Thanks for the info, guys.
But the plot thickens.......
The reason I checked the bushings was due to a loud groan coming from that area when I bounced the car. I could feel the vibration in the control arm as I pushed the car up and down,
So when I removed the control arm and found the somewhat worn bushings, I figured I had the culprit. Well, I slicked up the sway bar and greased the old bushings with silicon grease and put it back together (until i could get new bushings) and it still groaned! I even backed off the bolt in the end of the swaybar and sprayed silicon on the bushings, still groaned.
While i had the control arm off, I checked the almost new inner bearings, they look great. The ball joint is 13 years old, but was very tight - almost can't move it by hand. That's why i left it on when I rebuilt the system last year. But now I'm wondering if the ball joint is the bad guy????
And of course, it's the one that is part of the entire control arm, and costs $100!

Think I'll pull the ball joint /arm back out and move the joint around a lot, and shoot some grease under the boot (perfect boot) and see if that makes a difference. I should be the expert on upper arm removal after this weekend.

Grrrrrrrrr.
S-Class Guru