greg_dance

My daughter has a 1995 W124 (E320) wagon I bought for her and recently she had a flat. We took it in to Firestone to get repaired but the tire had to be entirely replaced as a nail had gone through the sidewall area. Upon driving the car home my daughter started hearing a thumping noise when she made a sharp turn left. I told her to go straight back to the store and have them check it.

Upon her return she said they told her it was likely the tie rods and that possibly having the car on the lift with no compression on things allowed a marginally working tie rod to fail.

I'd noticed the tie rod ends seals looked worn out recently when I was replacing her motor mounts so it sounded reasonable. After I replaced both tie rods the noise still persisted. I noticed a little play in the wheel and thought, wheel bearing are cheap enough and the car has the miles I'll just replace those too and rule them out as a possibility.

I had both front wheels off and I'm guessing I put them on the opposite sides when I put them back on because now the noise starts when I turned right. To debug further I swapped out the spare tire for the noisy one and all noise went away.

Any ideas what could be causing the noise since it appears to be tire/wheel related and not suspension related? Though close it doesn't appear the wheel weight is doing it.

lululu

Its the wheel weights rubbing on caliper

QVHK

Have you checked on the tire size of the wheels concerned, and condition of the tires and rims in question? Although the noise went away after your swapping in a spare wheel, how good is the spare tire and does its size match the other on the same axle? The last time I heard thumping I did not see anything abnormal from the outside and continued driving. I ended up running flat a front tire, which apparently had a swelling from the inner tirewall due to excessive wear, eventually destroying it after it blew and rubbed severely with the rim and the ground. So when you hear any unusual thumping sound that rises and falls with speed, stop driving and identify the source of the noise. Seek professional help if necessary. Also, we often overlooked the spare tire's condition in terms of size, air pressure, etc. It is only meant as a stop gap measure. Make sure that it is a suitable replacement if you continue to use it for regular use.

greg_dance

Apparently there is enough flex in the system to allow the weight to touch caliper or shock when under the lateral forces of a turn. The weight barely came up past the edge of the rim but it was enough that the clip part of the weight was the problem. A bit of reshaping of the clip was enough to take care of the problem.