W124 Suspension/Steering "pop" noise
 

Hey guys,

So I have had this popping noise ever since the dealership aligned my front end...(or at least about a week or so after)
I thought that I may have incorrectly done the idler arm right before I took her to the dealer, so today I redid it with new Lemfoerder, but the noise is still present.

Its coming from the front middle, or front right.
Its absolutely just like a "pop" and it does it whenever weight is put on the right side of the car. NEVER does it when going straight, only while turning and weight on that side....so I figure its got to be something in the steering right? Ball joints? Center Link?

I know most of the times these noises are sway bar related, but I have new bushings as of last year and everything is tight (incl brackets). I triple checked everything there.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

Likely didn't get the lower control arm bolts tight enough. They'll pop like that if left relatively loose.

outer tie rod end at the center drag link.... you should be able to have someone turn the wheel while you isolate the side....

Agree with duxthe1. Check the lower control arm bolts. If they are tight check if the rubber bushes are damaged. During alignment they sometimes struggle to loosen the bolts and hit it with a hammer damaging the bushes.

I visually checked the bushings and it seems the inner rear one does have hairline cracks, but I cannot tell if that's just age or not.

It almost sounds as if I am going to be forced to just redo everything -- new LCA's, tie rods and center link otherwise its going to cost just as much in getting an alignment after each item individually...

Will I need any other special tools to replace all the above? (updated lower control arms have new ball joint preinstalled). I already have a spring compressor.

how is your idler arm bushing?

Replaced it on Tuesday.

When mine was popping on the E300 it was the tie rod. I had someone move the wheel when I was under it and I saw the end moving around. Swapped it out and the noise is gone.

on my 2005 E320 it was a loose bolt mounting the subframe to the chassis. It wasn't all that loose, but allowed the subframe to move slightly against the mount when the suspension loaded, and the pop i heard was a grunt, like a low-frequency squeak. I got underneath with a socket and a wrench and solved that problem.