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#1
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W124 wandering, could it be worn out strut mounts?
280k miles on the car now, it's been wandering over all surface types of roads, all conditions, etc. It *seems* to do it much worse when the car is very hot. Also, I noticed on a long trip recently, that when I'm doing 70 or above and drafting behind a semi or other large vehicle, it gets REALLY bad, so bad that sometimes I have to stay in the flow of air to stay steady.
My local shop says steering box, without question. They also at first said rear trailing arms, without question, and that did nothing. I'm thinking it's worn struts/shocks and strut mounts. My strut mounts have visible cracking up top, right at the base of where the inner cylindrical part comes down to the main part of the mount. Does that make sense? They have cracks all the way around, and loading the car makes the cracks bigger. Is this a bad problem? thanks all. |
#2
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I did experience the exact symptom you mentioned in my W201 190E....
Replaced both tie rod ends and ball joints and adjusted the steering box (too much free play). And did a 4 wheel alignment.... Cures the wandering straight away... From my experience....a worn shock will cause the car to suffer from a bumpy/bouncy ride while a worn strut top mount will create thumping/clunking noise when driving on uneven roads.... I would recommend you check the tie rod end, ball joints for front and all the bush and control arm linkages at the rear.... |
#3
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Other things to check include front wheel bearings (check the wheels for play both on the ground and in the air) as well as the idler arm bushing.
The strut mounts will probably show some fine cracking if they are more than 1 year old, but large cracks that widen with loading may be more than just normal wear. Do you get clunking? Mine made a noticeable amount of noise when they were due for replacement, and I could replicate it by bouncing the front end while feeling the mount for movement. |
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