Hi,

I just inherited a 1995 e420 (now my second) from my father who did not take care of this car. However, it is another special edition model, and I decided to fix it up and keep it. I've done everything myself such as the struts, starter, wire harness, etc. However, there is this annoying squealing sound from the drivers side of the car. My inspection says that both of the front ball joints are bad. He disagreed and tthought is was just the control arm bushings.

Last week, I took it to three different European model shops. Two agreed with me while one agreed with my dad. The third shop changed their mind when my dad said he had been driving with the squealing sound for the last 3 years. (In these last three years, he has taken the car from 150k to 370k miles.) Thus in theory, the ball joints should have broken by now.

So here comes my two questions:

1. Should I go ahead and just replace the ball joints with this much controversy.

2. The reason I ask is because all three people said that the ball joint had to be welded on to the control arm, something that could only be gotten for the MB dealer who is charging $510 an arm. Is it true that the ball joint for the special edition e420s had to be welded on or can I just buy the standard arm off peachparts and then give it to one of them to install

I am actually not going to install this part myself based on how dangerous it can be to install it wrong.

Thanks for the help.

 

On my '93 400E, I purchased new control arms that came complete with new bushings and ball joints. Less than $200 per side, HERE. I then paid a local MB specialist shop 2 hours of labor to install them.