OK, so I had a mystery clunk in the right front end of my '95 S500 W140 car. The clunk seemed to be in concert with hitting small bumps and would happen immediately when a road imperfection was encountered. It started AFTER I had replaced all the front suspension wear items... upper control arms complete, lower control arm bushings, tie rods, ball joints, shocks, centerlink, idler, sway bar end links and bushings, brakes, wheel bearings, tires... you name it. This was all done at around 215k miles, and the clunk started around 220. I had gone over everything over and over again trying to find it.
The culprit?
The NEW upper control arm assembly had a BROKEN SHAFT, which allowed the bolt to rattle around in the mount. You could spin 1/2 the bolt by hand and the other side wouldn't turn, and the bolt was NOT turning in the nut! Luckily I saved the take-off part, which did not have any play and eliminated the noise immediately.
We found this by prying on the upper mount with a pry bar and noticing the play.
Case closed, thank heavens.
03-19-2008, 06:44 PM
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