OK, I know that rattles and strange noises can be an absolute b*stard to figure out, but I thought I'd start here. First off, the car is a 1995 (W124) E320 wagon, 75000 miles.
Just in the last three weeks I've had a strange rattle that seems to be emanating from either right behind the right (passenger side) front wheel or under the hood in that area. My first thought was a wheel bearing on it's way out, but I had the tire shop check it yesterday when I had new tires put on, and they said it's fine. The noise only occurs when accelerating, and seems to be worse when the car's warm, which makes me wonder if it might be a timing belt tensioner or valves needing adjustment or something. Any ideas? (Strangely, and probably unrelatedly, it started the same day I got the car back from the dealer after having an alignment done).

Oh, and while I've got you here....there's a high-pitched squeak coming from the automatic shifter in the center console that's driven me crazy since I bought the car a year ago. It comes and goes, sounds like something's rubbing somewhere that shouldn't be.....
Thanks in advance for the help!
Ethan

The high pitched squeak coming from the auto shifter is your transmission bushings - mine went bad too and I had to chase that same noise. The noise is first, the sloppy shifter is next. Go to dealer and get the two shifter bushings for $5 and replace them. Search this one out, the procedure has been explained at length in other places. It is a DIY job.

As for the other noise, you're fairly screwed. You need to try and control the noise - figure how to turn on/off the noise with switches, brakes, throttle, drive over bumps, etc., anything and everything you can think of. The goal should be to be able to make the noise occur, once that's done you can work on what the cause is.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

belt tensioner 300e 2.8 M104

Thanks for the info on the shifter....I figured it was something like that. I can pretty much make the other rattle occur at will. All I need to do is accelerate (not even particularly hard) when the car is already rolling. The weird thing is, if I rev the engine when the car is parked there's no noise, so if it's an engine noise the car needs to be under load. I don't think it's a tranny thing, it sounds like it's coming from the front of the car. I'm still leaning toward a belt tensioner or something along those lines.....
--Ethan