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I had a rear shock go bad on my R350 after 55,000 miles. You would think that Bilstein shock absorbers would be better than that. It started leaking oil.
Anyway, I replaced both of them and it isn't that hard. You will have to remove the back inner panel (interior of the vehicle). This isn't hard, but you have to pop off the covers and use a torx tool to get the bolts out. The bolts holding them to the lower control arm are EXTREEEEEEMLY tight. Other than the fact that the shocks were only available from the dealer and cost me $400 for the set, it wasn't that hard.
I wonder if you could be more specific about the repair. Exactly what has to be removed
in the interior of the car to get to the top bolts of the rear strut on the r350?
The rear quarter panel has to be removed, two screws very easy then it pops off a couple plastic tabs, pull straight back. Very simple job to replace the rear shocks, the interior panel is not hard to remove just be sure you are clean first.
Just thought I'd bump this old thread with some pics of the quarter panel removed and the location of the upper mounting nuts. Bottom corner of the aft end of the quarter panel has a small torx bolt that needs to be removed, visible when you remove the light bulb access panel (shown attached in the pic). Also learned that it's easier to get the bottom mount bolt off if you detach the upper mount from the body first. Also, when I pulled the shock out it actually didn't feel that bad - I was expecting it to have no damping but it had a significant amount in both jounce and rebound. Can these things last 200K+ miles? Tempted to put it back and return the new ones.
Replacing shocks is subjective, if there is no obvious failure, such as if the tire is bouncing like a basketball on the road, or you can't control the vehicle on bumpy surfaces.
I ran a 2011 VW Touareg 238,000 miles on the factory shocks. Sure, it would have been nice to have new ones but, as you mentioned, there is almost always *some* damping remaining. Whether or not this is acceptable to you is your call.
Thanks, yeah, there's no failure mode, and no leaking, they're bone-dry; the car has 216K on it and I was slightly irritated by what felt like a lack of damping over washboards, and once you notice it you can't un-notice it. My wife couldn't feel it at all and was annoyed at me spending $300 for trying to make it feel new (the difference is I have standards....).
Just thought I'd bump this old thread with some pics of the quarter panel removed and the location of the upper mounting nuts. Bottom corner of the aft end of the quarter panel has a small torx bolt that needs to be removed, visible when you remove the light bulb access panel (shown attached in the pic). Also learned that it's easier to get the bottom mount bolt off if you detach the upper mount from the body first. Also, when I pulled the shock out it actually didn't feel that bad - I was expecting it to have no damping but it had a significant amount in both jounce and rebound. Can these things last 200K+ miles? Tempted to put it back and return the new ones.
I’m in the same boat, did you notice any difference in ride quality after the replacement?
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