I would say it's the pads. I'm running Hawk HPS pads and if you just barely lift off the brake, even almost so lightly you can't even see the car move I get the creaking sound but only if im stopped- with the car in drive- and barely lift off the brakes. It's just the brake compound of those pads. Oddly enough now that I think about I've got the HPS pads on pretty much everything I own but the W123 is the only one that does it. I figure it's the constant torque the diesels putting on the transmission at a stop.

My groaning did start almost immediately after i switched from MB pads to the HPS pads. I know it's not anything else because literally every single component on the front end was replaced less than 5k ago.

Hope that helps a little.

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'83 240D