Left Cross Strut Failure.... Again!
Passenger, plastic slightly outside of metal jacket
Driver, no protrusion




Oh boy here we go.
quick question - what torque spec did you use when you tightened both the bolts on the ball joint and other end of the control arm? 80NM? cant seem to find that anywhere. thx in advance
@WANTED!!

I strongly recommend a support Jack if you’re on a lift. I was on a lift built for land rovers and she still swayed alot more than I was comfortable with so we threw a jack on. Put a pad on it and use the pumpkin.
Get a punch and various mallets. You will want dead blow and solid. 3lb is fine. 5s enough.
I cannot tell you how happy I am this part has held up. I just rolled 120,000.




quick question - what torque spec did you use when you tightened both the bolts on the ball joint and other end of the control arm? 80NM? cant seem to find that anywhere. thx in advance
@WANTED!!
Although, we do have a thread dedicated to WIS lookups here where you can get that answer faster.
https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/759604-e63-s-4matic-m157-factory-wis-maintenance-repair-documents.html
Last edited by WANTED!!; Jul 14, 2023 at 09:29 PM.
I strongly recommend a support Jack if you’re on a lift. I was on a lift built for land rovers and she still swayed alot more than I was comfortable with so we threw a jack on. Put a pad on it and use the pumpkin.
Get a punch and various mallets. You will want dead blow and solid. 3lb is fine. 5s enough.
I cannot tell you how happy I am this part has held up. I just rolled 120,000.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
Although, we do have a thread dedicated to WIS lookups here where you can get that answer faster.
https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...documents.html
Bolt, cross strut to integral carrier = 120NM
Locknut (repair kit), cross M14 120 11.9 strut to integral carrier = 100NM
Locknut, cross strut to steering knuckle/upper balStage 1 joint = 50NM
https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...ross-strut.pdf
https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...ml#post8569551
I strongly recommend a support Jack if you’re on a lift. I was on a lift built for land rovers and she still swayed alot more than I was comfortable with so we threw a jack on. Put a pad on it and use the pumpkin.
Get a punch and various mallets. You will want dead blow and solid. 3lb is fine. 5s enough.
I cannot tell you how happy I am this part has held up. I just rolled 120,000.
i'm soaking it now with PB blaster and gonna give it another go tomorrow AM. Definitely a ***** doing this from under the car on Rhino Ramps and jack stands as I cannot get my 4 foot breaker bar in there which would likely do the job to bust loose the bolt.
I strongly recommend a support Jack if you’re on a lift. I was on a lift built for land rovers and she still swayed alot more than I was comfortable with so we threw a jack on. Put a pad on it and use the pumpkin.
Get a punch and various mallets. You will want dead blow and solid. 3lb is fine. 5s enough.
I cannot tell you how happy I am this part has held up. I just rolled 120,000.
The old cross strut looked like crap here’s a few photos of the old and new Mecotech part. It looks nearly identical to the MB one but I do notice the ball joint side is at a slight angle compared to the MB OEM one and
Mevotech cross strut
The old cross strut looked like crap here’s a few photos of the old and new Mecotech part. It looks nearly identical to the MB one but I do notice the ball joint side is at a slight angle compared to the MB OEM one and
Mevotech cross strut
time consuming if youre doing this from jacks under the car, but definitely not complicated to do.
hope this mevotech part lasts longer than the 10k miles ive gotten out of the driver side OEM cross strut!
i put in that mevotch part and its working fine, but I must have not had my steering wheel straight when I bolted it down as my car is now slightly pulling to the left.
Assume I should be able to loosen the ball joint bolt and/or inner bolt to adjust and get the alignment back to normal? The alignment was 100% straight prior to my replacing the old control arm with the slipped bushing. THX!!




i put in that mevotch part and its working fine, but I must have not had my steering wheel straight when I bolted it down as my car is now slightly pulling to the left.
Assume I should be able to loosen the ball joint bolt and/or inner bolt to adjust and get the alignment back to normal? The alignment was 100% straight prior to my replacing the old control arm with the slipped bushing. THX!!
The correct answer is you should throw it on a rack and check when you replace suspension components. You can get away with not, but I don'trecommendit as a general practice.
Having the wheel straight vs. a little off has little/ no affect on whether your alignment might be off. What could, however, is if the car was aligned with the arm issue going on and not noticed. Not all techs do a great job of inspecting these arms prior to doing an alignment.
First pic is on the car. Sorry the pics are so big.

I’ll be doing rear dif again this fall and I’ll have it on a lift. I’ll post updated photos.
I’m unsure of this is a characteristic of the car or the strut - but I do have a life time Firestone alignment and I use it every 6ish months. I’ve chewed up fronts - but I do hear that the awd is aggressive and causes it. Just my experience. I only had the oem strut on for about 5k in ownership.






mevotech seems to be working fine and it’s not a difficult repair. I did a Firestone lifetime free alignment after for 170 since it pulled to the right a bit after the install but that’s the only negative
mevotech seems to be working fine and it’s not a difficult repair. I did a Firestone lifetime free alignment after for 170 since it pulled to the right a bit after the install but that’s the only negative






