CLK320 LSD (Quaife) Install


Main Idea is to remove right knuckle with the right axle and then move differential to the right and down. This way you need to undo suspension only on one side.
1. Unbolt all control arms from the right knuckle.
2. Remove rear swaybar.
3. Disconnect brake pads wear sensor wire, abs sensor and parking brake cable and remove the right caliper.
4. Pry right axle out.
4. Drain differential fluid.
5. Support the differential case with a jack and unbolt 3 bolts holding it. It's a bit tricky on convertible car, but I used hex socket and was turning it with a wrench.
6. Pry out the left axle and remove the differential.
I didn't remove swaybar at first, which was a big mistake

Last edited by dzmitry; Dec 25, 2019 at 12:47 AM.


8. Remove axle seals and using appropriate tool remove snap rings. It is very important to mark which snap ring, bearing and bearing race come from which side! Thickness of span rings control differential backlash.


10. Install the ring gear on new differential (I heated up the ring gear with a heat gun to get it on the new diff). Tight bolts to 85nm (spec for clk320). I used a pry bar to hold differential. Reinstall differential bearings.


12. Insert the differential into the differential housing.
13. Check a backlash. It should be withing 0.10 and 0.16mm. In my case it was around 0.11mm
14. I used Loctite 5970 (recommended by Mercedes) to seal the rear cover and Titan sintopoid 75w90 fluid (recommended by Quaife)
15. Put everything back together and go to an alignment shop


Convertibles have 210-353-16-01 and coupes have 210-353-15-01. On convertible version rear gear is mounted 3mm further from pinion gear. And since QDF300B, which is according to Quaife should be compatible with clk320 convertible won't work as is. I contacted them and I think they will start offering a shim for 320 convertibles to fix this issue. I resolved it with simple swapping 3.27 differential from coupe version


