Car Fix DIY Videos

Big knoc Chi town says:

Have a question I have 2015 GL 450 I keep having a ruff ride when I hit bumps in the road hits kinda hard change shocks,tires,sway bar I'm totally lost everytime my mechanics look at the truck they say everything seems solid,could it be my suspension compressor even though my car never leaks also after watching your video do you think control arms be an issue thank you.

Don Walker says:

What about vans ?

Andrew Higdon says:

At least there’s rubber in your bushings. Dealership continuously said that the suspension was “fine”, “passed inspection”, or the infamous, “could not repeat customer complaint”. In this case here’s the context: lifetime bumper to bumper manufacturer issued warranty, nought when offered at the end of my initial factory warranty common to all modern automobiles. Well they definitely didn’t count on many “lifers”, like me. So I have service records showing that the very part which passed inspection one month, showed “no rubber, metal on metal contact”, about six weeks later. Is that possible? I doubt it. Especially not on a repeat cycle for 15 years. This denial of warranty repair actually costs the manufacture more money in many ways. In my case, my IRS rear differential started to eat itself, after 160,000 miles of Hemi propulsion and 2500lbs of trailer towing for roughly 1/4 of those miles. Not a bad record. And that’s my point. It started to develop a rough noise, and I could see the future. But I didn’t know at the time what is a primary cause of failure for Independent Rear Suspensions differentials. Wheel hop. My car never exhibited wheel hop until maybe a few months before the diff went south. The clunking in the rear of the car kept getting worse. The uneasy feeling if the chassis resettling on entrance or exit of merge lane with moderate lateral load. Not cool. Imagine it feeling like part of your car shifts a couple of inches at 60mph on a long sweeping curve. Bad. My hypothesis is that with multiple failed rear bushings, not he least of which were the diff bushings, which were replaced with a second refurb a few months after the first attempt. They replaced three model numbers of bushing within I think 4 months, twice! But couldn’t do it once or twice in 15 years?! I think the wheel hop was a result of sloppy suspension locating by the various dynamic characteristics of the Mercedes S Class sourced (but here in steel in lieu of aluminum) rear cradle, which is by its manufacturer’s name is respectable, so not crappy design, crappy foresight, and I think the compliance of the rear linkages allowed wheelhop in less than ideal grip situations, especially light rain, whose load-on, load-off jackhammer like motion shocked the diff bearings into submission. And it’s not like I drive “through “ wheelhop, obviously any decent driver would let off the throttle immediately. If they had listened I’ll bet the diff wouldn’t have failed. This also goes for the known faulty radiators which have a propensity to develop a pinhole leak which deceptively leaves drivers with an overheat situation where minutes prior there was none, and without acting on the chime and light which show up to warn you of dire circumstances, you will damage that Hemi engine. Even if you make it through without obvious and immediate damage, chances are, you will find yet another known fault. The metal of the valve seats expands at a different rate than the head, and can lead to release from their desired location, which can then break it and scatter it’s remnants across your piston face and cylinder walls, ruined engine. All because the placement of the water pump, temp sending unit, radiator connections, and heater core connections can allow you to lose about half the coolant without any change in the temp gauge. Not good. The leak is so slow, and generally in the summer, that you’ll never see the water in your driveway or under the car at all, as it evaporates quickly. You also can rarely see the leak. In BOTH of my cases, I started to smell a little coolant in the AC vents, and the AC was performing poorly. So one time I left it running and looked under the hood, sticking my head as close as necessary to find the presumed leak. I did see a tiny amount of water on the belly pan, but hat could have been from anywhere. Just when I gave up, I felt a mist on my cheek. Couldn’t feel it with my hands, only on my cheek, and couldn’t see it unless the light was just right. That is tiny. It could take a week or a month for the system to lose enough coolant to manifest itself. So I took it in for repair. Warranty coverage, no problem. But the AC compressor was suddenly noisy, and I was concerned that the HVAC system would be compromised. They said it all passed inspection. Ok gotta wrap up this book. Soon after the water pump gave up, like less than a month, and then a week after that the compressor gave up too. Then, a month later the evaporator failed, all directly a result of the radiator leak, and the engine running in half of the needed coolant for an extended time, yet with no gauge or MIL warning of any kind. Big deal right? This succession of radiator, water pump, compressor failures happens TWICE.
TWICE. About 15 months later. Besides the suspension issues, which they denied 80% of the time, I really didn’t have any problems with my 2006 Dodge Magnum RT until about 160,000 miles. The car isn’t the problem. The manufacturer/dealership relationship is the problem. And it gets worse, and worse, and worse. With mountain of evidence. So, please give a very thorough explanation of the nuanced opinions on what determines a failed bushing versus a good bushing. Yeah, long story huh? That’s just the intro. And this isn’t just one dealership or one manufacturer. It’s across the board around the world with automobiles. They are fleecing us all.

G Bush says:

a
Alex, do you recommend using Poly Bushing in lieu of the OEM rubber bushing for control arm and wheel knuckle ? Thanks

Tistry Longman says:

Hey bro, where did you get this instruction manual on your laptop?

mohammed almahawili says:

Great Job Love it , do you have anything with 2017 GLS 63amg REAR LOWER CONTROL ARM

Joe Pacheco says:

Hi Alex, I'm hoping you can help me with my 99 Mercedes Benz sl500. The center vent doesn't work. Only the side vents and the defrost vent blow air when I turn on the AC. I have seen your videos but not seen any videos addressing this issue. This one guy said he found out it was the Vacuum Distribution Block, but did not show a video. Can you please help?

N Mcwirth says:

Can I use this on a 2011 glk 350? X204

Hiep Dinh says:

Where can I buy the control arm bushing tools just like the one you had ? I am already checked on the FCP Euro site and they did not show the one that you had ? Please show me how to get that tools . Thank you in advance !

Vusi Ndlovu says:

Just lubricate bushings regularly to avoid unnecessary costs.

Amir Kazemi says:

none of this shit is easy dude. you live in your garage hahaaaa
i replaced an air shock on my 2007 S550…..that was alot of work, without a lift btw

ranman says:

just buy the whole arm with the bushings on ebay for $35 an arm. TRW or Bilstein. Delphi, etc