Replacing Ball Joints?
 

hey, I have a 1998 c280 mercedes benz. sometimes the steering feels a little wobble when going down the road, it doesn't always feel super tight. do you think it might be all the ball joints? if so, do you recommend only mb ones? or is aftermarket ok?

How many miles on your car. I thought I had a loose front on my C230K, 78,000 miles. Turned out that I just needed new tires. PO had put on rather inexpensive tires.

Start with basics such as cold tire pressures, tires and start checking. It of course could be ball joints but it could also be a number of items.

As Larry Bible likes to say: push, pull, prod each wheel.

A bad tie rod end could easily contribute to that vaque feeling. Tip: If one componet is failing often another is also or close to failing.

Haasman

Mine was bad tie rod ends. Have to replace the whole center link/drag link assembly. With the wheel jacked up on one side grab the wheel at 3 and 9 O'clock and push/pull. If you have a clunk clunk then that is what I had. As said below, it could be other parts also. But this is a good test to start with.

Mike

I want to clarify what I said. My "inner" tie rod ends were worn. These are the ones about 12" in from the wheels. These you cannot relace independently of the center link. The outer tie rod ends you can replace seperately but mine were not worn as far as I could tell. And when I got the new center link it had new outer tie rod ends with it so I ended up with new ones anyway.

Mike