This tale is a warning to owners who may want to skimp on the quality of the parts they fit to their vehicle. This 2012 Mercedes E350 CDi had covered a good few miles in its life, and had clocked up over 280,000 kilometres, when the suspension air spring failed.

At such a high mileage, the owner wasn’t too keen on paying too high a price for the new parts, and found the cheapest replacement possible. The owner had handed the replacement parts over to his local garage, who fitted the parts supplied.

All seemed well for the next few weeks, until the owner was on their family holidays. The holiday had gone well, and a tour around parts of England had been completed. The Merc was all loaded up and headed back home, towards the ferry.

Arriving at the docks, the month old air spring went with an almighty bang, dropping the Merc to its knees. When it was recovered to the workshop, both the failed spring and the other side’s spring were replaced, to ensure that once the job was completed, the owner was not in danger of a repeat performance.

The ferry had to be rebooked. I believe the owner won’t be sourcing his own parts again.

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