Will you some of you Techs out there, give us an idea of the replacement mileage of some vital, but overlooked parts so we can do a little preventitive matinence as in: tie rod ends, coil springs, struts and shocks, motor mounts, sub frame mounts, ball joints, control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, and alternator brushes, to go along with timing chains, valve guides and seals. Like their usefull functional life? .........Rick
That's a tall order...
Shock absorbers... OEM? 100K miles... Bilstein? 150K miles.
Coil spring? Usually 100K miles... but it is a very dangerous job to do.
Suspension bushings...lower arm? very difficult job... rarely done. Upper control arm 150K miles... thrust arm bushing 80-100K miles Generally everything that is easily replaceble is 100K miles.
Alternator? When charge drop to 13.2V or lower... sometime the brushes change won't do... usually the first brushes you put in give you another 30K miles...
Everything else is pretty much when it break... most parts last about 75K+ miles.
Any "old" car should have he brake hydraulics renewed: calipers master cylinder, booster, soft hoses.
ALL suspension rubber needs to be renewed. MB's have a LOT of this.
All moving suspension parts (tie rods etc) should be changed.
Shocks.
Springs rarely go bad.
Timing chain. Tensioner, guide rails. Valves usually need attention, sometimes you can get away with just new seals, but MB's are notorious for eating guides; always llok for a car that's not smoking or using oil.
Thanks a lot guys, I'm trying to stay up to date on matinance. Next, replace as much of the rubber suspension bushings as I can, and front, and rear struts, as I am getting "bottom out banging", over some bumps that seems to be coming from the rear. (mileage is 124000 ) Alignment, and wheel balance eliminated vibrations, and rubbing noise seems to be a malfuctioning left front caliper, or brake hose. Dealer diagnosis of vibration was "replace front coil springs, and lower control arm bushings" Thanks again Rick
Banging in the rear could be the broken sway bar links...
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