Clunk in the rear of car

[SoCal Yankee]

Recently purchased my first Mercedes-- 2003 S430 with 35,000 miles. There is a noticeable clunk when backing out of my driveway and over rough roads/potholes. Short of crawling in the trunk, sorry--boot, and having my wife drive the car around so I can find it, not sure how where it's coming from. I took out the spare and tools to see if it was the culprit, but it was not. I've read through the forums and seen comments on front anti-sway bar drop link issues. Is it possible that the same is happening in the rear of this car or do you folks have any suggestions where I should look or what I should have replaced/repaired?

Also noticed when detailing the car this weekend, the inside door panels skin layer peeled when I cleaned them with a damp cloth. Sort of like skin that's been sunburned... a super thin layer of translucent film rubbed off- the panel looks fine, but I've never seen anything like this. Anyone else have this happen on a newer Merc?

 

[television]

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...GA=722.632&CT=F&cat=66H&SID=35&SGR=075&SGN=04

The above is the rear suspension set up for your car, as you can see, quite a few moving components, any one could make the noise.

Re the flaking coating, could this be some form of protective coating that came from the factory. I have never known the top clear 2 pack to flake off.
If the finnish where it has flaked is the same as the rest of the car then no problem, if it was top coat, then the base coat left has no shine to it, and it should be easy to spot this.


malcolm

 

[mioba]

has there been any repray to the car.

maybe dodgy paintwork

inspect the panels closely for differences in finish of paintwork.

panels that have been re-sprayed are easy to spot c.f factory sprayed panels

 

[Flying Scot]

inside door panels boys probably just the poly film never having been removed and became bonded onto the leather or whatever

 

[Stircrazy]

Yes I was thinking that too!