Front Suspension
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Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 20
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From: Charlotte, NC
2004 S430, 2011 E350 Cabriolet, 2010 GL450
Front Suspension
Hi All. I just replaced some front suspension parts. Lower control arm and forward thrust arm and lower ball joint in the spindle. Just a few notes about the job and one question. First.. the question: Can I sell/recycles the old parts? I know the ball joints are bad but the arms are perfect, just need bushing and ball joints. Are they worth anything to anyone as is?
Now to the job. Using the right ball joint splitter is helpful. The auto zone rental ball joint tool is fine for removing the lower ball joint, but not pressing in the new one. I had to take my new ball joint, spindle and breaker bar with 22mm socket to the local benz indie. They let me use their press in their shop at no charge. So nice. When putting it all back together I realized I should have replaced the outer tie rods and also the upper control arms. Right now my car is tight but alignment is off and i don't want to do a new alignment until i get new outer tie rods installed. once aligned i can replace the upper control arms without messing up the alignment. At least I hope that's the case. The first wheel took me a couple days with most of the time being spend looking for a better ball joint press. the second wheel took me about 3 hours. I unhooked the battery and released air pressure from the top of each strut before removing parts. I also jacked up the lower control arm to create weight on the wheels before torquing all the new parts in. I needed heat to remove one of the lower strut nuts. The front ones are always the tough ones to remove. I cleaned all the bolt threads with wire brush then I used blue thread lock on the bolts. heavy work but i'm glad I did it. The dealer was going to charge me a fortune, not only for the labor but also for the parts. I bought Lemforder parts from Autohauz at about 30% of the dealer part costs.
Now to the job. Using the right ball joint splitter is helpful. The auto zone rental ball joint tool is fine for removing the lower ball joint, but not pressing in the new one. I had to take my new ball joint, spindle and breaker bar with 22mm socket to the local benz indie. They let me use their press in their shop at no charge. So nice. When putting it all back together I realized I should have replaced the outer tie rods and also the upper control arms. Right now my car is tight but alignment is off and i don't want to do a new alignment until i get new outer tie rods installed. once aligned i can replace the upper control arms without messing up the alignment. At least I hope that's the case. The first wheel took me a couple days with most of the time being spend looking for a better ball joint press. the second wheel took me about 3 hours. I unhooked the battery and released air pressure from the top of each strut before removing parts. I also jacked up the lower control arm to create weight on the wheels before torquing all the new parts in. I needed heat to remove one of the lower strut nuts. The front ones are always the tough ones to remove. I cleaned all the bolt threads with wire brush then I used blue thread lock on the bolts. heavy work but i'm glad I did it. The dealer was going to charge me a fortune, not only for the labor but also for the parts. I bought Lemforder parts from Autohauz at about 30% of the dealer part costs.
