While under the van working on the plumbing, I noticed that the driver’s side sway bar bracket had broken. Thanks to the sprinter_westfalia owner’s group, I quickly learned that:

• This isn’t uncommon!
• Our van uses a 3500 series sway bar, but a 2500 series sway bar bracket.

Because of this second point, fixing it is a little trickier. First of all, the parts to order are:

Sway bar bracket: A 901 995 01 10
Bushing: A 901 326 00 81

My cost at the dealership was about $9 each. They’re probably cheaper online, but perhaps not once you figure in the shipping.

The tricky part is that the bushing fits the bracket, but it doesn’t fit around the sway bar. The 2500 series sway bar is 7/8″ in diameter, while the 3500 is 1 1/8″. So the bushing needs to be drilled out. Since I was dealing with a million other things, I opted to pay Mercedes to fix this for me :-O

The dealership in Lynnwood, WA did a nice job. The service advisor ended up bringing in a rotary tool from home and honed out the inside of the bushing to fit the sway bar. Total cost was $200 – a good chunk of change, but I think reasonable considering the job. They also let me know that the van barely fit into their garage, and that they could only lift it up enough to crawl under it on hands and knees – probably not the usual mode of working for a Mercedes dealership mechanic 🙂

Anyway, the service was friendly and quick, and the ride is considerably improved. No more swaying around corners, or over driveway lips – the van is much more stable and nice to drive. I do notice the front-to-back porpoising more, but there’s a new set of Konis sitting in my garage waiting to fix that problem 🙂 The clunking from the back when going over bumps is also gone.

So – have a look under your van and make sure your sway bar brackets aren’t broken!