I am getting some very odd wear on my passenger side front tire and I am suspicious that might be the ball joint.

How do you check if the ball joint is bad?

I jacked up the car on both sides and grabbed the tires at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. I then tried to rock them back and forth and they moved a little and it even sounded a bit like a "click" when I did so.

The passenger tire is wearing much more than the driver side.

I am getting excess wear on the inner half of the tire and some slightly irregular wear on the center bead.

These tires have "wear indicators" that show if you are having uneven wear issues.

The driver side looks fine but the passenger looks screwy all around.

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1993 W124 300D
-297K on the clock as I type this.

If you have any play in a ball-joint, it is bad.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

I'm not sure if the play I am seeing is actually the ball joint.

Could it be strut related?

Anything else?

Did I check it right?

If it is bad, do you have any recommendations about the r&r procedure?

Do I need the Mercedes tool?

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1993 W124 300D
-297K on the clock as I type this.

124s tend to wear in the inner part of the front tires so rotating tires is a must. Mine wears the front driver tire more unevenly than the passenger tire with camber to spec with me behind the wheel.

Sixto
87 300D

Well, on mine it's the passenger side.

Unfortunately, I have directional tires installed so both passenger side tires are showing significantly more wear than the driver side tires.

At some point I will have to swap them and I will have to incur the mounting balancing cost.

I won't ever buy directional tires again.

Way too much hassle.

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1993 W124 300D
-297K on the clock as I type this.

Swap front X rear on same side only, shouldn't be a hassle and many in the industry say it's better to not change the rotation direction of a radial anyway.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff