You have never heard a suspension that sounds as bad as mine

[Casey]

Guys, my suspension started creaking, and I've been putting off dealing with it because it's just a beater of a car really (the 450SE), but it's so loud and obnoxious now due to all the salt on the roads it's absolutely nuts.  Every time I roll past anybody on foot, they look at my car in utter horror and disgust.  Not only does in creak and groan every time I hit the slightest bump or make an adjustment in speed, but turning the wheels is now ridiculously loud as well.  If I park in a public place, I have to wait a while before getting out of the car and carrying on with my business; otherwise random people will start asking what's wrong with my car.

I think it should be something simple like adding some grease somewhere above the front two wheels, but I cannot tell where.

I can get out of the car (creak!) and walk up to the front fender and bounce it up and down to reproduce the (astonishingly loud from the outside) sound.

I know this must be simple.  I have a pneumatic grease gun just waiting for me to find a place to use it.  Anybody know if there are grease gun points down in there somewhere?

[ZCarFan]

no grease points unless you have aftermarket replacement parts that have zerks fitted.

If any parts are making that much noise they are toast; there is no reason to try to save it with some grease.  Simply find the offending part and replace it.  If you can't find it at first, have someone bounce the car while you put you fingers on each part.  The one with the problem will telegraph it's pain directly to your fingertips.  You won't miss it, I promise.    Obviously, don't get squished.

My bet is on a tie-rod end.

[Casey]

It's on both front sides.  Way too loud to be a tie rod I'd think.  It's coming from some parts behind the tire - I think I'd have to take the tire off and turn the wheel to get a better idea.

[musikpal]

That sounds familiar, it sounds like ball joints. Do you also feel it when you drive? You should check the ball joints even if you don't feel it. First, my w116's ball joints and bearing were bad and I could feel vibration and wandering. However, later when ball joints on my w124 went out, all my car was doing was wandering(not considerably to make me think it was something major comparing to my w116) and making the sound just like you mentioned so I thought the alignment and the steering gear box need some adjustment(the wandering) and something need to be greased(the loud screeching sound). Not long after that one of the ball joints(the driver side, left side) came loose. I was blessed that when it happened, I was doing right turn in a parking lot. The coil spring push the  control arm against the inside of the wheel and brought the left side wheel almost to a stop. It could have been catastrophic if it was on highway or if I were to make a left turn at high speed (the control arm wouldn't have been held by the inside of the wheel and the gorilla spring would have been set free.....yak).

[Casey]

No wandering, alignment feels fine, but for a long time if I brake while turning right the driver side starts to rattle something awful until I let off the brake. It doesn't do it if I brake hard, just under normal pressure. I was guessing the caliper might be coming loose or something.

[musikpal]

Hmmm both of my my 116 n 124 were high miles (many worn out parts), so the wandering may or may not be from the ball joints.
If you recognize the sound of bad idler arm(rubber bushing sound) you know that it's not that loud and not screeching. I think screeching sound likely  indicates metal to metal rubbing.
With all you have just described I would check the ball joints, esp the side that vibrates, before putting more miles on this car. I jack up my car and put a large strong and long metal bar(the long bar that came with the 99$ harbor Freight tire changer) under the tire and lift it up and lower it down. With bad ball joints, I could easily observe the play esp when I let my room mate do the lifting and I look behind the wheel where the ball joints were.

Ball joints on W123 n 116 (as well as 126 if I remember it right) should be able to go on longer than w124 without things coming apart because  some of the weight of the car is pushing on the control arm via the spring  which in turn pushing against the ball joint from the top while the knuckle, the bearing, which are supported by the tire and the ground bear all the downward forces. I don't know I haven't spent much time thinking about it, but roughly I think comparing to when you use chop sticks, a ball joint on 116, 123, n 126 are like a piece of meat that's  held between the chop sticks. The ball joint on w124, however, act like glue that hold the control arm to the steering knuckle like  M3 double sided tape that hold a picture frame on a wall, the weight of the picture frame is pulling on the tape like the some of the weight of the car is pulling down on the ball joint and  the wall is like the steering knuckle that's holding the  the top of ball joint. So if the ball joint on w124 fail, the spring will push the control arm to the ground.

[musikpal]

Oops sorry you said creaking sound and can be reproduced while parking, how could I miss that? Not ball joints then.
Hmm what is it now?

[ponton]

It could be spring pad rubber is worn out. Also when the bushing is worn out on the sway bars they can creak. Rockauto has such cheap parts that its basically free to replace the entire suspension. Thats what I would do if I were going to continue driving this thing despite it being a beater (I am a bit of a glutton for pain though with regards to suspension work). Having it fall apart could really suck and potentially total the car + tow bill + potential injuries. If it is lower ball joints they are a bit of a pain in the arse to get back in without some creativity but if you have a shop press it should be pretty easy with a homemade tool. Good luck, I am sure you will find the culprit.

[Casey]

It could be spring pad rubber is worn out. Also when the bushing is worn out on the sway bars they can creak. Rockauto has such cheap parts that its basically free to replace the entire suspension.

What's rockauto?  Are those parts OEM or otherwise good quality?  It sounds like I'm going to need to buy a spring compression tool - any specific advice for something appropriate for a W116?  I've never done any suspension work besides replacing tie rods and drag links before, but don't mind learning.  Got a car I'm parting where I need to remove the suspension anyways, so assume I will need the same tools anyways.  Any other tool recommendations for suspension work?

It wouldn't surprise me at all if it's the spring pad rubber - that's sort of what I was guessing when I was looking under the car and trying to figure out where the sound was coming from...I didn't really try very hard though yet - I just stood beside it and pushed down repeatedly on the fender while looking into the wheelwell from the side of the vehicle.  I'll probably have a better look this weekend.

The driver side as I recall started first but the passenger side seems equally bad now.  It's definitely the sound of metal rubbing on metal, at least the up/down movement to the front of the car.  The steering wheel turning causes a bit of a different sound but I'm pretty sure it's the same thing - power steering fluid has a slow leak but I keep it topped off.  There are no vibrations or funny feelings while driving aside from the bad steering coupler making the steering loose (have an OEM replacement, just have to get around to putting it in) - it's only an aural sensation, and really not so bad while cruising down the freeway since there's road noise and everything, but it's horrendous when I pull into the parking garage at work.  What are signs of bad spring pad rubber and is it on the bottom or top of the spring, or both?

Also, it goes away entirely when it's rainy out, as it was this morning.  No weird sounds at all, as though it was magically fixed.  It'll be back again as soon as it's cold, though.

While I'm at it, any ideas on what would cause the braking issue?  It feels pretty scary when it starts thumping, but is pretty easy to avoid and stop as soon as it starts if I forget.  I'm guessing there's something loose and it should be easy to identify if I pull the wheel off (just bought a 4-ton floor jack so don't have to worry about the bad jack points).  Strange that it only happens when braking on right turns though.  The most usual case where I run into it is on highway off-ramps.

This, by the way, is the horrendous sound that low power steering fluid can cause, even when there's no unusual noise when turning the wheel specifically (?!).  This is my 450SEL, and the high-pitched whine at the very beginning is actually the blower motor.  It really doesn't like the cold.  The ignition also barely turns when it's cold out:

http://www.youtube.com/v/G77fEt1wOSI

[Tony66_au]

LMFAO!

Thats a riot!

[Tony66_au]

Ok I have composed myself now........

With the limited info provided id hazard a guess and suggest cracked flex plate/slipping bands in the tranny/center driveshaft bearing or something wrapped around your tailshaft.

Either way I wouldnt drive it 5 feet let alone to work.

Get her in the air and have a look.

[Casey]

I forgot to mention that the SEL is fixed, and that issue was completely separate from the SE issue described.

[ZCarFan]

The wobbling while turning under braking is likely the combination of a a bad tie rod assembly and a warped rotor.  Maybe the idler arm too.

If the tie rods and idler feels OK with the wheels up, put it back down and have a helper turn the wheel back and forth.  You should be able to see the play not to mention feel it.   Replace anything that is not right, then listen for the squeak again.  Why in that order?  Because you need to replace the bad parts anyway.

One place you might look first is the inboard bushings on the upper control arms.  One of my 300 SDs had a bad bushing and the only tell-tales were negative camber on that wheel and a strange thunk-scheech in that corner under certain loads.  You could see the rubber had displaced and was giving metal-to-metal contact at times.