Hey Nick,

It seems we both replied at the same minute lol! So I just popped my hood and they definitely look like there is a big gap in them. I am sorry to be asking so many questions but I just don't understand. I am assuming the washers go between the piece that you use the scanner on and the strut tower.. you can see the marks where the piece bottoms out on it. I guess my question is, once you put a scanner on that piece after removing the connector then what do you take off? Does that piece twist off with the scanner and then it's just a shaft that you drop the washers down onto? Is this going to ride as good or am I better off buying two new struts? I don't want to spend thousands of dollars if I don't have to but I want it right and I want to be able to drive it without dying when I surge into the other lane lol!

I see a pretty big gap there between your strut tower and the bushing
Attachment 359947

why don't you just buy some m20 rubber washers , slice a cut in them and coat them in epoxy in one side , then slip them between the strut tower and existing bushing , to close up that open
gap ? Should take all of ten seconds

Thanks that's what I was thinking but when on the freeway and just hitting uneven road without bumping the car will surge to the side.. so if the strut is causing that it's because there is no down force on the tire I'm thinking.. if that's the case I would need to put enough so there is pressure on them right? I'm wondering if this fix is going to even work for the issue I'm having. With how bad the freeways are here and this being a scary issue being slingshot into the next lane I'm wondering if I should just spend the money and replace them.. if the bushings would solve it and ride the same I'd rather go that route but I can't have my family drive in a car that shoots to the side like this.

Chris,

The looseness in the bushings does not affect the down-force on the tire. Adding the rubber washers will not change the down-force on the tire. The full weight of the car is sitting on the struts.

The ABC cars do not have antisway bars. They depend upon the hydraulic struts to control the body movement of the car at all times.

If the top bushings are worn, so that there is space between the bushings on the top of the strut and the tops of the strut towers, there will be looseness when the body moves up. If the car hits a ridge in the highway that runs along (not across) the road, the front tires may try to follow the ridge. (Suspension engineers call this "trolley-tracking", since it was first very noticeable when the early cars ran parallel to the trolley tracks commonly found in the streets then.)

If the suspension bushings are all firm and tight, the ABC suspension has no problem controlling the small movement, and it is not noticeable. With the clearance between the bushings and the body that your car shows, when the front tire hits the ridge and tries to follow it, the looseness lets the body move in lateral roll, and that small movement is magnified to a noticeable amount.

If you could simply hold the steering wheel rock-steady, the movement would almost instantly damp out, and the car would hardly move off-line. Unfortunately, virtually no one can just hold the wheel steady and ignore the small movement. Everyone automatically tries to correct for the movement, and when the car almost instantly settles, the driver's correction is usually much larger than the car's initial movement. The driver than tries to correct his correction, and over-corrects in the opposite direction. The result is what aeronautical engineers call "PIO" - Pilot Induced Oscillation.

If you do as several folks have suggested, and add firm rubber washers to fill the gaps and eliminate the looseness, the car should drive much better.

(A "scanner" is an electronic device to check for trouble codes in the car's diagnostic system. A "spanner" in the USA is a flat wrench that uses (usually) two protruding steel pegs that fit into holes in a threaded plate to loosen/tighten the plate like a nut. In the UK and associated countries, a "spanner" is what we call an open-end wrench.)

I converted my S600 to coilovers, so I have a complete set of not leaking 78k mile struts I'll sell cheap. I'll take a look at the tops and see what shape they're in.

Thanks for the info Wally! When you talk about the movement being minor I take it you mean when the bushings are good, right? As the other night the steering wheel jumped pretty good when it trollied on a crease in the road.. do you think cutting some firm washers and putting them in there as tight as I can is less of an alternative to trying to get the nut off with the spanner? Is there any performance loss to going the bushing route vs replacements? Is the strut now moved up higher than it was meant to be going to cause issue? When you look at mine from the inside of the towers they are raised very high vs how they look in the picture.. Thanks again for your help and great explanation!!

Thank you very much but I'm afraid I need to run the AMG struts.

Hey guys I just spent the money and bought two brand new struts. The dealer gave me 30% off so I paid $1300 each. I just want it done right.

huh? S600/s55/s65 abc struts are the exact same part

I thought the AMG had different suspension? On Arnotts the late vin cars are different part numbers vs the early numbers are the same

My Dealer doesn't sell New Struts anymore. They sell New/Refurbished now. Is that what you got ??

No.. they sell the refurbished and want to push those but they can get the brand new ones.. they had to order them from Germany for me. I saw all the screens etc. If your dealer said that then they just didn't want to get them from Germany.. my friend was saying why not just buy the refurb for a few hundred less.. but after Arnotts said they can't even replace the upper mounts and that they just use the best cores they have and that theirs already have a little gap already I started to wonder if the company that rebuilds them for MB does the same thing.. they may not, but I didn't want to take the chance plus with the new ones I can keep my struts so if I sold them to Arnotts as cores or to someone else who wants to put the bushings in them I'll be at the same price as refurbs but I'll have brand new.. seeing as I'm replacing perfectly good struts just because of the upper mounts buying new seemed very important.. all my buddies who one works for MB and owns these cars too and one owns the biggest MB specialist shop in town and the others work there all thought adding washers was a joke.. they referred to it as more Mickey Mouse repairs from the internet lol and usually they are more on the liberal side of playing it safe than sorry so I decided to go this route.. every one of them said the same thing.. it's my life riding on those struts and putting spacers in there could just make the already weak upper mount give more. No idea if that's a possibility, the washers may have been great..

You made the right decision!! I would personally never micky mouse anything on a mercedes let alone struts but a lot of people here do it so to each their own. Getting new struts is the best way and I am at the same stage right now with my two front ones but my dealership will only sell the refurb so I am looking at the New Bilsteins since I will not get arnotts. Anyhow good luck with yours.

Thank you very much! I hope you work yours out too!

Well, MB specialists always know best ....

My front struts on the 65 look just like that. They have 57k miles on them. Does that gap indicate they're shot? I was looking closely a while ago, and thought that's the way they were supposed to be??? :confused:

Yes that means they're shot like mine.. really stupid design.. the upper strut mount is what fails.. If you have 57k on them then that tells me it's the age and weight on them that wipes them out maybe.. who knows maybe they redesigned them.. I'll know when they come in from Germany but I doubt it..

So ...... did that fix the original problem?

I haven't gotten them yet. They are coming from Germany. I should have them this week and will let you guys know how it goes.

Side to side in the rain as well
 

guys, thanks for this post... I have been having the same problem and it is scary!!! My car does it over bumps and in the rain it feels as though I will have an accident by jumping into another lane!!! Cmpcpro, please let us know asap the results! Thank you so much for your feedback!!!

Racer: glad to help!

Hey guys my brand new struts were installed today! What a difference! I haven't driven it enough on the freeway to say it's resolved but I will this weekend. However the front end is brand new maybe a few hundred miles on it and it still felt like it had play going up my driveway or hitting bumps and now it's nice and tight! The old ones have clear play in the upper mounts now that they are in the box. I will say though after looking at the old ones in the box I think using the washers would probably solve the problem. You would be losing a bit of travel but probably not enough to notice. I'll keep you guys posted after the freeway trip!

Great to hear. Just picked up mine yesterday from the dealership. Mine are the remanufactured ones though. Hopefully i will be as happy as you :)

Hey guys, so a quick update. The car feels a lot better and no more hitting a bump and having the steering wheel rip out of my hand however hitting certain lines in the road and I still get a bit of the problem but it seems to be coming from the back now.. it seems the backs will need to be replaced. The sad part is one of them was replaced just a few months ago with an Arnotts and obviously with them being used that is no help. The front end feels great though!! The only thing on the front that isn't new is the rack.. even though it still feels very tight.

same issue