arcasta

Greetings All,

Stuck here. Front spring broke overnight (not airmatic). Pulled both struts and had my mechanic put in German aftermarket springs. Now reinstalling and the three small upper bolts (studs) in the shock mount don't align with the body holes.

How do you turn these to match up as there is no top bearing like Audi/Honda and others?

Thanks in advance!

Anton

Strigoi

Did you get the wrong aftermarket parts?

arcasta

Hi Strigoi - not the wrong parts. I only ordered the springs. The strut (including the top mount) is original. I suspect the mechanic should have marked the alignment of upper mount and the lower fork portion of the strut before he replaced the spring. So what can I do now? Perhaps compress the spring a bit and then try and turn the top? I have a small spring compressor I just purchased but it will only compress about 3 to 4 inches of this spring and that's why I ended up going to the mechanic.

Grateful for ideas.

Anton

Here are some photos:


2007 E350 (W211) 4Matic front strut with new Suplex coil spring ( 2113211504) matches original 1 blue and 3 white stripes


2007 E350 (W211) 4Matic front strut with new Suplex coil spring ( 2113211504) matches original 1 blue and 3 white stripes


2007 E350 (W211) 4Matic front strut with new Suplex coil spring ( 2113211504) matches original 1 blue and 3 white stripes

kajtek1

That's where phone cameras come very handy.
Would you take picture before removal, you'd know and now we can only guess.
Coming to spring compression, those things can be deadly, so don't use tools inadequate for the job.
At this point I would advise you to take it to real professionals.

ps2cho

The upper mount is fixed, but the strut Should rotate for turning. Sounds like you just need to clamp the mount in a vice and twist the strut at its housing.