Vehicle is a 1992 300 TE with 133k miles on it.

When I go over speed bumps and/or humps which are everywhere in my area a clanking noise is heard coming from the rear of the vehicle. I think it’s on the drivers side only, but not sure.

So far I’ve checked the following:
1- the bushings in the multi-links seem to all be intact. Car has no rust at all anywhere,
2-Makes noise if car is in neutral when I go over bump,
3-makes noise if car is in gear when I go over bump,
4-noise is not from spare tire or tools,
5-noise is not from rear windshield washer tank,
6-noise does not seem to be coming from a shock,
7-while exact location of noise is hard to pinpoint, it seem to be coming right from behind the tire, i.e., wheel,
8-condition of supporting joint at bottom of rear wheel carrier looks poor, see photo below,
9-Muffler and rest of exhaust system is not source of noise.

I’ve also attached a diagram of wheel carrier, the supporting joint is # 7a. The spring link is #6.

A photo of the supporting joint is also attached.

So does anyone have any idea what the source of the sound might be?

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have you adjusted the parking brake shoes?

No I've not done that.

check ant. motor

I have the same issue with my 1988 TE as Ron does with his. I've had all of the things looked at that Ron has and I even looked at the antenna motor. None of it seemed to be the culprit.

If you have any success, Ron, please let us know.

Thanks.

__________________
David

His:
2003 Dodge Durango SLT
2002 BMW E39 530i Sport
1988 Mercedes 300TE
Hers:
2003 Chevrolet Suburban
1999 E430

I suspect it's the supporting joint, 7a which I discussed in my first post. It's also called the rear outer lower control arm bushing. That joint seems to function kind of as a ball joint in the rear. Hopefully someone that had this problem will view this thread and let us know. I'm sure I'm not the first person with this issue.

Edited

Here's a photo of the special tool to remove the supporting joint installed on the car.

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I think you should check the parking brake shoes.

Wiper motor? Just a thought.

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

also check the wheel hub bearing, it might need to be repacked (replacing or adding up new grease) or retighten, had that problem before on mine...

Mystery noise source identified and fixed.

Isolated noise to shock absorbers with my stethescope but still didn't know what was causing noise or how to fix it. So I took it to a friend who owns an MB shop in town for him to diagnosis. He had not heard a wagon making the sound mine was making when you bounced the rear up and down manually, without the problem being one of the ones I tested for.

He also thought it was the shocks so he manually filled and dumped the fluid from the control valve for the self leveling rear suspension with a couple of us sitting on the rear of the wagon with the tailgate open.

That fixed it. The problem was the shocks were not sufficiently full of hydraulic fluid. We don't know if the noise was air or what since the noise was present on both rebound and compression.