87 W124 300D Creaks and Groans
 

For the last week or so, I have been hearing a creaking, groaning sound coming from the driver side front. Today I took it my indy who diagnosed it as either the shocking mount or the shock itself. He touched the top of the shock mount and said that it was very pronounced. Anyone had anything similar?

Answer
 

Yes.

The strut, upper mount plate and sway bar bushings are common failure items.


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Also inspect your lower ball joints. Worn joints will creak and if not addressed they will fail.

It was either the mount plate or the shock/strut
 

Once you are that far in, it is very little additional work to change the Bilstein shock as well. There is no bearing at the top of the strut-just a cone shaped fitting. There was very little damage apparent but the parts change fixed the problem. Mount plates in front had been changed in January. Bilstein had been in there 6 years.

+1 on the ball joints and LCA bushings.