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Photo attached shows the wear pattern caused by a bad ball joint and/or bushing. In my case, it's the ball joint on the front lower control arm (aka the thrust arm). The tread blocks begin to "peel" back on the tire. Only 72,000 miles ago I had the same wear pattern on both inner and outer edges of the tire; in that case I had bad ball joints on all control arms plus worn bushings. For all the vaunted Mercedes engineering hype, the suspension on this car is pretty sad when it comes to durability. Front and rear suspension rebuilt at just shy of 100K miles and now a partial rebuild at 172K. FWIW, it also appears I could have dialed in just a touch more toe-in. This tire has 36,000 miles on it and I maintained toe at 0.5mm in. When I align it this weekend I'll aim for ~0.75mm in on each side and see how it goes...
My issue was the rear camber, as I had excessive wear on the inside of the tires, and the other edge looked new. I since then, had a 4 wheel alignment done, to correct the rear camber.
Very disappointed in suspension component longevity. Everyone screams, “it’s a high performance, 2+ton sedan! What do you expect!?” Well, I’d expect a little more r&d into the components to combat the weight and power of the car in the first place. It’s certainly frustrating. After just replacing most of my front end (as you saw) I’ve got a pop coming from my front driver’s side; guessing I have an issue that resulted from installment but we will see when I tear into it.
That thrust arm is a pain since everything attaches to it but maybe you can press out/in while it’s on the car!
I remember now, I did in fact replace my front thrust arms several months ago. I nearly forgot about it, one of the ball joints was bad, so I replaced them in pairs. Certainly wasn't a cheap fix.
For anybody that has done this not on a lift how was it? I have watched the awesome video above numerous times but still seems like it would be hard to turn the wrench on the ball joint separator still. seems like the wrench would be on the ground as you try to turn it
I don't think it would be that difficult, the guy in the video doesn't look like Schwarzenegger. You can always use a jack handle on the end of a wrench for more leverage. Also, do you have a compressor and an air gun? I think that's all you need.
The main focus here is all the torque specs and tightening the last bolts with the car on blocks to compress the front suspension.
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Last edited by Fountain35; Sep 23, 2019 at 04:48 PM.
For anybody that has done this not on a lift how was it? I have watched the awesome video above numerous times but still seems like it would be hard to turn the wrench on the ball joint separator still. seems like the wrench would be on the ground as you try to turn it
Depending on how good your tools are and how married your ball joint is to the arm the experince range from pain to ok. Get heavy duty tools and you should be fine. Get heat torch as well.
I always use lemförder. They make a lot of oem parts for Mercedes. Good quality.
After just replacing most of my front end (as you saw) I’ve got a pop coming from my front driver’s side; guessing I have an issue that resulted from installment but we will see when I tear into it.
Did you torque the bushings in the air or on the ground? If they were not loaded when torqued they will "pop"
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