Below is a photo of the supporting joints, also called ball joints from my 92 300E with 127K miles on it. I just replaced rear shocks and front struts and strut mounts with Bilstein heavy duty units. I recently replaced the supporting joints on my 92 300TE with 134K miles on it, those joints were shot too.

I’m thinking people don’t normally replace them because they are kind of hidden by that plastic cover. If you do the shocks I’d check the supporting joints.

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