I recently replaced my wheel bearings. Later I noticed that the front passenger's sid was making a rhytmic sort of scraping/ groaning noise. I had written a query inh the diesel discussion and recieved useful feedback.
Today, I tried to lay these bearing demons to rest. I wanted to eliminate any other possible noise culprits. First I centered and glued the wheel spacers to the wheel in order to restore any unbalance. Then I replaced my old brake pads with new ones (I had to sand them down a bit to get proper clearance). I replaced the wheels and tightened the bolts as per the manual to 110nm using a torque wrench.
I took the benz for acruise and all seemed well. the noise had dissappeared and seemed much smoother in general. On the way back, the noise seemed to have returned. After pulling into the driveway, I felt the dust caps and wheels to see if they were hot from perhaps having too tight bearings. They weren't even remotely hot. It was then that I noticed one of the lug bolts just hanging out. Further inspection revealed that the bolt had sheared off. The alignment on my 300sd is far from perfect. I have noticed that the camber is off (top of the tire angled slightly outward).
So, to make a long story short, Could poor suspension geometry be the culprit of the broken bolt? Also could this have caused the noise? How difficult will it be to remove the remaining piece of bolt from my hub?
As always, all help and opinions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!