ZorroAMG

Hey folks...so I decided to take the car in for an overhaul today and had them look over my suspension etc. The garage said I need all six tie rods and the drivers side ball joint replaced. My car has 190,000km and I haven't done any work on those parts since I've owned the car with 130,000km in 2002. It's been lowered substantially since at least 1998 - that means at least 80,000 km and now I feel like there is unnecessary play/wobble.

My question is

6 tie rods at $700 installed and a ball joint for $240 installed ( CAD )

Does that sound right or make sense? I will be getting a 4 wheel alignment done right after obviously.

Thanks for the feedback.

190E 16V

PM sent

flip3d

Holy f...

Do it yourself.

ZedStyle

i think i might have to do some of this stuff soon, so i would be interested to know as well...
i would give installing the tie rods myself a shot, but i think the ball joint will be trickier unless you have all the right tools and what have you.
i'm still recovering from a long and traumatic experience of replacing my rotors and pads, so if you had to ask me right now i would say eff it, pay someone to do the lot!

ZorroAMG

Yeah, it's not worth my time to spend hours sans proper tools to do this job without the proper experience and knowledge. Considering the suspension and rolling stock are the most important safety issue when rolling at high speed, I'd caution anyone less than a moderate shadetree mechanic against this type of work - but that's just me, not wanting to crash haha....

I'm more interested in the price of the work, not whether I should do er myself

flip3d

That just sounds so silly. You can get a brand new control arm with a brand new ball joint and all those tie rods for $600 less than what you got quoted. If you could do it yourself the labor is free.

But hey, to each his own I guess.

ocpanther

I have had several ball joints need to be replaced, a couple I have done myself but none on mercedes. It seems very reasonable for the joint. The tie rods seem a bit steep as the labor is pretty simple but i don;t know the parts prices for them. All in all not a bad quote for all new (assumed factory equivalent) parts.

Saijin_Naib

Mark, have you used the buymbparts page?

See if your shop there would install Mercedes authorized parts that you have sourced/purchased without applying an extra fee.

I got some stuff for my CE and the pricing was excellent and shipping over 100$ is free up to a fairly substantial weight.

http://buymbparts.biz/

Again, not sure if this will save you any money (shipping and your shop) but it may be worth a look.

ZorroAMG

Reading fails you severely. Move along.



Saijin....those parts deliveries are great if you are in the US...to ship stuff to canada costs more than the parts, just did a checkout at autohausaz...it won't save me much. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Am I correct to assume that each tierod set needs to be purchased times 3? They said 6 needed replacing...

Quicksilver500

I am not sure what they mean by tie rods, there are only two in the front, and a drag link and steering shock that connect them. In the back there is a toe link, camber link, thrust link, and LCA. If he is talking about those rear links, then he needs to replace the lower bushings on the wheel carrier, and sway links as well (plastic and they break easily when they get old). NOT worth taking it apart again to do that stuff.

Find out a little more about what he wants to do, also price seems alright for balljoint replacement, they are a pain even though parts are only like 20$. You might ask if he is going to remove the front LCA do it, might have him install new bushings as well and be done with it for another 100$ or so. Front tie rods are like .75 hrs each side at most I would say, its two nuts once the car is up in the air. The rear links are a different story.

-Mike

silversleeves

Hey Zorro,
What shop gave you that quote? Maybe you should shop around a bit?

ZorroAMG

It's a shop I've dealt with in the past - they are good guys, just wanted to do a bit of due diligence...

pifcat2

You may want to get a couple more quotes as prices vary depending on skill and experience. In CA they charge about $100/hour likely more than CAN rates so it may be better to compare the hours per job. Since labor is the bulk of the cost, check costs of new complete lca's with ball joints and bushings already installed. Ball joints can be replaced w/o removing the lca but the bushings have wear too. I'd also get new parts on both sides.

ZorroAMG

So, I got all the work done at the one shop, going to get alignment and steering damper done at another right now, they thought pricing was a little high on labour on the tie-rod assemblies but not off by much. Thanks to 190E-16V for the shop recommendation, Bernie is AWESOME.

Tech dropped me off in my car and watching someone else drive Enzo is a weird thing but DAMN I love the way that car looks....never realized how rad the stance is from the rear...tech is going to work on spacers for my rear and address camber too.

Love this car, regardless of it not being a 500E and it being 20 years old.

W124=DAAAYYUM.

190E 16V

LOL!!!

I hope you told Bernie that it was "S. with the 500E" who sent you. ;-)
His shop is cool - all the BULLET RACING Team, GT class, Porsches are built there.
Bernie loves the 124, too, though.

ZedStyle

haha! i know right! i HATE seeing someone else behind the wheel, even if it's just to pull it into the bay, but its the only time you can appreciate your own car in motion...

ZorroAMG

Yeah, I totally stayed outside my building staring at my car as it drove away, it's weird seeing it in motion...sexy effing car. The tech probably thought I was all worried about my car. I just liked looking at it.

Bringing my 10mm H&R spacers for the rear tomorrow and can't wait to test out the new front end after the alignment.

I'm in love again haha!

PS, little miffed...spent $1200 today at the other shop and they didn't even wash it...Bernie's shop vacs and washes every car, every time.

ZorroAMG

So, a little update:

Did all the tie rod assemblies, the steering dampener, the idler arm, the lower ball joints, the front brakes, great ATEs and ceramic pads, 4 wheel alignment, oil change, fluid top ups, new plugs, cap and rotor, washed and vac'd.....MAN the car feels like the $60,000 CAD car that it once was! Tracks super straight, no brake pulse/warp, speed bumps don't scrape my exhaust anymore, the front end is TOTALLY tight and fantastic!

Just thought I'd share....next up, rear brakes and some minor paint work.

w00t.

190E 16V

It's spring!

I too, got the Bernie's Magic treatment on my car, yesterday.

Oil change, thorough inspection, awesomedeal on electrical module - picked it up, washed and vac'ed and ready for a nice drive home in the sun!!!

Ready to cruise...

ps2cho

I am debating doing my tie rods on my 260E since I will have the springs off and easy access. The car feels tight, but it still has 87k miles on it and are 23 year old parts...

Looks like each side is ~$32...so maybe I should as you said it really tightened up the steering.

ZorroAMG

Do it. You'll see that your parts are not tight once you get the new parts in.

Chappy

W124 FTW!!

CDP

Nice Mark! Glad its all good and tighten up now

Declan

wow....it very expensive price

Monty3038

So had time this weekend to start. Passenger side brakes including rotor... no real issues. Driver side... different story. Alignment set screw in the rotor is already stripped when I get to it. So... try the T30... nothing to grab. Off to the parts store for and extractor. Drill the center hole, insert extractor and begin to turn and it immediately snaps. So now I am in a mess.

Work for 3 hours trying to drill it out, can’t get the center drilled because of the extractor.

Now i I am trying to figure out what to do... can’t break the rotor off because of the set screw... have no torch to melt it loose or heat it out. No way to weld a bolt on to spin it out... will have to find some bits to be able to drill it out. Haven’t even thought about the shock/strut yet.

If if I can’t get it out, will have to find a garage who can and tow it there... any thoughts?