Recently the front right suspension has been groaning on my '88 420sel. I can reproduce the sound by pushing down on the car from the left front, right front or the middle of the car. When driving, it makes noise when turning either left or right and when going over bumps. Because I can reproduce the sounds when the car is stopped, I don't think it's a problem with the sway bar link. Does anybody have any idea what it could be? I like doing the work myself, so can anybody give me instructions on how to fix it?

Thanks

Peter

Could be a handful of things. And I hate to tell you, but checking them involves you laying on the ground under the car in that cold weather.

The sway bar links are in the rear, so your noise coming from the front tells me you are probably right in that guess.

The common thing is the braking support ball joint to make noise under there. it is connected to the lower control arm, and mounts to the body under the footwells of the driver and passenger. They can klunk when you go over bumps. If the boot is gone protecting the ball joint, the joint usually goes soon after. Dirt is no friend to this guy.

Then start poking around underneath, grabbing at the steering components. It will take some effort to flex them but try to move the tie rod ends and drag link bushings around. push them in and out, to try to compress the ball inside. (I hope I am explaining this ok) You will have to really hang on them to move them. The weight of the car moves them otherwise, so an average size person is not much load.

You might try to flex the ball joints somehow, this is tough.

Look at the top of the shocks, when you move the car up and down. Do the bushings ever lose contact with the mount? As if the nut was not tight enough to compress the bushing. Then check the bottom mount also. Shocks last a long time on these cars, so the bushings drying up is not unusual. I have no idea where to get new ones without the shocks though!

I hope I gave you some ideas. Search by my name, as I fought this with my 560SEL for a bit. I posted all the things I repaired.

Good luck!

__________________
1989 560SEL (172k)
1989 325IC (122K)
2004 Suzuki Volusia LE (3500 miles)
2005 Yamaha Road Star (20 K miles)

I get the same groaning noises from my 126 but was afraid to admit it sounds like an old Pontiac. I found a lot of the intermittant noise appeared to be coming from the spring it self and possibly the lower contol arm bushing. I haven't done any real correction other than spraying some gun oil on th spring.

__________________
1984 280SEL, 62,000 miles
Euro model in the USA
1983 300D (Totaled out 10/2004)
New Factory Mint Green paint
Palomino int
1982 240D (Steak dinner for two)