rear clunk

[chris-edinburgh]

Hi all recently just baught a 190 2.3-26 and im trying to track down a clunking noise coming form the rear left suspension, it only occurs when going over potholes or rought surface/speed humps, not when breaking/acclerating or cornering,
Ive so far had the car checked by 2 mercedes garages and replaced, the tie rods, rear subframe front bushes, self leveling shocks and spheres.
Initially after replacing the speres/shocks, the noise dissapeared for about 20 miles driving, but has now reappeared???
Can anyone help as this is driving me crazy

Thanks


Chris

[JimSmith]

chris-edinburgh,

I just came across this post of yours while doing a search on the procedure for replacing the nitrogen pressurized accumulator cells and the left shock on my son's 190E 2.3-16. Same clunking which is a failure of the aluminum mount at the base of the strut. It has a female thread that engages the male threaded stud on the bottom of the strut. Over time the aluminum gives up the ghost and the female threads get stripped. The banging noise is from the strut not being extended when the wheel drops as you go over bumps as fast as the wheel does, creating a gap. When the wheel comes back up on the rebound (no damper attached so it comes bouncing back up right away) it slams into the bottom of the aluminum mounting part. After a while the aluminum gets "dynamically redistributed" inside the cup shaped mount. The only fix is a new strut. Hope this helps, and good luck, Jim