My '96 E320 seems to be plagued with rust. I had the two rear doors below the molding painted to repair rust last Spring. Now the car is in the shop for spring perch replacement (MB stepped up with 75% of the cost to do -- very costly). Plus, the deck lid is rusting around the lock cylinder. This is a garaged, 75K mile car! I asked the dealer about repairing the lid at the same time as the spring perches, but they said the fix is to replace the lid! At a cost of $1600. Anyone have similar experience? Luck with repairing deck lids? Thanks, all.
John

 

which ones the deck lid? sorry, can't visualise it, and i'm not sure what a deck lid is? but having the rust that your've having is pretty weird. are you staying by the beach or something?

 

I'm in Chicago and the car is garaged, but driven all year. It's extraordinary because I haven't seen this on any other cars lately. Also have BMWs and haven't experienced there.

 

now that's wayyy too weird! first time i've heard of rust near the trunk lid lock..

i've had rust on my panels when the paint chipped off, and nothing else..

but snow in Chicago could do some damages..

$1600 for the whole trunk lid is pricey..could you just send it in for a respray, or just change the locks?

 

it might be easier to find on off a totaled benz and ****** that one then having mercedes do it.

 

I'm in Chicago as well and I just had my trunk lid repaired for rust around the receiver/lock. I got quotes from several shops at $600-800 to repair, $1200 to replace. I finally ended up getting it done at a local shop for $325. They cut out the steel and welded new and then resprayed the lid. The bodyshop said that this is common up to the 1998 model year due to poor paint prep at the factory in that area.

Having just looked at many E320 and E420s, I found that more than 70% of the cars had rust or the start of rust in this area. Unfortunately myh car was built before the 10/100 corrosion warranty.

 

i also had this problem on my e36 amg. Took it to my local benz dealer in dundee scotland and the service manager ( who is allways helpfull) told me that it was a design fault on pre 98 w210 cars. As my car was over six years old and outwith the mobilo life warranty he said it would normally not be covered but took up my case with mb and as a goodwill gesture they covered the cost of a new boot and matching paintjob.They did a very good job and i am totally happy with the service i got from this dealership. It's a shame that all dealerships are not created equal. As for the fault on the lock it seems that the rubber surround rubs the paint away where the lock touches the paintwork, through opening and closing and vibration, letting dreaded moisture in and rusting then occurs. hope this helps carl

 

I had rust on my 99 E430 under the rubber issulation around driver side front door .

 

i have rust under the rockerpanel on the driver side door and it started to bubble up the the bottomside.i went to my dealer and found out that some other dealer in my state perform a tecnical service bullintin (TSB)on my car iam the secound onwer now i just brought my car 2 month ago and found out that this is a common problem on 98-02 e 320 so i checked my car for rust and found rust on driver side kick panel so i went to my local dealer cause i found that this tsb was perform in 2005 i wasnt the owener then but it was perform to prevent rust from forming on the car. .they told me that they will check up on this and will let the warranty know about my case and that they will call me the next day.i hope they can help me in this problem cause this is a factory defect i live in florida and my car is a florida vehicle.

 

Sadly, this car appears to be rust prone -- something we haven't seen on many cars for a long time, certainly not cars at this price point. I have since traded the car due to frustration with the number and expense of repairs. But I still like them and watch them, so I notice more and more are rusty. They're so pretty and they drive so well that it breaks your heart to see them rotting away. And you really have to watch out for those spring perches...that could be deadly. Good luck with fixing your car. Florida is the right place to have that car!

 

what a spring perches?

 

They are the brackets the top of your front coil springs attach to and are technically part of the frame/suspension. They have the weight of the car on them. They can rust, the welds can separate and they can break loose while driving, meaning that one corner of the car collapses as the spring goes up into the fender. They were supposedly not properly caulked/rustproofed at the factory. My car was six years old when a MB tech told me one was "hanging on by a thread" and the car was unsafe to drive. The repair was very costly, in the thousands, but I complained and got MB to kick in 75%.

 

unfortunately u can keep spendin $$ for rust repair but it'll keep comin back, only more.

MB does not make cars like they used to, all MBs rust prematurely, and the fact that MB only offers 5 yr rust warranty is a f##kin joke. Many other brands offer 12 yr/unlimited mile rust warranties.

 

107k on my Jersey 210 and I just had my suspension replaced. I had the perches inspected and not a hint of a flake to be seen. they were factory perfect.

 

they just look on the outside and not on the inside?They need to peel off the mastic and examine the welds and perch.Many a perfect looking spring mount has looked fine only to fail shortly after.The only way to inspect properly and in nj rust prone state you need to have it examined properly is strip off the mastic.
ohlord

 

No, no Mastic came off, I thought about it but didn't tell them to do that. The reason is that the pics I've seen of rusted perches showed the flaking disrupting the mastic and giving a bubbled appearance, like under paint. No sign of that at all, and the spring mounts looked perfect (I had springs and shocks replaced) so I didn't think that I needed to go digging under the Mastic.

 

Plenty have failed that looked perfect.By the time it is bubbled up and rusty on the surface it is already long past gone
Peel off,inspect,if fine eastwood POR and seal it up.