2011WhiteE350

hi all,
I'm changing the rear brake pad on my car and while i have the wheel off, i've noticed that the rear driver spring is broken.


I have many cars in my life and this is the first encounter I have with OEM spring. My thoughts is the spring always out last the life of the vehicle under normal condition.
has anyone had this problem before???

MBENZTECH

Just by looking at your picture I can tell you in the North due to corrosion. Corrosion is what caused this issue.

cetialpha5

Springs never outlast the car, they wear out just like struts/shocks. I just changed mine not too long ago, it was sitting lower than usual. Side by side, they were identical in height but once they were in, the rears were higher than before. If you're going to do the springs, you should do the shocks too at the same time as you have to disconnect the shock anyway to replace the spring. Luckily you can just replace the spring without a compressor, it's basically the same as the W211. I think I got mine on FCPeuro.

2011WhiteE350

Yeah.. I live in the North East so the car takes a little beating in Winter time.

2011WhiteE350

My car just reaches 100k miles.
If i change the shocks, should i change both sides so the rear can be the same height?

cetialpha5

Yes, you always change shocks in pairs. I changed my shocks because I notice some strange wear pattern on the rear tires. I think from reading up on it, it said it was from worn shocks. It's basically the springs that control ride height, not shocks so change both springs if you want ride height.