I owned an E320 2000 for a year and recently sold it and replaced it with an E430 2001 4matic. When I had them both at the same time for a couple of weeks (before I sold the e320) I noticed that the steering on the E430 is about 5 times softer. Before this I thought what I had was normal.
I just wanted to let you know my experience regarding your problem.
By the way the person who bought it did not say anything about the steering being hard when test drove the E320. (You can't really tell the difference unless you compare it with another car. This is how I found out about it)
Good luck.
you must have the strangest e430 4m out there.
you have no rough front suspension and soft steering. My steering is much heavier, and it rides pretty hard.
Maybe I got the amg performance e430 4matic option
Vehicle: 2001 E320 - Brilliant Silver/Ash: MBCA member
Location: West Virginia, USA
Posts: 5,819
Good advice as always Greg. I was probably thinking "rack" because I had one go bad on me, albeit a different car. And since you mentioned it, my steering was worse when cold, and it improved once the car warmed up.
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Changing fluid is easy. It's just matter of pulling off the right hose and having somebody to keep turning the wheels while you feeding new p/s fluid and catching the old fluid. Just be careful not over fill it, because I over filled mine and I had to clean the floor of my garage in the morning.
Can you tell me what the "right" hose is and also where is the fluid resevoir on the E200K W210
I managed to replace about half ( 500 ml) of the PS fluid, and ended up with a lof of air in the system. I managed to get rid of most of the air by turning the steering wheel side to side. I have not noticed any major difference in the stiffness between before and after but I will give it another few days beofre making any final judgements.Thanks to the help and suggestions from Greg and Musikmaan. It seems that on this model the only way to change the filter is to buy a new PS resevoir with the filter ( is there one in it ?) built in. I also seem to have the classic whine/chirp ( before and after PS fluid change) from the rubber boots at the ends of the rack-n-pinion, but since this is not reported as a functional issue, I will just live with it.
I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it is definitely the steering rack. I replaced the pump and all that stuff and it didn't help at all. I had the same problem in my e320 4matic wagon and i just heard from my mechanic that the steering rack was a total mess. I will pick the car up tomorrow and hopefully see how it is. I am really not looking forward to the bill on that one.
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I was afraid of that. The rack and Pinion itself is very expensive. Luckily the steering o my car is not so stiff as to be excessively(impossibaly?) hard to turn for me ( my wife has problems). Please let me know what kind of cost I need to be looking at.
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