Youtube video
My wife came home and told me the car was making a weird noise. I went out to look and OMG that is the most awful noise I have ever heard from a car.
The video pretty much enplanes it all. Its last "LOF" was about 4k miles ago, I don't know how much L is included in the LOF, but it was at a non dealer Mercedes Benz friendly shop, where the car was always serviced before I got it.
Also, as said in the video, the "front end" was rebuilt @ 298k miles in 10/09.
upper/lower control arms/bushings, tie rods, idler arm.