My 1996 S500 Coupe also has this clunk in the rear. I bought into the accumulator theory and have a pair of spheres and a liter of fluid waiting for a warmer day.

But this week I had the car in the shop for a transmission service, and discussed the clunk with the tech. He felt very strongly that the spheres are OK because the rear "bounces" normally when you push down on it (with the engine running). His theory is that if the spheres were blown out, there would not be any give when you push down. His recommendation is to replace what Worldpac calls the "strut bump stop" which looks like it screws on the top of the strut, provides a cushion against the strut mount, and then passes through the hole into the trunk, where the nut attaches.

The car has 100K on it, and the spheres look original to me. The fluid in the resevoir is low, but there are no leaks to be found.

So much as I was looking forward to working with caustic hydraulic fluid under pressure, I would like to fix the problem. Spheres, bump stops, or both?

TIA

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe