gorillajin

Hi,

I can feel slight vibration while idling, but if I depressed accel and hold around 1000 rpm or 2000 rpm, no vibration at all.
Can this be bad engine mounts?
It has 167k miles and I believe that both of them have never been changed.
A new belt, a guide pulley, and a tensioning shock absorber.

Thanks.

ps2cho

Could be. Only real way to tell is to pull them off and see visually what they are like. W124 mounts are hydraulic so you should be able to hear fluid in them. Any cracks or dents, just replace them. IIRC they are like $40/each

gorillajin

Thank you for the reply.
Since it's not that bad, I will drive a few more weeks and see how it goes.
I hope it's just the mounts....

rivcal4life

Replacing the engine mounts was one of the most rewarding repairs I ever did on my 300e. The symptoms point to them. Swap em out! I believe there is a decent writeup on here for it. Just be careful not to drop the bolt holding the mount on thr driver side into the crossmember like I and a few other guys ended up doing. Plus you will want to remove the air filter assembly completely. It's possible to do without removing it, but muuuccchh easier to do the driver side if u just take it off. Good luck!

taxi driver

Right so, I have changed mounts on the 500E C43 CLK and if I was buying
another Mercedes then first service surely would be eng/gearb. mounts.
BTW do you have a nice picture of your 500E for a change? Roger

appatula

This is the ONLY thing I have not done and I've been suffering with that vibration since day 1. Is it a basic procedure, loosen the mount bolt, jack the engine up via the mount bracket, pry out, put new one in and bolt up?

ps2cho

^ Yep! Use a 2x4 on the jack so not to damage the oil pan. The right side one is a little fiddly to get to because its not a straight shot. If you want to make it easy...you can pull off the fuel distributor assembly (the whole thing air flap and all) as one unit. After its removed the throttle plate underneath is exposed, you can see and access the bolt very easy. No need to go crawling under the car trying to feel the top of the bolt. More time consuming though.

It may be a good excuse to pull it off so you can check for cracks in the distributor boot and the vacuum hoses underneath and clean everything all up.

gorillajin

Any pictures how to do this job?

ps2cho

It's very straight forward...Just remove bolt from mount and when clear from the engine, remove and replace. It's more work making sure the engine is safe than anything else.

Glocker

Same thing happened to my dads W124 300E.
I was driving his car and was on a stop light all of a sudden when idling the steering wheel was shaking. We changed motor mounts.

CDP

This reminds me - Need to change mine!

bsmuwk

Mine are long overdue actually. I'll do them when I come home from school tomorrow. This thread is an inspiration!

bsmuwk

Well, I changed mine last night. Passenger side was cakewalk. After not being done for 103,000 on my car, those bolts were STUCK in there. Had to put all my 210lb body into breaking them loose. Drivers side was tricky. Other's went down by removing the air flow meter/fuel distributor and going down through the intake manifold. I tried something similar, but it didn't work out and I don't want to mess around with stuff I don't have to remove. I opted to take a tighter route, I removed the ignition coil put and put it to the side. Then just wiggle your arm in where the motor mounts sit and feel around for that 17mm bolt on top. Drivers side was WAY more difficult to break free than the passenger side. PB blast, let it sit for 5 minutes, add some more PB blast, then wait 10 minutes. Broke free easily.

Engine sits noticeably higher in the engine bay. ALL shaking is gone gone gone! My steering wheel went from jackhammer to "is the car on?" The difference is completely worth my bruised knuckles and stripped skin. So if y'all are having some vibrations, it's time to do those engine mounts.

ps2cho

Yep you can definitely see you needed it. Thanks for tip about the ignition coil.

gorillajin

thank you so much for the tip. I gotta do this someday, but I just have no time recently. I will follow your way bsmuwk!

appatula

Bah! I guess I'll waste away some more green, it's only because I love her.....

would you guys go for aftermarket OE or strongly suggest that this is one of those rare "get it from the dealership OEM" parts??

bsmuwk

Get your mounts at the dealership. Aftermarket cost half as much, but they'll only last half as long. That's the trade. The one's I put in were genuine Mercedes parts and you can feel it.

ps2cho

I got mine from autohausarizona (Sachs-Boge) and have had no problems here. $60/each. I would expect you will be paying $100+ for each at the dealership.

bsmuwk

If y'all were MBCA members you'd get some discounts and be paying a similar price to those autohausaz parts.

I'll still be buying rubber parts from the dealer. Some things are just worth to get at a dealership.

appatula

If I had a beautiful CE Sportline I think I'd take my butt to the dealership. I think autohausaz will suffice for now if its decent compared to the OEM stuff. Thanks for your suggestions guys!

bsmuwk

She's not THAT beautiful. lol

I don't think the dealership mounts are that much more expensive than the Autohaus ones. I'll give my local dealership a call tomorrow and see how much they are.

ALLDATAdiy INFO

She looks MINT!

bsmuwk

Close to it, lol.

Back to motor mounts! Hydraulic..yeah!

herrick9

Late to the party here but so grateful for all the comments and or concerns with the swap out of the motor mounts. Parts resourcing has changed so much since '14 with vast amounts Chineses investment in German auto part cos. Even venerable OEM German co's like Lemfoerder have gone the Asian investment route while equally iconic brands like BEHR are now making their radiators in S. Africa. "Times they are a changin" indeed....