curt5446

Hello all,
Recently purchased an E350 4MATIC and am in the process of piecing together items required to rebuild the front and rear suspension. i.e. control arms, bushings, tie rods etc. The car has ~85k miles on it and I'd like to avoid the hassle of finding bolts when I inevitably break one or two during the process.

Is there a list of replacement bolts somewhere for doing basically all the front and rear control arms?

Thanks in advance!

Curt

CaliBenzDriver

Hey Curt, i am going to volunteer help by saying everything on these cars is specific to a particular VIN with regard to suspensions components.

That means hardly anything is standard because no 2 cars are alike.... don't let that assumption of similarities bite you.

To get your list of part numbers you need to master the EPC... already that takes a fair mind plus practice.

Hands-on EPC is a lesson many of us could benefit from gaining expertise in.

curt5446

Thanks CaliBenzDriver! I've not owned a Benz since my W115 so, I wasn't aware of the variables. I'll have a look at the EPC and see what I'm in for.

Thanks Again!

Luddyludwick

How many miles does the car have? IMO, sounds extreme for pre-100k. My car went way beyond that before even needing shock/struts/air bags. Might be worth waiting until motor mounts, etc., need to be done, then all at the same time.

curt5446

I'm at 86k. Just had an alignment done and one of the bolts for rear toe is seized so, I'm just preemptively collecting all the parts for a full front and rear end rebuild. Control arms, bolts, tie rod ends etc. I hate starting into a job of this magnitude just to have it shut down because a bolt broke. I prefer to have all the parts necessary to do the job. I'll probably tackle engine and trans mounts at the same time.

Luddyludwick

I was also asking because rear Bilsteins for S212s are on backorder forever now apparently. Had to do Sachs for the back on my wagon. Struts are no problem, and haven't looked into sedans.

The kind of job you mention is prime for a RockAuto or other discount sale...could save a ton of money that way!

ChrisHimself

i've been pulling out perfectly fine bushings/control arms for years at around that mileage because people were told they had to do it at 100k per FCP/the internet. I'd replace that bolt in question though, so the way to go is use those MB parts stores online, enter your VIN, they do a background check on your order to make sure you have the right parts

https://www.mboemparts.com/ is one of my favorite sites, they actually saved me from ordering the wrong sway bar because theres like 8 of them for the W212/S212

definitely do the trans mount though, my engine mounts were fine at 120. The trans mount is hollow rubber so it blows out really fast.. At 86k the sway bar links will start to go, other than that just replace whats actually broken.