Low speed front suspension clunk when braking/accelerating turning: shock absorbers?

[Bruno_300TE]

Hi everybody
I have been taking care of my car's (1992 300TE 148kmiles) most problems, except this one:
At low speed, especially when the weather is hot and after some driving I can hear annoying clunks from the front end. It mainly happens when braking, accelerating and turning. In the last 15kmiles the car had new control arms, tie rods, drag links, idler arm bushing, shocks (Bilsteins), shock mounts, wheel bearings, tires - basically a whole new front end.
Last night I had the car jacked up. When I twisted the wheel and consequently the whole steering mechanism I heard the noise again. It is coming from the shock absorbers. When I loosened the mounting nut on top of the shock mounts the noise was gone. As I understand the shock absorbers turn internally to accommodate to different wheel positions. They don't smoothingly but respond with repeated clunks, as if something had to brake loose again and again to allow the shock to turn.
Are my shocks broken? Is this a common problem? I have not read of anything similar on the forum.
As always your sensible comments are very welcome, Bruno

[radunegru]

I am havin the same noise on the rigt side ( pass side), same simptoms ...hot wheather,...etc. Stilll don,t know the cause? Mine does on violent braking from 15mph to 0mph.

[yal]

Maybe the shock mounts wern't mounted properly or bolted with the correct torque. Just a guess.
How about the bolts that connect the shock to the carrier how are those?

[Bruno_300TE]

Well, after thinking it over again, reading other posts etc: I bet it's the ball joints. I'll apply some oil to them with a syringe in order to see whether there is any change in noise. The only thing I wonder: How could they fail after only about 15kmiles?
Bruno

PS I followed the torque specs when installing shocks and mounts.

[radunegru]

I have new ball joints so in my case this can't be the issue.

[Bruno_300TE]

Yes, mine aren't old either. I applied some oil to them with a syringe - but the noise did not change. So I rule them out for the moment. Rather, I ordered a new swaybar (the old one is rusted) with new bushings. The bushings are fairly new but I guess they can wear out quickly on an worn sway bar.
Bruno