Let me start by mentioning some of this is covered in a suspension thread in another forum, but I thought I'd move it here so everyone in the W209 forum can hear/comment/commiserate with me here...

I have a CLK350 from 2008. Has about 140k miles on it. Is a great car, and I enjoy it very much. I purchased 4 years ago, have about $1k left in payments on her, and she is generally in great shape. Recently though I took her in for her B service and came away with a $6500 estimate for repairs. Strut leaking on the driver side ($1100), control arms worn and needing replaced ($2000 or more for all 4), tires needed ($1100), brakes ($1400), etc.

Being that I don't feel $6500 is justified, I paid for the B Service (around $400) and left. I decided, since the strut on the driver side was indicated as leaking but not failed yet, at the last A service, that it probably needed replaced while I was doing the brakes. I finished the brakes with minimal issues (primarily a set screw that couldn't be removed due to being stripped so had to drill out the rotor to remove, and set about replacing the driver side strut.

I purchase the strut, a SACHS replacement from AutohausAZ, who had the best deal with shipping to me, around $165. I purchased the correct strut and when it arrived (with the brake parts) started on it after finishing the brakes. As the car was already up in the air and ready to go, the start went well. Removed the old assembly, no problem. Put the spring compressor on it, was a very tight fit, but managed to disassemble and with a few hours of tinkering, assemble the new strut into the assembly. Finally with everything put back together I put it on the car. I ran into some issues with the gap at the top and adjusted the top stop a bit, but didn't notice it was still about 3 mm above the rubber bumper. Which apparently is normal, and things drove normally. All seemed well in the world.

Well... I know that you normally replace struts/shocks in pairs... so I ordered the passenger side strut. A week or so later it arrived, and this past weekend I started to put it on.

Off came the wheel, car in the air, bolts removed and old strut came out no problem. I removed the small retention ring (was a bit difficult as there still was a bit of pressure on the top mount, and successfully disassembled everything. this is where the trouble began. I took the new strut from the box and attempted to assemble. The new strut did not have the rubber bumpers in the spring 'collar' or 'shelf' or whatever it is called. So I removed them from the old one and put in the new one. 1 1/2 hours in so far, I continue reassembly. Next, the spring compressor is too much in the way to make this assembly work... can't get it past the same spring 'shelf' so I remove the spring compressor and readjust. 3 hours later, and many, many attempts, including removing and adjusting the spring compressor 6 times, I am no closer. So I surrender and go to AutoZone (parts store here in US) and rent a heavy duty compressor like I see people using in the videos.

With the other compressor removed, and the heavy duty now shrinking the spring to the smallest I've been able to get it, I easily reassemble the whole assembly. the spring compressor is touching the top mount and the 'shelf' as well, and I wonder if it will come out. Nope.

As I decompress the spring it touches too much of the shelf and is stuck. Hammer.... no effect. Hydraulic jack to remove, no effect. Use original compressor to shrink the spring inside the heavy duty compressor (the top and bottom piece to reduce contact), no go and now the original compressor is stuck.

I manage to get the original spring compressor out. Am now 7 hours in and extremely frustrated. So I quit for the evening.

Next day, after work, start again. I remove the top mount and take the spring off. Now I expand the heavy duty compressor fully and it 'pops' and I still can't expand enough to remove the spring. Something in it failed. So I have to tighten it slightly, then use the original compressor to shrink the spring and remove it from the heavy duty compressor. I take the heavy duty compressor all the way shut again and return it to the store.

I re-compress the spring with the original compressor and it is going on no matter what. A little pounding and pressure and I've got it on over the shelf, roughly in position. More complaining and pushing and the top mount goes on. With a ton of effort I get the retaining ring in. Now to tighten. I wore a hole in my hand but with enough pressure the retaining ring is all the way tight (I have no air tools nor a socket that fits the little ring removal tool, have to do it by hand with a wrench).

So now to get the compressor off. I remove the compression rods and have to pound out the clips/brackets. Voila! The assembly is back together and ready to go on the car. I put it back together, tighten everything correctly, and have about a 10-12 mm gap at the top bracket from the rubber stop. Ok, well, inspecting the other shows it has a gap too, and I figure it will adjust as I drive it. remove all of the tools, put it on the ground and go for a test spin. It drives fine, but has a rattle. Only on the down swing of the tire. Upswing is quiet.

With no time left, and now being dark and late, and about 12 hours into this repair, I surrender and go to bed. After driving to work the next day and back, and listening to the rattle, I am convinced that top gap is the problem. Back up on jack stands. Tire off, assembly removed and inspected and I find the rubber 'boot' that fits into the strut mount in the frame, is cracked all around the center now. Also that the little fins on the top of it (not the retaining ring, but the fins on the rubber boot that are metal) are now sheared off. And, inspecting the stabilizer bar indicates that it is shot too, as it freely moves at the top and the rubber is cracked and shattered.

With no options, no time and no parts, the only thing I can do is put it back together. So it goes back together, after rotating the top boot 180 degrees, as I think it fits better that way. The gap at the top retaining bracket is now around 3mm, so I think we're better. Down off the jack stands, drive around the block, still rattles, perhaps a bit less, but it will have to do.

Mowed the grass and ordered a new top mount, stabilizer bars (for both sides) and a new retaining clip. When they arrive, will put them on and see if the 'klunk' goes away (if I can compress the spring and reassemble effectively). Otherwise, if that doesn't fix it, will have to go to dealer and have them repair, which I assume will be around $1100 for the original shock replacement, plus any other parts I've damaged.

While I love this car, and it looks as if Mercedes continues to build cars the user can service, I'm extremely frustrated at this point... what worked well on one side didn't on the other, and most of the frustration is probably due to user error, and I'm open for suggestions...

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

Buy a Toyota? I sometimes wish I bought a Toyota Solara instead of my car lol. Way slower, but really nice and way more reliable.

Why not just have an indy mechanic (specializing in Mercedes) do the work? kind of a happy medium between paying dealer prices and not having to do the work yourself...

I'm not mechanically knowledgeable enough to have any other suggestions.

 

LOl on the Toyota comment. The indy mechanic is an option but honestly just moved here and know no-one that I would trust to touch it. I live in an area full of expensive cars, and few mechanics who can work on them, at least that I've found. So I will eventually find one... and likely try one before the dealer if this doesn't work, but these cars should be serviceable by any able bodied halfway intelligent person (that is a slam against me not anyone else), so this shouldn't be this hard...

 

"The indy mechanic is an option but honestly just moved here and know no-one... I live in an area full of expensive cars"


Many expensive neighborhoods or areas have a local BMW race club. Go meet some of those members & see if they can do the work for you or if they can recommend a local indie.

 

Not going to lie, the design of the front spring and strut on W209 and W203 is not very DIY friendly even with the right tools. The top mount sits at a good angle compared to the bottom and the spring is fairly short and wide so less vertical range for a tool to compress. I had to use spacers underneath to keep the strut vertical when compressing with hydraulic spring compressor. Just awkward as hell because you are messing with something that can kill you.

To top it all off the top rubber mount/bearing can trip you up badly if you don't align and seat it perfectly before you put weight on the whole assembly.

 

I guess it is sad that the BMW club would be where to turn rather than a Merc club... but I get your point.

 

I am beginning to see your point on the top rubber mount. Is there a drawing that shows the right angle to place it before inserting in the top? I think I have it right, but perhaps I don't?

 

It's a keyed fit so the mount only fits in one specific way (afaik). I used a 2nd jack to lift the whole assembly slowly from underneath and watched the rubber mount from the top opening as it seated. It will be obvious if you didn't align it correctly.

 

You would think. But it can be turned 180 degrees and fit, and I am not sure which is correct

 

It's not, see pic below. Two of the bigger notches are slightly different in size. It's a bit deceptive because the mount will squeeze in with weight but won't sit 100%.

 

My years of experience have taught me to take the struts to a shop with a wall mounted spring compressor. There is a paucity of room to manage adequate compression and you really should get the proper socket adapter for the little retaining ring which literally costs next to nothing at the dealership. Make sure you have the mounts in the proper orientation as well.

 

Thanks, have the strut nut socket and it sheared off today, waiting on new one for tomorrow. The socket to do it costs $25 with shipping and no one carries locally.

As as far as compression, adequate doesn’t seem to be the problem, as each turn of spring is touching, the location of the screws on the compressor being too close and not clearing the shelf and top mount.

 

I did find the right way it goes, and it is in, just can’t get the retaining nut far enough in to have the top bracket attached... hopefully tomorrow.

 

I feel you. I just started to re-do my entire front suspension/control arms/sway bar this weekend and got stuck. My car came with standard suspension. I decided since I was replacing everything I would swap in the sport suspension struts and the larger CLK63 AMG sway bar. I thought I did my homework and bought everything I needed, but apparently not. I pulled a front strut and barely get the spring out with the cheap spring compressor tool I have. I go to swap it onto the sport suspension struts and apparently the strut rod is about 20mm shorter and nothing I do will get that standard spring compressed enough to re-assemble the strut. Apparently there were different springs offered on this car (3 yellow dash marks, 2 red dash marks, and 3 dash marks) and I am thinking I need the correct sport suspension spring to match with the sport strut.

Coming from Japanese cars, this car is quite frustrating to work on. With a set of 8, 10, 12, 15, 19mm sockets I can basically disassemble my wife's entire Subaru Impreza. I think I needed about 5X as many tools to work on the CLK. Definitely not the most user friendly car to work on.

 

eeuroparts.com has the whole assembly for the front struts on their website, but it's been back ordered forever. I'm still waiting for them to have all the parts in so I can order it and have it installed. My understanding is that the installation process is significantly streamlined with the pre-assembled components.

https://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/419...ion-103K10187/


Little backstory that might help some people installing new front struts: One of my front struts was leaking when I bought my car a few months back, so I had the front struts replaced. Unfortunately, my mechanic did not recommend that I also replace some of the other components at the same time (mount plate, etc.), so now I have creaking-type noises when going over bumps at slow speed. It's more pronounced when cold. So from my experience, it may be worthwhile to replace the mount plate, bump stop, and maybe some other components as well when installing new struts. It seems like you guys already have this handled, but hopefully sharing this experience will help someone avoid my costly (and annoying!) mistake.

 

Thanks everyone. My current situation is I have now replaced both front struts, both stabilizer links and one strut mount top plate and bump stop. I just received my new strut nut tool so since I can't get the rod extended enough through it to mount the top plate/nut and have been driving on it two days, will try to move that strut nut lower (hopefully tonight) so I can get the top plate on and the nut... then I will be done. My 'klunk' is gone now, and it drives ok... once I get the top piece on, next step is to save for control arms and tires (alignment seems needed after all of this work). Thanks for the support... once I get the top parts back on I'll let you all know.

 

THe new strut nut socket tool arrived late yesterday and I am happy to report worked well. I was able to secure the strut nut fully, which gave plenty of clearance for the top strut bracket to be installed and the top nut tightened fully. All appears well.

Now on to find some reasonably priced tires and see if someone will align it with the control arms still needing replaced... as I can't afford all of it now...

 

Who makes coil overs for the W209 series ? For petes sake the car was in production for almost 9 years or so.
Bilstein part number 22-141705 for the front, can anyone cross reference this for a company like BC Racing ? I emailed them twice and no reply. I don't know of another company out there that has a good reputation for coil overs.

 

Made this for myself but it might come in handy for anyone looking to rebuild the suspension. Parts are reasonable from mbusa parts.



2006 MERCEDES-BENZ CLK350 W209 W272 FRONT SUSPENSION - SWAY BAR NON SPORT MODEL

2006 MERCEDES-BENZ CLK350 W209 W272 REAR SUSPENSION - NON SPORT MODEL

Hope this helps someone 👍

 

Really useful stuff guys - thanks for posting.

 

Rear Suspension

 

I have a 2006 CLK350 and have been looking for coil overs for mine as well. ST Suspensions which is a division of KW makes two options for the CLK W209. I have a set on my 2016 Audi SQ5 and they are great. You might want to check with Nemesis Motorsports which is where I got my set. Very knowledgeable, friendly and helps to make sure you get the right setup for your particular vehicle. Plus their prices are great and include shipping