now 124k miles, and still making ugly noises. Additional steps taken to quiet the demon = replace hub, replace inner tie rod. At this point, EVERYTHING has been replaced within the last 15k miles.

I still need to swap the front shocks side to side to see if I got a bad Bilstein. Possibly one of the new ball joints I installed took an early dump?

Only other idea raised by a friend is the lower control arm bolts themselves...if there were too much play between the bolt and the bushing perhaps it could create the noise?

Yes, do that. I just replaced all my shocks (97 E300D) with Sachs brand and the right front sounds like a coffee can of bolts over each bump. I'm going to back off and re-torque the top nuts tonight. If that doesn't work, I'll have to check the bottom.

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PAST: 2006 C230, 1997 E300D, 1994 E420, 1994 Neon Spt Cpe, 1984 300ZX, 1983 Celica GT, 1976 Electra Limited, 1984 Honda Nighthawk 650, 1979 Suzuki PE175, 1978 Suzuki DS100
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Check radiator , I believe it just sits on two pins and has those clamps at the top to hold it down, check intercooler and any air con fittings and any electric fans to see if they can move in any direction.
Is the alarm siren behind the plastic inner arch on these .. could be loose ?.

So it's been almost 1.5 years, and 15k miles I've been living with the death clunk on this car, and it's been making me crazy the entire time.

Since my last update, I replaced front springs (not broken, but figured why not?), replaced driver side ball joint (2nd time in 20K miles), and swapped front shocks side to side (to rule out a bad one). No change, the noise persisted. One interesting observation though, each time I serviced the car, and had the spring compressed, the noise would disappear for 2 days or so (about 140 miles of commuting) then reappear.

Eureka moment last weekend. I took a gearhead buddy for a spin in the car (who I have been discussing this suspension noise issue with since the beginning of this saga). He heard the noise, even felt it through the chassis, and agreed it sounded like it came from the shock itself. We popped the hood, turned the wheel to get visual access to the front suspension, then he jumped up and down on the front crossmember while I watched the suspension work. I heard a faint click/knock, pinpointed the source at the bottom shock eye, where it attaches to the lower control arm. I could see a tiny bit of slop in that joint.

That's when I connected the dots - When I installed these new shocks, for reasons I can't recall now almost 2 years later, I reused the bottom bolt instead of the new one that came with the shock kit. I only re-used the bottom bolt on the driver side, used the new one on the passenger side. I think the passenger side one was stubborn to remove and the hex head got boogered up. I supposed my thinking was "if it ain't broke, why fix it". Anyway, the bolt that came with the shock kit was just a tiny bit bigger than the old one, about 0.1mm according to my vernier caliper. Using the old bolt with the new shock obviously created a larger clearance and this was my stupid dang noise the entire time!!

Lesson learned: when they give you new hardware with a part, you use it even when the old hardware is perfectly serviceable.

The car is riding sweet, and silent. Just as a proper Benz should.

Hopefully this thread will save someone else from pulling their hair out for a year+ (haven't got much left anymore).

Outstanding work.............and thanks for giving us the solution..............

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96 E300d

Good job, thanks for the follow up.

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Jim