I've got a 2010 W212 AWD with 155K miles on it. Love the car, but I just found out I need to replace a rusted rear crossmember. Apparently this is a common fix that is well known on this site and the community, but is gonna cost me $3500. I'm also way over due for shocks/struts/pads/rotors, so I'm looking at over $5K in work the car needs, which is almost more than the car is worth. Does anyone have any insight into other common repairs that'll happen on this vehicle over the next 50K-100K miles? If I sink $5K into it now, I'd like to get at least another 50K miles out of it. But if I'm going to have to sink another 5K into a new differential or something else that is a common repair problem, I'm inclined to dump it for a new car. I haven't had to do many major repairs to this point - I've largely kept up on scheduled maintenance and only had a few minor things along the way. Thjanks!

 

You were overdue for the shocks/struts/pads rotors. I wouldn't lump it in with the rusted rear crossmember. As for the crossmember, it's been mentioned a few times, what exactly is the part number for it? You might look in various junkyards for it, should be cheaper, maybe source it from a rust free state. Pads and rotors I would get from FCPEuro so you don't have to buy them again. Shocks, struts, springs I did a few years back and that was only in the 120k range. FCPEuro also had the rear springs and you could use Bilstein for the shocks/struts which are cheaper than the Sachs which were OEM. I think I got the Bilsteins from Rockauto, a bit cheaper than FCPEuro and Bilsteins have a lifetime warranty anyway so you mind as well get it much cheaper at Rockauto.com. Front springs when I ordered them they were out, got them from a Mercedes dealer and they had to order them from Germany. Common stuff is also the motor/transmission mounts. Otherwise there aren't too much that's too crazy, there's stuff that happens here and there, but it's not that common. With the high price of used/new cars, I'd just fix it for now. Who's giving you the $3500 quote anyway? I'd shop that job around.

 

What do you mean rear differentials are a common repair point? Can you elaborate? what are the symptoms of one thats failing?

Also, the things you list arent more than $1,500-$2k if you get the parts from FCP Euro or Rock auto. If you're a younger guy, a lot of shops will try to flease you, I don't know if it's becuase the're haters or what, but always get a second opinion and honestly, you're better off doing the repair yourself.

 

I think his math includes the $3500 plus $1500 for brakes/springs/shocks/struts which is about what they would cost as rotors and pads aren't that cheap and I did do springs/shocks all around and while they may only be in the $100 range, by the time you get 4 of both it tends to add up. But I highly recommended replacing springs/struts/shocks, doing both the front and rear, feels like a new car again, takes potholes and bumps easily now, before with worn out parts, it felt dead and about to bottom out.

 

I Just check on ROCKAUTO its $100-$150 for two in the rear depending on quality, same thing for the front. If you include the steering stuff $450-$700 depending on quality. so call ir $1,000 front and back. I dont think an an install and alignment is $1,500 worth of work. $500 sure. $750 even but come on now. If you know what you're doing it shouldnt take you too long. They're busting your head on the labor rate. AND on top of all that, they're going to treat your car like a toy, more likely than not.

I don't know gentleman, I only get one day off a week, I'd still rather do it myself than over pay someone else to do it.

 

What are you talking about? Brakes and springs and struts for $1000? Have you checked prices lately? When I did the struts, I did both springs and struts plus the mount, also got the Sachs bumper stop and cover but I shouldn't have bothered, could have just reused the old ones. Zimmerman front rotors are about $100 each and front and rear Akebono pads are $180 from FCPEuro. Rear rotors are about $45 but you would also need the rear parking brake shoes and hardware kit which I would get from Rockauto as FCPEuro wants over $80 for it and it's about $20 for the rear shoes and $20 for the parking brake hardware kit.

 

​​​​​​​Calm down, I'm "highballing" to make a point, that it shouldn't be that expensive... just as you say.

I'm actually due to overhaul my suspension as well. Do you have a good DIY video or write up link? Any pro tips for the process?

 

I've mentioned it in a few post. Never actually did a write up. The shocks and springs for the rear were pretty straight forward. Got the springs from FCPEuro for the rears and got Bilstein shocks from Rockauto. The video for the W211 rear springs were pretty much the same for the W212. You didn't need a spring compressor for the rear springs, by undoing a few bolts, you could just drop the rear arm so that you could just take the spring out by hand. If you follow the sequence in the video it should be fine, tried it do one bolt before the other and couldn't get things to line up, did the same sequence as the video and then it went back in. The front were the same with Bilstein. Rockauto didn't have them listed but going to Bilstein's website, you could look up the part number and then just do a search for the part number on Rockauto and they had them but weren't listed for my car. The Corteco mount I got from FCPeuro, it also came with the strut bearing so you didn't need to order that separately. There's a sachs kit for the bellows and bumper stop but I just reused the old ones as they looked fine and didn't bother using them. I have a knock off copy of the WIS/EPC from eBay so you can just use EPC to get all the correct part numbers for you car and then cross reference them or just search for the part numbers directly. Springs were OEM ordered from a discount online Mercedes dealer. Search for the part number and see which dealer near you has the best total price including shipping, some places have low prices but high shipping but that may be because they are far away from you.