shotgun_banjo

This is driving me nuts. I have a popping noise coming from my front suspension. I noticed it years ago when I turn right on an inclined street it pops but nothig on a straight line. Then it got worse that everytime I hit a speed bump it pops. Then now on a flat road small imperfection I here a slight pop-pop-pop. The dealer has put my car on a lift 3x now and I even went to a indy who specialize on MBs and they all tell me my suspension components are okay and no non-standard movement that will raise as the culprit. I am thinking it might be the struts but it is not leaking and rebound is fine. What else on the front suspension will make that popping sound anyway? It is not a metallic sound more of a hollow "pop" like sound like a rock dropped inside an empty plastic can. If you push the car down you wont hear the pop. The car must be moving for the sound to come out.

I even emptied my car even the spare tires and it is still there and 100% sure it comes at the front as I can replicate it. This happens on both low and high speed driving.

edgalang

A similar thing happened to me in my previous car. Ended up being the sway bar end links. Once I re-tightened the nut that makes direct contact with the sway bar, it went away.

Here's a test, does the pop happen whenever you go up an incline with 1 wheel?

shotgun_banjo

when you say incline with 1 wheel what do you mean? Just imagine you are turning right in a intersection but it is in a incline. Crank the steering wheel to the right for the turn and when you hit the incline it "pops".

superangrypenguin

Do me a favor. Drive said car on a road that you know causes this issue, but drive it with the hood popped open (not all the way up -and safely of course), but just with the hood popped open. Does the sound remain?

shotgun_banjo

Tried that and it is still there. I learned something new actually. If the hood is popped open the wipers will be disabled.

superangrypenguin

Correct. Well, sorry, at this point I'm out of ideas. I thought it was the hood bump stop.

edgalang

This exactly. Not saying it's the same, but with my previous car, if the height difference is enough between the opposing wheel, the bolt that holds the sway bar to the end link rods may pop by a fraction of a mm if the nut holding it in place gets loose. This at the time was easy to diagnose since I had aftermarket suspension and I knew where to look.

xsever

I had this popping sound on my CLK a month ago coming from the left side. We inspected all the suspension parts and found nothing visibly damaged or loose. The strut was not leaking, but we ended up replacing it and the pop sound disappeared and problem solved.

The pop sound would come up at both high speed and low speed in a straight line or in turns.