Hi,

I've just purchased a 1988 300D with 139,000 miles on the clock and full service history.

Car was owned by an elderly gentleman who only covered 3000 miles in the last 2 years.

The problem I have identified is that once the car has been running at speed for 15-20 minutes ever so often there is a nasty screech from the front offside wheel which lasts a fraction of a second. This becomes more prolonged until it becomes a constant screech....very loud and sounds like fan belt screech but more metallic. Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up!!!!!!!

Stopping the car, I jacked it up it see if there was anything obvious, like a stone trapped between pads and disk/rotor and could'nt see anything.

There did'nt appear to be any play in the wheel itself (I thought it could be the bearing) and the wheel rotated fairly freely when spun.

Its worth noting that the screech would disappear if you just tapped the brake pedal whilst driving and would return as soon as you released it.

I also noticed that if the car was left for 10 minutes of so the screech would disappear, but would come back after 10 minutes or so of driving.

Looking through the old invoices that came with the car I noticed that the front wheel bearings had been tightend 3000 miles ago.

So what could this be, glazed brake pads, rusty edges to disks/rotors, non-MB brake pads, bearing collapse??

Any ideas out there?

Cheers

__________________
Current Mercs
R129 1994 300-24SL
W124 320E Turbo Technics Twin Turbo 350bhp

Previous Mercs
W124 1986 Quad Cam AMG Hammer, 45,000 miles
W124 300E Turbo Technics Twin Turbo 320bhp
W124 E500