great luck

[sugrdaddey]

well i had a buyer for my C220 so i went and bought myself a 230 Kompressor. A few days back, some bitch in a minivan smacked into me. YAY! front fender bent into angles i didn't think possible, and a whole bunch of other stuff that just sucks. well turns out her insurance will pay for the car. so thats a good thing if you can say that. but i went and kept my C220 so i can drive it a bit, and noticed a sound when i turned the steering wheel. i did a search on this, and came up with two possible solutions: either power steering or ball joints. well the first is fine, but i've yet to have the latter checked. is it possible that this can be something else other then that?

[benzfan]

Unlikely. The 202 does in lower ball joints fairly regularly, but not generally any other front suspension or steering pieces. Eventually you will wear out control arm bushings, but you will wear out a few sets of ball joints first. Ball joints are easy to replace and cheap.

[SLAMMED_C]

possibly ball joints.. but you may hear them more over bumps.. as a clunk or something along those lines.. it may be your drag link assembly.

[benzfan]

You won't necessarily hear ball joints on bumps. I just replaced one with lots of play in it that made a slight noise when the steering was turned almost fully and only when in reverse. There was nothing else to indicate a problem, but a steering shake was also corrected when I replaced it. In all, I have replaced 4 lower ball joints on this car and many on my previous ones, and clunking on bumps wasn't a symptom of failure on any of them. Clunking on small bumps on a 202 is much more likely to be outer sway bar bushings.The drag link is far less likely to be worn than ball joints. A typical replacement interval for lower ball joints on a 202 is about 40-50k miles. Perhaps less if you drive on lousy city streets a lot.

[sugrdaddey]

the noise does not occur when i'm driving fast and turn the wheel. when i'm driving slow and turn the wheel thats when it creaks. can speed have anything to do with it? (comparison of say 10mph to 35mph)

[sugrdaddey]

what i meant was why does it not occur at a higher speed?

[benzfan]

Generally, the forces on the ball joint at speed hold it in an orientation that for it is stable. The noise at lower speed especially with the steering at or near full lock is due to the ball joint hunting around for a stable orientation. A new one is always stable from all directions whereas the worn one will occasionally be in one internal orientation, and sometimes in another, depending on the direction of the force at any given time. In a nutshell, it is a sloppy fit. Clunking back and forth is occasionally heard, but in my experience, the wear will allow moisture in and the factory lube out, causing rust and pitting on both the ball and socket. They can and will squeak or groan audibly, usually at the extremes of steering movement.
Wear of ball joints can sometimes create those annoying problems that are not always seemingly present in the steering that you blame on alignment (which it partially is) and tire balance.