VITO 120 (2007) Rear alxe/wheel issues

[Cnics]

Hi everyone, long time without a Mercedes vehicle (sadly) so haven't been frequenting here as much as i used to years ago.

I have a tedious 'ongoing' problem with my 2007 Vito 120. Apologies in advance for the long intro. It was a somewhat pointless purchase, I bought it in October for not a huge amount of money, and haven't really used it due to a sudden family illness and death followed by the current global situation.
Having driven it for about 400 miles i got a very bad grinding screeching noise coming from an unidentified location. I was almost at my destination, and on reversing out of this place to return home the problem had disappeared. A few days later it appeared again and i took it to my nearest Mercedes specialist to be looked at. I initially tried to book it in at a dealership but we were just starting to close down lots of things and they were very busy.

The brake backing plates on the rear were badly corroded and they told me that it'll be metal from this breaking off and getting between the discs/pads causing the issue.
They set about fixing the problem around the middle of Feb, and they had the vehicle several weeks. They had the bearings in bits, had to make several tools and then couldn't get the ABS/ASR to work at first. A bill for £1900 was a little disappointing (34 hours labour), and 3! rear wheel bearings, but i understand they had difficulty getting things apart, and sourcing parts and i've no idea how long anything is supposed to take. It's certainly not a complaint about the place.

However, within a few miles of driving it again this problem has reoccurred. It's somewhat depressing and i've had other things to deal with but they weren't interested in doing any more to it, so it has sat outside my house since. It has a couple of other issues that i had asked them to look at which, it appears they haven't had time to do, but the MOT is due in October and i really need to get things moving (literally) for when some work becomes available again (i'm in the entertainment industry) or at least get it running and working so i can sell it on. To be quite honest i'd sooner never see the damn thing again.

So, the crucial part. The actual question. Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this, and who in my area (North Derbyshire / North Nottinghamshire / South Yorkshire) might be able to just diagnose and potentially fix it enough for it to be sold as seen. It's a bit smoky and smelly and has a whistling noise on tickover, a glow plug issue, and a cold start issue if it's been stood a couple of days (great purchase!).

It's VERY much like a stone in the discs sort of sound, but it definitely isn't and appears louder. It varies between being full wheel cycle and only part of it, so noise for half a rotation, no noise for the other half etc It appears to be coming from the OSR wheel, but as i'm on my own, i can't rule out it coming from the NSR wheel aswell, or the axle itself as i can't drive and listen. Forwards and Reverse is exactly the same. The problem does not change by applying the service brake, nor does it change by applying the parking brake, it does it in gear and in neutral.
It's difficult to do much or get a recording / video on my own, and the battery is completely flat, but i can do if there are no obvious answers without.

Thanks in advance, a lot of waffle but thought it important to mention what it has had done to rule things out.

 

[M80]

It would be interesting to learn where you took it to, but I would have trouble feeling any confidence in them from what you write.

The backing plates at the rear are known to rust and by the age of yours will have deteriorated, but were they replaced?
These plates hold the parking brake shoes and can let them go with associated grinding. The plates don't need deteriorate too much for the springs to fail. It is possible to reppair this w/o replacing the plates.
In fact new plates can be fitted w/o stripping the bearings out, but it requires the plates to be cut some and some might frown on that.

It seems they had trouble with the bearings, so are they installed w/o trauma.

The half shafts have flanges that rust. These may have been distorted and may now be brushing as they rotate.

It needs for the back end to be set on stands and someone with competence and interest to diagnose.
In fact it may be worth getting a report for a claim from the original garage 'if' they have screwed up.

 

[Cnics]

Yes, the backing plates were replaced. I took it to DAMAS near Clowne. I've taken other Mercedes vehicles there in the past but not for some years.
I think the primary aim was to replace those plates (and anything on the braking side that had been damaged by it, or indeed just needed doing) as they said that is what was causing the issue. I have no idea what is involved but they seemed to suggest it was a nightmare job from start to finish. It seems they really struggled getting some bits in/out or on/off and mentioned about some "ring" or something at one point that was supposed to turn on the bearing but wasn't, or was turning but shouldn't have been. I think this was related to the ABS issue that developed when they put it back together though so may be unrelated to the original issue.
They seemed to suggest that a dealer would have replaced the half shafts entirely, though quite frankly, i'm not sure if that would have been cheaper in the end, and might have worked. I didn't set out to have it done on the cheap, or indeed do less work than was necessary so would have been happy for them to replace the lot at the time but i left it to them to do it right as i don't have the time, knowledge or space to do anything like that myself.

 

[Cnics]

Can anyone recommend somewhere local to Worksop that might be able to fix this, i'd probably need to get it recovered there but have a recovery policy? Failing that does anyone want to buy this vehicle as spares or repairs? I assume that doesn't break a forum rule.