wheel shudder on slow turns
 

This is for my 300TE.

It has been an ongoing problem sporadically.

I've replaced tires, tie rods, drag link, ball joints and bushings, center link and idler arm.

2 alignments and the car still pulls to the right. Including dealer alignment.

The major problem and probably linked to the pull is this death shudder from the front driver wheel. Whenever I turn left for a uturn or out of a parking spot it occasionally will shudder like the entire wheel is going to fall off. it's quiet scary. I try to replicate it and it doesn't do it again for a week or month so it's hard to diagnose!

My best description would be imagine if the lugs were not tight and the wheel is moving around against the hub...that's how it feels when it does it. Or If you had a rim bent so bad the entire car wobbles when it rotates. It's just like that but during a slow hard turn.

Could it be the wheel bearings at all? Any other ideas?

that much amount of slop in bearings will be very noticeable. I would suggest you check the ball joints and upper strut mounts too. The strut mount is the fixed axis which then determines wheel caster properly.

I had this and it was solved by new ball joints.

The ball joints are new. I replaced the entire arm with Lemfoerder about a year ago. when I grab the wheel at 12 and 6 there is no slack.

Strut mounts are also 1 year old too. Shocks are old though and have 100k on them at least.

Have a look at tire interference, both full bump and full droop, when the steering is at full left lock.

to test the wheel bearing slop - by the 12/6 o clock method - you first need to compress the caliper and then remount the wheel.

you did replace the arm - but it wont hurt to check the parts again, Lift the car with the jack under the control arm and then try to wrestle the joint and spindle with a pry bar.

New parts can also fail.

+1 on the wheel bearing play.

is this wagon 4matic?