I'm stumped. When I drive my 82 300d around town, windows down, and anywhere up to around 20mph (mostly because ambient noise get too loud any faster) I can hear a distinct loose jingling sound when I roll over some uneven pavement, pot holes, small bumps.

It's metallic, its light wight - sounds like some really light aluminum washers bouncing around. I have no idea what the material is though.

My friend and I THINK that it is coming more from the rear of the car.

It's definitely louder, easier to hear when the windows are open.

I'm not able to reproduce the sound by bouncing the car while it is parked.

I'm not asking for anybody to magically tell me what it is - but do any of you have tips on how to proceed in the diagnosis?

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Andrew
Montclair, NJ
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1982 300D Turbo
120k
Petrol Blue Green

Check the rear sway bar links. They make a similiar sound when gone bad. They are cheap and easy to replace.

Thanks, great idea - will check tonight!

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Andrew
Montclair, NJ
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1982 300D Turbo
120k
Petrol Blue Green

One other thing you could check. Get a piece of tube and when car is idling listen under car at or around the bell housing between engine and transmission. I had a sound like that and it turned to be the starter pinion not retracting 100% and just touching the ring gear. Looked everywhere for that.

On another car, noise was heat shield loose and just touching the exhaust and floor pans.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Often such high sheet-metal sounds are an exhaust heat shield or a disk brake dust shield.
In my 2002 Chrysler 3.8L, it turned out to be a cracked flex-plate between engine and auto transmission (common problem with those). It was hard to pinpoint the source of the sound.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

1. Sway bar links as mentioned,

2. Loose brake pads due to lack of or weak, anti-rattle clips, or...

3. Loose wheel bearing adjustment. This would be in the front though, not the rear.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Look under the back seat ,you will be surprised on the bounty collected over 30 plus years ,snacks are not to be included.Sometimes if someones been fooling around with splicing the orig fuel line at the tank ,the common use of 2 fuel line clamps are used ,when enough road vibration gets going this could be that sound ,that is if one of the clamps has lossened up over time. The sounds that emmit from the rear end area are usually clunks and hummms ,you have what is a new sound which deserves a new name,the kuene sound.

check your turbo heat shield & other exhaust shields.

I was able to pull out the turbo shield from the '85 & muffler shield from the '91, removing one rattle from each

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1991 300D

Yes, gotta sound named after me!

Checked the rear sway bars links. They seem sold, well stage, nothing loose.

I light check rad brakes, maybe even the parking brake? (It doesn't work well at all)

Seems like wheels makes sense as a possible suspect because I can't at all reproduce sound while car is stationary.

I had a ' jingling' 'tinkling' sound which turned out to the the thin metal on top of the engine mounts...

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/10414-help-i-need-check-stretch.html

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/156207-photo-step-step-post-showing-w123-evaporator-removal-1983-240d-1982-300td.html?highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

Pull the carpet and trunk liners out, climb in the trunk and get a WELL TRUSTED buddy to drive over bumps until you isolate the exact source.

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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!

What a great idea, to suggest someone get in the car trunk. What happens if they get rear ended or something?? It's not worth someone's life to find a noise.

Maybe the shifter bushings? But you'd probably hear those only at idle.

I still have no what it is. Just gotta wait for it to completely jingle off onto the ground I guess. I though maybe it was some loose piece sitting inside of the rear spring - I have a little plastic wd40 type cap that a previous owner or mechanic had dropped down into my front spring. Not harmful, and makes no noise so I haven't fished it out yet.

Check your tie-rod ends. Had a very similar noise (in fact I even described it as "change jingling") in the SL and couldn't pinpoint where the noise was coming from, sounded like rear suspension. Turned out to be completely toasted tie-rod ends, the little washer bouncing around on what used to be a bushing at some point in its life. Weird part is that the car drove perfect and didn't have problems in the past, didn't even pull! Scary!

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)