I really need some help with my 1988 340. Yesterday I hit a large pothole in Milton Keynes (there are a lot of them around!) there was a large thud and my tyre popped. I noticed when changing the tyre that the bottom of the front coil spring (the protector?) was bent, so I got it bent back a bit and (with a police escort) managed to get it home where my spare tyre also popped....
I now have a car that I can't drive and I'm not really sure what to do as I'm not exactly sure how bad it is. I'm not sure whether to try to get it fixed or just give up. He's pretty rusty now and has had a water leak that I can't work out for a couple of months now.
Can you get a photo of the bottom of the spring? I've a feeling it'll have rusted through the bottom spring cup, resting it on the tyre? It's a fairly common problem, the part (the cup itself) is available cheaply but it needs to be welded on to the existing suspension leg.
it'll be the lower spring cup that's rusted through. As Chris says, it's a common fault on 300s. A replacement strut would be your best bet, but you can have a replacement cup welded back in, there are Klokkerholm replacement panels available. I don't know which UK stockist to recomment though, Hadrian used to sell them, but apparently they're broke now ?
I would say the spring cup failure is only a common fault now, with the youngest cars approaching 25 years old. They are good cars but where never designed to last this long.
A spring cup is easily fixed with a welder, and a water leak not usually that difficult. The rust is the only reason to give up, but its usually when the sills are rotten that its time.
Still anything can be repaired, but by the time the sills are rotten you are in restoration terratory. If the car has been rust proofed (internal cavity wax etc) during it life the chances are that its still pretty solid and the rust is just surface rust.
Marko is quite correct,
The parts are made by Klokkerholm in Denmark and available from various sources including "Imperial" (neé Hadrian) and Skandix (in Germany) and at a range of prices.
I buy in bulk and pass on at cost (I take no profit just as I do not for my diff cover gasket kits) for the benefit of V3M and VOC - and can supply as follows:-
X1 cup £12.00 + p&p @ £3.00 - £15.00 delivered to a UK address.
X2 cups £24.00 + P&P @ £3.50 - £27.50 delivered to a UK address.
Mac.
88 5door Redline 1.7 52k - 19 XC60 Momentum Pro D4 AWD 17k
1950 pair of legs that don't work very well.
mac wrote:But of course nobody has actually asked me!
Of course not. You can get spoon-fed everyfink on innernet without searchin'/PMing/emailing, innit?
I do try pointing them in the right direction Mac, with a lot of coughs and hints, but sometime the penny just doesn't drop.
I've got a box of ten here (via Mac, thankyouverymuch), but I haven't priced them up yet for posting (they cost postage to get here for starters). The intention was to use them in some sort of exchange scheme, but with a billion other things on my plate.....so, if you want, and in the Eurozone ask me nicely.
)
