When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Called RMT. Talked to a nice lady. She told me they don't have any cores but will be able to rebuild my strut (which is what I wanted anyway). So that's good. $293 includes 2 way ground shipping. 3 days transit, 3-5 day turnaround, 3 days back. Looking at 2 weeks here but it's 1/3rd the price of a RockAuto Bilstein so I figure worth a shot. The only real risk is if something in the shock/damper fails down the road. That is not covered by their warranty since they don't rebuild that. They will inspect the shock for leaking oil, though, and if they see that, they'll inform me that my core is not rebuildable.
Called RMT. Talked to a nice lady. She told me they don't have any cores but will be able to rebuild my strut (which is what I wanted anyway). So that's good. $293 includes 2 way ground shipping. 3 days transit, 3-5 day turnaround, 3 days back. Looking at 2 weeks here but it's 1/3rd the price of a RockAuto Bilstein so I figure worth a shot. The only real risk is if something in the shock/damper fails down the road. That is not covered by their warranty since they don't rebuild that. They will inspect the shock for leaking oil, though, and if they see that, they'll inform me that my core is not rebuildable.
Already boxed up, awaiting a shipping label.
Even if it fails or there are issues, it's good to see someone taking another approach as you have, with having your own OEM rebuilt. So far, we have reports on Arnott, cheap Chinese, new Bilstein, and now you with your reman. I'm interested in your results! The front struts on these cars are super easy to replace anyway, so if no good, not a big deal to experiment, especially if you have another car to use in the interim.
Delivered. These guys are so efficient I think the paint is still drying. I could easily install this tonight but I'll probably wait until Saturday morning per my usual routine.
Anyway, I got the new strut in. This is easy stuff but I'll make a few notes just for posterity:
- Don't forget the upper shim plate and I marked mine upon removal with a sharpie just to know how to clock it
- I could NOT get the strut past the upper control arm upon reassembly. Loosening the upper control arm ball joint must have dropped the knuckle just enough (I left the nut attached) to clear upon removal. HOWEVER, WIS tells you to turn the steering wheel to right lock and what do you know, the knuckle completely clears the area and you can slip the strut right into place.
- They supplied all new hardware and looks like also installed a new lower ball joint in the strut, even though I thought mine was fine.
- When I tried to slip the ball joint into the spring control arm, I couldn't get things to align. I thought about using my floor jack but then I said, let me straighten the wheels first. So I did. As I straightened the steering wheel, I heard a "clunk." I walked around and the ball joint had perfectly inserted itself into the spring control arm taper. This car puts itself back together.
- Upper strut nuts take 26 lb-ft. Air line takes 45 in-lbs. Lower strut ball joint nut takes 81 lb-ft. Used my impact to buzz the lower ball joint nut past the nyloc nut to avoid the stud turning and get it at least partially seated. This was adequate because I was able to torque the nut without the stud turning. You do NOT need to torque anything at ride height like a suspension bushing. The ball joint will just rotate - again, it's not a bushing.
- I did have a hell of a time getting the air line nut installed after cross-threading it a number of times. Fortunately I was able to align it and finally got it in and it held torque and sealed up no problem (used the new, included O-ring as RMT mandates). I do have one of those long sockets with the open side and it was still tricky. Be careful and be patient, and LOOK at what you are doing.
- For the harness routing, use the other side as a reference and make sure you don't run it on the wrong side of the anti-roll bar for example.
- Basically everything went together perfectly, as you'd expect. This is an easy job.
Don't forget to plug everything in. I had disconnected the wheel speed sensor plug to get more room to disconnect the ADS harness but I definitely plugged everything back in before starting the engine. STILL, it threw a fit and told me ABS malfunction. I got out my DAS and sure enough, it had a STORED (not current) code for open circuit front right wheel speed sensor. The car is too smart for its own good - it knew I had disconnected it even though I never started it up that way. I simply reset the code and all was well. I would like to believe that if I tried to drive the car, as soon as it saw wheel speed from that sensor, it would have become satisfied (maybe after another ignition cycle). But I have DAS so I just used it.
When lowering the car, I was watching the level to make sure it began to inflate itself. I know you are not supposed to put a load on these without the proper air pressure. RMT is clear about this, as well (so is WIS). However I wasn't satisfied that it was adapting so once again I went back to DAS to take a look. I noticed the left front strut was around 7 bar but the right front was only 3 (which means it did pressurize itself up from zero - also, 3 bar may be sufficient to avoid bag folding which is the concern). So what I did was just manually inflate the right front to 7 bar to match the left. Once I did this, I felt comfortable lowering the car to the ground. After that, it seemed to wake up and took automatic control of the level and leveled everything out as normal. You should NOT have to calibrate level for replacing any component other than a level sensor.
So yeah, I ran a bunch of diagnostics for fun in DAS and they all passed, including the original test that the failed strut could not pass. Everything is 100%. Road tested perfect, as well. I'm quite pleased as this did save a lot of money and it also prevented me from having either one new strut (potential mismatched damping), or having to drop ~$1800 on a pair of new Bilsteins from Rockauto. Instead, I spent under $300 and I didn't get cheap Chinese nonsense.
Awesome report! Makes me want to look into sending in my rears. How many miles now on the strut? Let us know how you feel in about 500mi or so? This is a great contribution to the thread. Lots of different approaches here! Actually makes working on them fun and inexpensive!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm going to check out RMT website!
Aluminum plate that sandwiches between the top of the strut and the body. It has a varying thickness profile to adapt to the shape of the body. RMT calls this out in their info to NOT send it to them.
Yeah I guess so. Probably an adaptation to the angle of the strut for the spring control arm (which itself may be slightly different geometry based on the axle situation).
I'm going to store my ABC equipped CL550 for the winter. Anyone have an informed opinion about if I should store it with the wheels on the ground or vehicle on jack stands? I'm thinking about the health of the struts.
Storing ABC equipped car.... Ask it to get up on tip.toes and leave it parked like that. You want pressure in the system while parked or seals will forget how to seal. Fresh fluid for ABC before parking it is well advised.
They've been doing this a while. Mercedes invented the car, after all. Can't imagine the engineers did not consider these scenarios when designing the car. Refer to Owner's Manual.
Okay, sounds like being stationary for a few months is a bad idea. While I won't be driving it on salty roads, I'll at least start it up every couple weeks and let the fluids get warm and cycled.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
