It happens, from the best I can tell, in the right rear when accel, sometimes decel, lots of times when turning right sharply.low speed, but really only when cold. It just started all of a sudden one day after work. When I drive the car more than 15 min at a time, it goes away.

Could it be as simple as repacking the bearing or CV on that corner? And, how? Any other insight apreciated. The car has 272k miles on it now, this is the first thing that's gone wrong in over 4 years I think. Amazing.

Replace the half shaft on that side with either junkyard, or re-built or new.
Very simple job, but you do need the triple star torx style to remove the bolts attaching to the differential flange. Autozone has the kit for 10 bucks.

Mine had been making similar noises , particularly in cold weather in the morning. About two months ago the noise all of sudden became very load and car had to be parked quickly. Turned out that the inner boot had broken.

R&R took about 90 minutes.

Steve

What year / model?

89 300E.

It sounds like the noise is on the outside, at the hub, rather than at the diff. And neither boot is torn.

But ah well, to the junk yard we go!