Replacement of inner ball joint and steering bellows on Mercedes C-Class

Il est nécessaire de lever l'avant du véhicule pour remplacer la rotule de direction. '''Procéder avec précaution.'''

Locate the tools under the spare wheel in the trunk. Take the jack and the tire lever.

To loosen slightly the 5 wheel bolts.

Position the jack at the lifting notch and raise the vehicle.

Finish unscrewing the bolts, remove the wheel and position it under the vehicle to ensure safety in case of jack failure. Place the wheel bolts in a clean place.

Locate the ball joint retaining nut. It is located behind the brake disc, on the front side of the vehicle.

Using the 21 socket wrench, remove the nut.

Refer to the ball joint extractor user manual. Place the extractor in place and begin tightening. If the force applied is sufficient, the ball joint should be driven out in one go.

If despite tightening the extractor the ball joint does not come out, add some penetrating oil and using a hammer, tap the top of the ball joint.

In order not to change the parallelism, the outer ball joint must be reassembled in the same position on the new inner ball joint.

Using the 21 mm flat wrench, loosen the lock nut.

Using the 13 flat wrench, hold the threaded rod (on the right in the photo) and using the 21 wrench, unscrew the ball joint (on the left in the photo). Count the number of turns.

Using pliers, remove the external retaining collar

Using a screwdriver, remove the inner retaining collar

Remove the bellows

Locate the key insertion notch

Using a 41 key, unscrew the inner ball joint.

Compare the new ball joint with the old one to verify that they are identical.

Locate the thread where to screw the ball joint

Start screwing the ball joint in by hand

Then tighten with the 41 key

Install the new bellows

Using pliers, put the outer retaining collar in place

Put the inner retaining collar in place

Crimp it by firmly squeezing the part indicated in blue with pliers.

Screw the lock nut onto the inner ball joint

Put a little threadlocker on the threaded part

Screw the outer ball joint back in the same number of turns as when it was removed.

Tighten the locknut while holding the inner ball joint with a 13 wrench and the nut with a 21 wrench.

Place the outer ball head in its location

Screw in the ball joint retaining bolt by hand

Tighten using a 21 wrench

Insert a wheel bolt into its location and present the wheel against the brake disc. Using the tire lever, start tightening the first bolt.

Insert the following bolts, tightening them by hand. Move the wheel slightly to make sure it is seated correctly.

Lower the vehicle

Tighten the bolts in a star pattern.

Caution: When the wheels are removed, it is advisable to check the correct tightening of the bolts after the first uses.