[QUOTE=anghrist;3023197]I've had my '99 E300TD for about 6 years now, and I have to ask.

How many folks here have actually heard the sounds your car is making? When driving of the rough roads here in th AV, I don't notice about 80% of the sounds that the car makes. With the windows up, the A/C on and the radio playing, I really can't hear anything mechanical.

So this makes me wonder, how many people here have experienced some sort of mechanical failure that gave no audible warning?

Today, I was driving into work and at low speed, with the window down, I heard the faintest of creaks when turning the steering wheel in the parking lot. And these creaks were only during small deflections in the steering. Larger (more cornering) maneuvers and things were quiet.

My 96 E300D was as quiet as a mouse except for the a little noise I heard when I made a slight left turn. It had rained hard the night before, with high winds, and a lot of small tree branches on the road. It sounded like a small branch had stuck to the tire, and had flipped off into the wheel well. Thought nothing of it, parked the car, and the next morning got in and started to move when I heard a loud rubbing sound from the right passenger side front tire. Thought I had a flat, but it turned out to be the front passenger side spring perch had failed. I was totally bent out of shape, but then realized that I could have been doing 70 MPH and that would not have been good. Perfectly fantastic car, with one Achilles heel. I had the car on a lift the week before, and there were no tell tale signs of any problems with the spring perches.

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96 E300d