Help me Veeky Forums, what's going on here? What parts are these? W163 ML430 front driver's side in pic

...

The boot on (what appears to be) the outer tie rod is torn. While it may not currently have play, this will allow water/dirt to reach the joint.

Expect future replacement.

looks like your tie rod is fucked

This. You can slow the process by loading up the torn boot with fresh grease, and if you're in a real pinch, I've heard of people having luck wrapping saran-wrap around the grease-reloaded joint. However yes longer term, just budget to have it replaced. I recommend OE-spec Lemfoerder as the replacement brand. No need to gamble on shitty generics when it's a critical component like this.

OP here. Thank you, and thanks all. I have $$ to replace it soon, but in the meantime, what kind of grease specifically should I use? As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not well-versed in any of this. The help is greatly appreciated.

Any thick off-the-shelf grease for mechanical joints will do. Punch it into google and you'll get plenty of results. That saran wrap thing isnt a bad idea either.

>As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not well-versed in any of this
In that case you might want to stay away from german cars OP

Haha, I'm working on it. This car was a hand-me-down from my parents.

ML 430 owner here OP. Motherfucker will run forever if you take care of it

Well my advice is sell it and get yourself into something small and japanese. You'll have an easier time learning DIY on those than you will with most german cars. Thats if you care about learning. If not just go buy some cheap shitbox from a licensed dealership and let the manufacturer warranty take care of you.

Is that really a tie rod why is it look ao weird?
Shitty parts aren't so bad, just wear out a bit faster for a lot less money. Its not so bad.

> Japanese
Opinion dropped.

nice meme can i borrow it

I was hoping this thread would summon you.

How is IT?

Been fantastic. Other than a few neglect related issues I had to fix when I first bought it, I've never had any problems with it. We don't get a ton of snow here, but it has gone through as much as 8 inches without any issues. Works fin in mild/moderate off road situations, comfortable for long highway cruises.

Also, the drivetrain is completely shared with the E class of the same generation, so it's easy to work on, and parts are everywhere. Biggest drawback of the 430 is the terrible gas mileage (18-20 highway, 13-15 city)

As I've seen (though I probably could've taken better care of it desu). Mine is nearing 250k with relatively little drama.

>desu
Goddammit Veeky Forums

>How is IT?
Fuck, I'm a retard and thought you were asking about the ML

It's going well. I got sent to Charlotte for training just in time for the damn BLM bullshit to pop off, so that was fun. And I already have enough stories for a "Tales From The IT Dept" thread

>"Tales From The IT Dept" thread
waiting eagerly

Meant IT, as in Information Technology kek
You said your new job was an I.T. Manager right?

HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

Oh and to clarify this, I refreshed the page just before posting and didn't feel like deleting it because autismo

alright, give me a second here to finish some shit up and I'll drop an IT story. It's more of a "This is why corproate america is broken" story, but I think you guys will like it

And sorry OP, didn't mean to hijack your thread. To keep it Veeky Forums related, I think I'm going to trim down my stable of cars come first of the year. The SL and SLK are going to get put up as summer/weekend only cars just from the standpoint of mileage

I'll probably sell the E and ML, and that leaves me with the Pilot(for the wife), the King Ranch, and the '95 Miata

The questions is, what to do from there? Do I go full racecar and drop mad dollars on suspension upgrades and turboing the Miata, and then get something slightly more sensible to DD like a Taurus SHO or C350?

Or do I let the Miata go and pick up something like the 124 Abarth that would be fun but that I could also DD? Or keep the Miata and get a 124 to be stable mates with it? Idk what the fuck to do Veeky Forums give me guidance

Well it depends on what you're looking homie. Sounds like you're in a pickle.
Personally, i would drop some dosh on a turbo +suspension kit for the miata and get an SHO, that way you'll get your hards dirty because if memory serves, i dont think youve turbod a car yourself. its good experience to have

New SHOs are cool as shit too.

Alright, Tales From The IT Dept.

>CTO says we need to put together a team of 10 people to staff a 24/7 tech support line for our sales reps
>apparently they can never keep people in the position for longer than 3-4 months, CTO is tired of the constant turnover
>find out company was farming the job posting/hiring process out to some straight out of India staffing company
>previous IT manager was too lazy to actually deal with job postings or interviews, or even delegate it out to one of the junior managers
>was blowing 20K a year of our department's budget using this fucking staffing agencies to recruit for low level positions
>tell CTO I will get the posting info from the staffing agencies, cut them loose, and just do the recruiting myself
>call up staffing agencies, tell them I would like a copy of the job posting they are currently using to recruit for is sent to my email
>also ask, since they ARE still currently recruiting for these phone support jobs, if they can forward me the resumes of the candidates they are currently looking at
>rep from staffing agencies sends current job posting
>"wanted, IT professional with 5-7 years experiences"
>"must have experiences with windows xp/vista/7/8/8.1/10/server 2003/server 2008/Mac OSX/Linux/assembly language/tape drives/the Apple Lisa
>this job posting literally goes on for 2 pages, demanding credentials and knowledge of systems that our company doesn't even/has never used
>asks for programming language knowledge
>asks for advanced active directory experience
>this is a 30K a year tech support job dealing with sales reps who have forgotten an email password or fuck up there verizon aircard
>this staffing agency is literally writing a job posting demanding a candidate with tons of experience in fucking everything in the IT world since 1998
>discover the job posting does not list a salary or an actual description of the job, just a vague "IT support" job tag
>this_is_what_we_were_spending_20K_on.tiff

>finally get email back from staffing company with current prospects for the job
>they are literally interviewing people with high level degrees/10+ years of experience for this low level tech support position
>call the staffing company back, and yell my way up the phone tree till I get to the HR supervisor that does the recruiting/hiring for our company
>ask her how the fuck she actually runs her recruiting process/did she even look at the type of job we are hiring for?
>find out that these staffing companies pay their recruiters on commission based on how many people they are can get to sign for jobs they are recruitung for
>they know Raleigh-Durham is oversaturated with people looking for work in the IT industry
>they post the jobs as vague as possible
>make the descriptions include every fucking IT related buzzword they can think of in hopes that it attracts more applicants
>they basically snooker these people into blind interviews, telling them they recruit for "multiple companies/teams" without saying what actual company is or the actual job
>they do laughably soft interviews, then extend these people blind job offers on the basis that "they will match them with the project best suited for their skills"
>most people accept, thinking they are interviewing for a job that is much higher level
>they then get told they are being assigned to a call center working tech support for our company
>half of them quit on the spot, the others quit as soon as they can find another job, again, because most think they are interviewing for a much nicer job
>it's somewhat stupid, because I would never accept a job without knowing the exact pay and job description, but they feed on desperate people who've been out of work for a while
>after listening to this shit on the phone for an hour, I cancel our contract with this staffing company and re-write job listings for this team from scratch

literally never EVER use a staffing company guys

Gonna screenshot this and save it for later lpg. You should start a thread next time. You're lpg, so even tales from the it department will be topical

The guy who put together all the TFTD should add these in a different section

Have my babies LPG

Come to Camp Johnson in Jacksonville LPG, pls visit me

First time ever having to deal with a staffing company, and it made me wanna kick a baby. You have so many companies that farm out jobs as contract/temp to avoid paying benefits, that tons of people in the IT field around here that just float from one contract/temporary job to another, and these staffing companies just try and rape the shit out of them

And just some foreshadowing for future tales, you have tons of boomers working at this company, whose job didn't involve using a computer at all when they started back in 1875, and they have had to transition into using/figuring out a computer to do the job now. And they fucking loathe it. There is lady in the accounting department who is so bad/hateful that several of the field techs won't even go to her office

How happy are you there, though?

Going to bed now, so sorry if thread pepsi's

How is this position in any way preferable to selling used cars to idiots?

8/10 on job satisfaction scale. Salaried management beats commission sales any day of the week for me. I enjoy the hiring process/actually trying to find people who are a good fit for the job, and actually setting up a structure to keep things organized and running right

Yeah, you have to deal with a lot of legacy employees who actively resent technology/are just fuckign ignorant, but it's nice to see the fruits of your labor/take something terrible and whip it into shape

You are doing the work of gods my friend.