I went to my indie today to change the brake fluid. Soon after my credit was up the hoist, the mechanic came to tell me the right left spring had broken. Luckily they had the spring in stock and it was changed. He also told me that the rear shock absorbers were weak but this could wait.

Not sure how the spring got broken. Maybe the age of the car 10yrs old and 180k miles. Maybe I hit a pot hole.

Questions:
1. Should the spring be replace in pair? I changed only one and I drove on the highway and did not feel any problem.
2. Should I do am alignment after the spring change?

 

Spring breakage is usually due to corrosion on the spring wire in places like Canada.

Only replace as a pair if ride height is uneven.

Only do alignment if they disturbed rear toe.

 

Yes, corrision is another main possibility They sprayed lots of salts here in winters.

Rear toe in the front tire? Not sure if the mechanics disturbed it or not.

I will be replacing the rear shocks in a few weeks. I do feel the car bounces not too "controlled" when goes over speed bumps. Should an alignment be performed after changing the rear shocks?

Also, since I will buy the shocks from the dealership and get them installed by an inide, are they any extra bolts and nuts I should buy?

 

Benz runs toe-in on the rear wheels. This must be correct.

See Wiki.

https://mbworld.org/wiki/images/3/3f...t_Rear_Toe.pdf

 

Today I had a flat and when the tire store examined the tire, the tire was badly worn on one side ( I saw it and it was very, very bad) and there was a small cut on it. Probably it was worn so thin and any road debris would cut it. I have ordered new tire.

The tire guy said he rarely see a tire worn so bad. So, my question is would this be caused possibly by the broken string? The broken spring was in front-left and the worn tire is in front-right.

Also, because it was an emergency, I changed only one spring last time. Would this be the culprit?