As your 123 or 126 Chassis Mercedes ages, I strongly recommend you keep an eye on your front sway bar. You may ask, "Why is this so important?" I am seeing and hearing of an increasing number of sway bar failures on these cars due to rust. The end of the bar can break right off and when it does the front suspension will partially collapse. This can be very dangerous, especially if you are traveling at high speed when the break occurs. The end of the sway bar on these cars attaches to the upper front suspension control arm!
Problem & Solution
Common among these chassis:
The problem could be more severe if your car has been subject to road salt. The moisture gets trapped on the insides of the rubber bushings and the rust that forms just keeps eating away at the metal. And don't think just because your car is from a salt free area, that you are home free.The picture below shows the corrosion I found on a 1983 300SD that lived its whole life in the Seattle area. The rust damage you see has fatigued the end of the bar and it should be repaired or replaced.
Visually the sway bar on the 300SD looked just fine until I removed the bolt and the bushings. Frankly, I was shocked that it was so bad. So when you inspect yours you will have to do the same. If you are not familiar with front end suspension work I recommend you take your car into a front suspension shop (does not need to be a Mercedes specialist) and have your sway bar ends inspected. If only surface rust has started to form I recommend you coat the ends with our Miracle Paint product to stop or reduce further corrosion.
