W123 Creaking Front End

[rmmagow]

The car is an 83 300D w/188K showing.
My wife mentioned to me that when turning the front wheels she hears a creaking noise, kinda like an old wooden boat, coming from underneath the car. I don't hear very well but can feel something in the floor a bit when it's making the noise. I suspect bad lower ball joints. The car does have a tendancy to exhibit a very slight pull, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. There is no vibration or excessive loose feeling while driving, even at high speeds. The upper section of the front suspension, some big aluminum looking casting, appears to have been replaced in recent times, i.e. it is clean and shiny. I can't really tell much about the lower ball joints. I've jacked up the car and tried wiggling the wheel with my hands at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock and can't feel any play, not sure if this is a valid test for a bad ball joint though. The creaking definitely only occurs when steering the wheels though.
Can anyone give me an idea what to start replacing first? If I need to do the ball joints, should I do the tierods and those "stabilizer" things that connect up to the firewall from the control arm?
Thanks for any advise.

[PhilK]

I had a very similar sound in my 190E, it would creek through most harder turns, at any speed, it would also creek when I would hit a bump or simply got in and out of the car (and i'm a very skinny fella) , I wound up replacing the tierods since the bushings looked very worn, however that didn't solve it. Turned out to be the lower ball joint on the one side. Once that was replaced, the noise was gone and it steered much better (which is no real suprise). Just keep in mind that for suspension parts if you change one side be prepared to do both since the other will not be far behind. If you give a good look at your tierod bushings and other various bushings you'll get a good gauge on whether they'll be good to go for awhile, I wouldn't jump the gun unless you have some extra spending money or are feeling ambitious. And in that case by all means, as it will defintely improve the handling of the car.

[jayb79]

I think it is bad lower ball joints. Not because they are loose but because they have dried up and are tight.

My 84 300d and the 87td i just got did the same thing, i sprayed some lube under the rubber boot and the noise was gone.

The 84 had cracked boots and was just making the creeking noise but the 87 felt like it had front end problems darting all over the road whenever any little bump in theroad was hit.