So I have this new to me car and am taking care of a few annoyances. One is this knocking/warping sort of sound from the front end. You hear it when you turn and when you brake. Now if you brake say once, let up a little, then reapply more firmly, you don't hear it again.

I got under the car and checked linkages. The outter tie rods look new and are very hard to rotate with hand force. There isn't any noise coming from the steering box. Couldn't find any play in the idler arm, no up down movement in the linkage assembly as a whole. The car tracks straight and I don't feel any flakyness or play in the wheel.

The center tie rod however, can easily be rocked back and forth. I'm thinking maybe this is the culprit somehow? Maybe it's worn oddly and is rocking around when hit with different loads? It's har to visualize but the only thing I have to go on right now. The steering stabilizer seems to be working, sounds like there might be some air in it.

Any thoughts or ideas would be great!

Frank.

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'82 300SD

My first thought is a ball joint but I do not quite understand the "warping" description. Ball joints will clunk on you and do it in the manner you describe because once it has "clunked" and set in place it will not do it again until there is another big direction change. Ball joints usually clunk while going over bumps and such. If that is the culprit and you replace the ball joints the next noise you will hear will probably be the track rod mounts.
I would replace the cheapest/easiest part first (the center tie rod in your case) and if that did not resolve it the ball joints would come next.
How many miles? Once they get over 150k miles or so most of the suspension parts like this are shot.

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Jim

I have 225K on this car. I don't know if the ball joints were ever replaced but that's a good start. I'll prolly do the center tie rod like you said along with the steering stabilizer just because both are old, if that doesn't do it then ball joints will go next.

The warping noise is more of a descriptive reference to the sound I'm hearing. Not that anything is necessarily warping, just sounds that way, kind of a dull nock sorta sound.

Frank

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'82 300SD

Frank,
My 82 SD made what could have been a similar noise. It also made the noise with the wheels turned to one side when starting to move or stopping. I checked the brakes, tie rods, ball joints top and bottom both sides, they were fine. I replaced the driver's side control arm because it was questionable, still the noise persisted. I had a friend over one day and decided to find the problem. I had him move the car slightly back and forth applying the brakes with the wheels turned ao I could feel the components. I found the noise to be coming from the bushing under a component that I believe is a torsion bar where it connects to the chassis. There are two large bushings that have a bolt going through the center of them. One of the bolts was loose. I loosened both and retorqued them. I did the passenger side next, just to be sure. The noise is gone! Just my experience.

Tom

82 SD
86 SDL

I know what you are talking about, you mean those large round bushings that serve as an attachment point for those lateral support arms. That would make sense as well. I'll check 'em.

Thanks,

Frank.

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'82 300SD

Yes those are the ones. I was surprised when I found the bolt loose. Good Luck

I think I've found my problem. Notice this picture, mainly the yellow arrow.



See how there is no gap at the bottom and there is rubber squirting out the top.

Here's the passenger side.


It looks these are about 100 bucks a set, do they normally go bad? Is it worth it to go used? Normally I'd like to replace both sides but if it's more of a fluke thing that this went, I might consider used routes. Thanks for your help.

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'82 300SD