole of your car as this is unlikely to be the only corrosion present.

This could include taking off both front wings and the plastic rear wheel arch linings. On my car, I cut off the plastic 10mm nuts that hold the inner wheel linings in place as several of the bolts snapped when I tried to spanner them off.

Also check carefully the rear suspension wishbones. One of my rear wishbones snapped last year causing the whole suspension to collapse. Fortunately, this happened when the car was stationery and not 5 minutes earlier when driving at 60mph which could have been literally fatal.

This will give you a better idea of the extent of the rot.

Thanks to MB's use of water based paint from about 1995 to 2004, many MBs of that age are now rust buckets.

Over 4 years of ownership, I've spent about £3000 on welding and many hours attempting to sand down rust patches and applying rust converter, hammerite and underseal. Far more than the car is worth.

I do love my 208 convertible, particularly in this lovely weather, but with hindsight I would have much better off spending a bit more to get a less rusty 209 and save myself a whole heap of hassle.

Good luck.

I had a local MB specialist look at the rot and he wasn't overly concerned. His view was that whilst it could be cut out / repaired it would be expensive. I may as well enjoy the car while I can etc.

I only do ~1000 miles in this car a year and it's garaged; it never sees rain. So it shouldn't really get worse.

I've owned this W208 convertible for 10 years and until the last couple of years it was my daily driver. It was a one lady owner prior to me.

I much prefer the look of the W208 to the W209 and I suspect one day they may be in demand. At the moment though, repairing them makes little economic sense. I've spent way more than the car is worth in the last year alone. I've had front top and bottom wishbones replaced, new ARB bushes and a diff overhaul as it was leaking.

Great news. Enjoy!