e320 droplink bushes? clonk clonk

[jcgphoto]

my recently aqcuired e320 estate - makes clonking sounds on bumpy roads and generally wanders around avoiding a straight course

are the droplink bushed shot? how can i tell/check?

will they affect the wandering?

all advice gratefully received

cheers JCG

e320 2000W

previous mercs:
220cdi estate 2001 (ex company)
230e saloon 1986 (loved it until local garage killed it)

 

[E320C]

Drop links

Jcgphoto

IMHO I would recommend changing the drop links. Our 52 W210 220cdi estate had slight clonking noise on some uneven surfaces and after the change the noise stopped and drove alot better.

We bought ours from eurocarparts, under £20 a pair for original equipment quality. Easy enough job.

Regards

E320C

 

[coolpot]

Yep i had them done, £18 and garage i bought car from fitted them for free.

Strange noise it makes, or not a strange noise, more under strange circumstances, for example it wouldnt make the noise on a larger bump, but little minor bumps in the road would cause it..mechanic put car on ramp and showed me there was a little play in it. He just swapped the one side, im not entirely sure swapping just one is a good practise to follow, but still i guess it solved my problem anyhow..

 

[230ceBruno]

I luv you guys almost as much as I luv the car

I have this clunking as well and the description of the circumstance above hit it right on the head. I had no ideas what it was and had xno way of explaining to indie. Nice one fellas.

 

[Uncle Benz]

Wandering would also prompt me to check all of the bushes on the multilink arms at the rear. Anti-roll bar droplinks will be clonky, but unlikely to cause wandering unless absolutely shot to bits.

 

[jcgphoto]

fixed it! Lower balljoints & droplinks replaced

Hi,

checked front wheels with front of the car off the ground - found the wheel was easily moveable up and down just by using the tyre as a lever - ergh! so after reading this forum decided to go for lower balljoint repalcement and the droplinks which looked alright but heck while they are under there as they are indeed very cheap to buy

car has been totally transformed - back to how it should be - straight and true

the design and palcement of the lower balljoint means that when worn the balljoints allow the front wheels to flex and steer all by themselves....
hence the wandering and drunk landrover style behaviour

thanks for all your replies and comments

I have just read however the MB may be doing free replacements - is this the case in the UK?

cheers JCG
2000 E320 estate

 

[Parrot of Doom]

It might be worth getting a laser alignment done now. I had similar issues with mine and similar improvements, but the difference after the alignment was amazing.

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk./trusted.htm

I used the guy in Oldham. Cost me about £100 IIRC.

 

[jcgphoto]

Update the Story continues

Hi, thanks for all your advice - heres an update

after having the droplinks & lower balljoints done - everything was just dandy for a few days before the old sloppy steering and wild changes of direction again came into play - i booked the car in to have the alignment checked locally but suffered a 6 week delay after driving into the back of a ML500 with towbar in Brighton.... a new crossmember, radiators, steering pipage, grille, bumper, bonnet etc - the ML suffered only by having the rear tow bar coverplate pop off!
so now have a shiny new front that still hops about the road - fianlly got it in to be checked sure enough the wheels were heavily negative cambered and toeing out.. nice - so with lasers and reference to thick book of settings the shop tweaked everything back into line, straightened steering wheel and checked rears as well (both in line) The bill? £20.00!
Stroud Tyres, Stroud GLOS (Behind Kwik Fit)
The car now feels more neutral and doesnt wander nor react as sharly as it did - but I suspect there is still more work to be doen to get it all 100% again.

The weird thing is when you start from cold & pull away everything feels great - then after 5-10mins the steering gets variable and feels very floppy - it hits bumps or no bumps at all and lurches the whole cra accross the road..its horrible to drive and I have only experienced somethign similar with my old beaten up V8 landrover Siii (very old tech)

This leads me to thinking that its either the steering rack / steering pump / lack of fluid etc playing up or its the front wishbones / joints that are worn/loose.

Does anyone know the south wales (newport/cardiff) specialists - stuttgart Connection? I am now very unhappy with the car and the steering really spoils what shoudl be a fantastic uber estate car - but it drives like a shoppign trolley and I 'd rather walk.

Help is required

thanks JCG

e320 estate 2000
220cdi estate 2001 (given back company car)
e230 saloon 1984 - the best of the lot - now expired RIP

 

[television]

If turnipsock see this he for one would say that this can only be setr up at a MB garage due to the special tools and jigs required to set it up again the way it should be.

Malcolm

 

[MrBenz]

Possibly steering damper ????

I had the exact same symptoms on my w202 99. Had the lower ball joints replaced as well as the steering damper. Cost was £40 for the steering damper (part+labour). After this the car was totally transformed and drives the way I expected a Merc to drive.

Might be worth looking into the steering damper.

Hope that helps.

Hi, thanks for all your advice - heres an update

after having the droplinks & lower balljoints done - everything was just dandy for a few days before the old sloppy steering and wild changes of direction again came into play - i booked the car in to have the alignment checked locally but suffered a 6 week delay after driving into the back of a ML500 with towbar in Brighton.... a new crossmember, radiators, steering pipage, grille, bumper, bonnet etc - the ML suffered only by having the rear tow bar coverplate pop off!
so now have a shiny new front that still hops about the road - fianlly got it in to be checked sure enough the wheels were heavily negative cambered and toeing out.. nice - so with lasers and reference to thick book of settings the shop tweaked everything back into line, straightened steering wheel and checked rears as well (both in line) The bill? £20.00!
Stroud Tyres, Stroud GLOS (Behind Kwik Fit)
The car now feels more neutral and doesnt wander nor react as sharly as it did - but I suspect there is still more work to be doen to get it all 100% again.

The weird thing is when you start from cold & pull away everything feels great - then after 5-10mins the steering gets variable and feels very floppy - it hits bumps or no bumps at all and lurches the whole cra accross the road..its horrible to drive and I have only experienced somethign similar with my old beaten up V8 landrover Siii (very old tech)

This leads me to thinking that its either the steering rack / steering pump / lack of fluid etc playing up or its the front wishbones / joints that are worn/loose.

Does anyone know the south wales (newport/cardiff) specialists - stuttgart Connection? I am now very unhappy with the car and the steering really spoils what shoudl be a fantastic uber estate car - but it drives like a shoppign trolley and I 'd rather walk.

Help is required

thanks JCG

e320 estate 2000
220cdi estate 2001 (given back company car)
e230 saloon 1984 - the best of the lot - now expired RIP

 

[Hibbo]

I had the exact same symptoms on my w202 99. Had the lower ball joints replaced as well as the steering damper. Cost was £40 for the steering damper (part+labour). After this the car was totally transformed and drives the way I expected a Merc to drive.

Might be worth looking into the steering damper.

Hope that helps.

Steering dampers are cheap and easy to change.

You can easily check it by getting under the car and undoing one end of it, then simply moving it by hand. It should move smoothly with equal resistance all the way along.

I don't know enough about dampers do know if it could loose a bit of damperingnessosityability when it gets warm though.

 

[eric242340]

Clonk clonk

The fact that this problem is temperature related discounts the damper and points back to either the steering pump or rack.

 

[television]

The fact that this problem is temperature related discounts the damper and points back to either the steering pump or rack.

Dampers can work better when warm due to the components being more flexible, take a gas filled strut,it will often hold up a tail gate in summer,but not winter. As Hibbo says ,undo one end and it tells all.

Malcolm

 

[eric242340]

clonk clonk

Dampers can work better when warm due to the components being more flexible, take a gas filled strut,it will often hold up a tail gate in summer,but not winter. As Hibbo says ,undo one end and it tells all.

Malcolm

The shock absorber on all models (with it fitted) are useless and always have to be changed. But this is not related to the problem he is indicating. anyway, malcolm check out the test eqpt thread again.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Does his have a steering damper? I thought it was only fitted to recirculating ball type steering.