Hello All,

Drove the '83 300SD 177K from Ohio to Hilton Head last week. She ran great and there were no problems except in the hills of WVa.

On the sharper curves (the ones saying you should only go 55 or 60) and going 75 or 80 - and only going to the right - the car started to "wiggle". It felt like the car had a loose wheel or was maybe hitting a small slick spot.

There is also a noise - I think from the rear - like redneck truck tire noise only softer. The noise does not change with engine speed but gets louder as the the car goes faster. The noise is a little different - maybe louder - turning right. The noise has been there for the past 3 or 4 weeks.

The car has a new front end including front wheel bearings and all of the rubber has been replaced in the rear.

What do I need to check?

Thanks!

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

Your speed? On those sharp turns . . . .

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OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
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Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

On dry roads during the day they are a blast - oh and the limit in those sections is 70 so I just had the cruise set at 75. I wanted to see how the old girl handled and was very happy until I came to a right hand bends. Then it became unpleasant to drive that quickly. At lower speeds the wiggle was not there or I could not feel it.

We can't drive in Ohio that fast without constantly looking in the rear view mirror or wondering who is lurking in the shadows under the bridges. I am also taking this as a blessing because something is obviously wrong with the car and I hope this is an early warning.

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

jack it up and grab the wheel top to bottom and see if it will move. then try left to right. check all the mounting points for the rear assembly. i had a noise on the rt side rear. turned out it was the rear wheel bearing. could be a bushing. there's a bunch of those.

hope tha helps.

Are you referring to a front end "shimmy" where the steering wheel develops a noticeable shake during the turn?

"Wiggle" is not a term that is recognized by anyone. A loose wheel will cause a whole lot of shaking at discrete speeds.

sway bar? rear ball joints? Rear control arm bushings? wheel bearings... tons of stuff back there... get it looked at.

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1987 300TD
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1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Bad tire?

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OBK #42

rear ball joints?? are you talking about the sway bar links? that is the only thing that looks like a ball join in the rear of a 115 to 126 rear end. unless maybe its stored with the blinker fluid and the muffler bearings.

i had a wiggle in my 115 (the 115 the 116 the 123 and the 126 all share a similar design) when i was driving at speed around mountain corners. i kicked the tires and couldn't seem to figure out where it was coming from. looked all around under the car, and couldn't see an obvious problem. then the wiggle started to happen when i was going straight at low speed... it was the wheel bearing.

for lack of the proper Mercedes tool. and the fact that I'm cheap. i picked up the whole swing arm, with the bearing in it, off of an old 220 at the wrecking yard. it was a son of a witch to install. but it solved the problem.

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This is not a "shimmy" and the steering wheel does not shake. "Wiggle" is the only way I can describe it. The car feels like it is making small side-to-side movements as it is going around the curve. It is not a vibration and the side to side movement is a fairly slow frequency - maybe 2-3 cycles per second?Does that help?

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

that is exactly what my car felt like.

without seeing the car, i'd say its the wheel bearing.

put the cars A$$ in the air and shake the tires. up-down and side to side. i bet one moves.

you can pull that tire off and the pull the break caliper and remove the disc. you'll see metal in the parking breaks... the signs of the failure is hiding behind the parking breaks.

when i get home i can get my camera and post the pics of my exploded wheel bearing if you'd like to see them.

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I'll give that a try. For some reason I did not think you could do the bearing check on the rear like the front. Thanks!

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

Great! This will give me a place to start. I'll check it out this weekend.

If it turns out to be a wheel bearing I will replace the bad one right away and will do the other side once the temperatures rise a little "just because".

The pics would be very interesting and may help those with the same problem.

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

My wagon did much the same thing and it did feel like it was wiggling through the turns...kinda like the wheel were fighting with each other. In my case it turned out to be the tires. They looked good, all the same brand name, with plenty of tread left, but they were of different diameters. A new set of rubber can make a HUGE difference in how a car handles.

So can loose lug nuts.

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Mark
1983 300TD Wagon
Even a broken watch is right twice a day

sidewall flex

the sidewall tries to roll over itself and hence.. "wiggles"

I get it if I try and take a 30 mph corner at... 65...

Low profile tires with a large diameter wheel will get rid of that issue since the sidewall on low-pro's are very very stiff

heh, if it is the wheel bearing and not tire flex, I bet you will NOT be changing it yourself... VERY difficult, nothing like the front bearings. special tools required, there is a DIY write up on the wiki here, but it ain't a 30 minute job by any stretch...