Front end creak
 

Hello all. New member and owner of a 1977 240D. I have recently replaced the lower and upper ball joints on my passengers side to get rid of a shimmy while going down the highway. I thought this may have been it, due to the right side ball joints being bad. Not so, next will try the steering damper. BUT, my concern is after replacing the ball joints, I am now getting a creaking sound coming from the passenger side while turning at low speeds. This started a couple of weeks after the replacement. I did not replace the sway bar bushing due to the part store ordering the wrong part (they orded the inner bushing). It did not look bad, no major cracks. When I push down on the fender I don't get any noise, only while turning. And it's not all the way from stop to stop, only near the center. It sounds like it's coming from the upper side of the suspension, but I have not had time to isolate it yet. Any ideas?

When was the last time you checked your powersteering fluid level?

Last week, full...

idler arm bushings...

spray w-d 40 up there good..... shorter term solution...but it will tell you if that is the problem or not.....

if the noise goes away, you have your answer for 25 cents .... longer term solution is to replace the 20 dollar part.

I will give it a try tonight, thank for the help Lee.

also could be a dry ball joint.

i have a needle for my grease gun. i would shoot some grease into the boots if i were you.

tom w

As stated above, right side ball joints were replaced. If I have to add grease to the balljoints every other week, then I think there might be some design flows with them. I did isolate it to the idler arm bushing, added some lube, and the noise went away. This will be the next item on the list to buy. Once again, thanks Lee.