Sloando

I have an annoying squeeking coming from the front end, sounds like ball joints.... any ideas???

Barry45RPM

Very common. Ball Joints.

Sloando

Does anyone know if this is a recall item? I have a 45 year old truck that makes less noise!!! I do have an aftermarket warranty hopefully if all else fails I can use it to get this problem corrected.

konigstiger

Not a recall but rather a MBUSA bulletin: DTB P-B-33.15/22 FEB07 squeaking/thumping noise from the front axle, replace upper ball joint(s).

vettdvr

Took our E500 70470 miles to dealer for squeek. Sounded like joints to me, but given extended warranty I let the dealer sort it out. It was they installed 2 336391 Lower left/right steering knuckle.

Now the question:

1) is this part just a defect
2) is this part underdesigned for the application
3) is this part going to fail every 70K miles.

Not what I would expect from a car over $65000

Diesel Benz

I've posted this before: In Europe MB did recall the lower front ball joints for some W211 models (they did it on my 320 CDI, I assume it would have the same parts as an E500, the smaller Euro cars have different ball joints). This was done only for one of two manufacturer's products.

Anyway I wouldn't consider 70 000 miles particularly low for a ball joint repair these days. 35 000 would be low to me. The average would probably be higher than 70 000 though. The point anyway is that you can build the joints to last for ever, but they would take space and would weigh more, you would have to compromise with the suspension performance at some point.

vettdvr

That really would suprise me that 70,000 is ok for joints. I have driven US cars (6) up to 200000 miles and not replaced joints.

Diesel Benz

I'm sure 200 000 miles would not be an issue for many of the current MB models. This would not mean that all individual cars make that, and I still don't consider it a quality issue on the joints. But I may well be wrong. Comparing to US cars isn't an apples to apples case to me anyway

Sloando

I had the repair shop replace both upper and lower ball joints on an extended warranty. Solved the problem.

georgedaman

Shock mounts are squeeking on mine....in colder weater only

Benz-O-Rama

I just had my passenger side lower ball joint and thrust arm replaced by my dealer. I was hearing more of a clunking than a squeaking but problem is gone now. It was done, out of warranty, for 641.00 including parts.