Back at the beginning of June I took my Jetta to work after it had sat a week while we were on vacation. On the highway it felt like one of the rear tires was soft, the rear of the car felt like it wasn't completely under my control. I didn't know what was wrong but it didn't feel good to drive so I parked it. Two weeks ago it occurred to me it might be rear struts, I did the bounce test on the rear of the car and sure enough the driver's side bounced more than the passenger's. Yesterday I ordered new rear struts from my local Federated Auto Parts store. $230ish after tax for the pair. These were the whole assembly not just the shocks, I figured the springs were probably tired too. Last night I took the car to game night and realized I could hear the driver's rear strut make a clunk every time it hit a bump, confirmation!
Two bolts for this job which doesn't take into account what a PITA it is to get the bottom mount out of the lower arm. Fortunately the lower arm is hollow so you can shove something in there (I used 4' of 1 1/8" angle iron) to lever the lower arm down to permit the strut to come out. I also learned on the passenger side that if you jack up both sides of the car you get a little more droop which is critical when the shock isn't dead. Still it only took me right on an hour including cleaning up. Car drives as it should now. -Curt _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com