Possible drive axle problems
 

I referred to it thusly because it’s not drivetrain, I don’t think the main driveshaft is involved, I think the noise comes from the right axle shaft or somewhere in the wheel bearing.

Seems to be most notable at low speed while accelerating. I think I’ve read that you can drive those quite a ways without major issue but upgrade is inevitable and soon.

The boots are intact, don’t look too bad, more checking is needed.

This on my ’84 300D.

Is it a clunk? What kind of noise? That will help diagnose it.

Clunk clunk sound not always present? Often but not always? The cv joint over the years has gotten pretty dry. Is a strong possibility.

Not constant yet? Remove small outer boot clamp and squirt some heavy gear oil in with a turkey baster and small tube on the tip. I believe it cannot stop the noise if it is being caused by wear.

Once cv noise is constant it can be too late to do this. Good preventative maintenance even if not currently the problem anyways. .

Upgrade in my opinion is not a requirement as it s binding you hear. To me that indicates the joint is still tight. Run it long enough binding and certainly there will be wear in that situation. Usually the symptom is drive the car until the parts in the cv joint heat up. With no lubrication they get hot and expand. Binding starts. Typically this happens on a highway trip yet that is not always the case.

It almost sounds like a wheel loose on Lugnuts. It is sort of a clunking. I made a couple of videos, one of them caught the noise pretty well. But it’s difficult to wade through. Perhaps I could edit or make another one, a better one.

If you back off the throttle, the noise goes away, give it the throttle the noise comes back. At higher speed it sounds like you have a big rock stuck in your tread. By the way, I discovered a tear in the right inner axle boot sorry I didn’t look real hard at the left, though I will.

sounds like a worn cv joint to me. You can drive them that way for a while but yours sounds fairly advanced.

I had a flapping noise from one wheel, the CV axle looked fine, car looked fine running on a lift. The noise was audible at low speed and similar to having a piece of rug on a large wheel, periodically hitting something at the same point, accelerating with vehicle speed until inaudible. Sometimes it felt like the wheel was rubbing at one particular spot while making its 360 degree turn. Replacement of CV axle fixed that noise.

Just heard the noise for the first time a few days ago. It's weird, it comes and goes. Behaves very well most of the time. Lucky for me I see that the W123 replacements can be had for around $100 or a bit more. DSS is the brand I keep seeing. Pelican has them for $130.

By contrast axle shafts for the 300SDL are north of $350 apiece.

That’s a good description of the sound it was making. Sometimes at low speed it sounded like in another few miles something was going to fall off. But nothing was amiss upon examination.

I wrote the OP in bucoluic Dunsmuir, CA pop. 1724, on my way to OlyWA. This was at 4pm on Saturday. Redding, pop. 91,000 - with a few Mercedes mechanics advertised - was 50 miles of mountainous roads behind me. The nearest other population center was Medford OR, 100 miles north, beyond more mountains.

I had heard a couple of times from reliable sources that one can limp on bad CV axles for quite a while. I’m guessing that’s much more true on rear axles as opposed to FWD.

I really, really wanted to get home that night, well, my prior home and where my mother and other family members live, so I went for it. Very strange, the car performed pretty well and I got in at 2 AM.

Break it all down - both sides, then see what you've got.

Tip: Once each side is jacked up, grasp the tire cross ways from
both sides, and feel for play in the bearings.

Report back when broken down for inspection.




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You can check cv looseness by parking on a level place with the car in neutral with park brake on. Reach in and grab half shaft axle and wiggle it up and down. It should not have any play. In and out about a quarter of an inch is just right.