When I purchased my new 95 E300D, I noticed that, sometimes, there was a moderate clunk (not horrible but definitely noticeable) from the left front of the car when going over road irregularities. The PO thought it might be the strut, though visually it looks fine.

I thought that whatever it was would get flagged at inspection, but the car passed with no issues. And the place where I get my cars inspected is pretty rigorous...not the perfunctory inspection you get some places. So, whatever it is, it doesn't appear to be safety related....unless the inspector screwed up.

Any ideas?

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

swaybar, LCA, ball joint... plenty of stuff underthere to clunk. odd an inspection wouldn't catch it, but I bet an alignment shop would.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

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

Yeah, I know there are lots of possibilities....assuming that most if not all would be ruled out by inspection. Needs a tire rotation anyway....I'll get it looked at.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Worn sway bar end links can make a lot of noise, Shertex! They need to be freshened up periodically.

the sway bar links clunk as well as the ball joints, checking the ball joints in a W124 and 201 are a bit hard, you need to lever it upwards, usually a 6 ft piece of wood is used or CAT ore hauler sized channel locks between the pinch bolt and arm shoulder boss.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

My 127,000 mile R129 SL ( that uses W124 bits ) has an increasing metallic rattle / click in the front. Ball joints / upper strut mounts are 4,000 Mi, tie rods are fine, steering box does have some wear. The noise has increased slightly after each track day and autocross I've run.

It has the classic feel / sound of a worn internal upper strut bushing. The strut / shock action is just fine and will be since the piston sealing band is still good enough.

The strut bushing wear as the suspension goes up and down, as the car is steered and under braking. Under braking the strut body tries to rotate forward increasing the bushings load, couple this with some bumpy road and wear increases.

Checking the strut is somewhat difficult on the car. If the suspension is left to hang the system tends to bind, if on it's wheels there isn't enough room to grab the strut body and shake. You would want to move the strut body left and right then front to back. This bushing is part of the strut and can't be changed. I don't worry too much about bushing wear as nothing will fly off and the strut will start to leak long before the play gets enough to worry about.

Fixed the front end noise on the SL today. The strut rod was slightly loose allowing it to shift in the upper strut mount. I located the noise by grabbing the " broken mount safety hoop" and pulling hard.