Bob Gifford

I was driving today over some pretty snowy roads in northern Vermont. Just made it over a gap and stopped for a cup of coffee. As I left the gas station the car started making a loud grinding noise which appeared to come from the front drivers corner. It sounded really bad like loose metal parts being forced to rotate in an enclosed space. I could not drive it. I had it towed to my mechanic and am looking to see if this has happened to anyone before. The car has 145K on it. I did inspect the outer Cv boot. IT was intact, the car left no oil or grease on the road. If I had to guess I would say that there is some kind of engagement mechanism in the hub for the 4matic drive that fell apart. I have seen this happen in several other cars I have owned (chevy truck, Izusu trooper and a Suburban). This often resulted in converting the trucks to manual hub locking. I have not worked on this E320 and I dont even now how the 4wd works. I think the car is mostly RWD and the front axils dont drive unless slip is detected. Any thoughts on what broke? Something did for sure and it was clearly on the front left. Pulling it up on the flat bed sounded different like a dragging brake. Driving it sounded like the wheel bearing was totally destroyed. No warning it just happened in about 50 feet of travel on a gas station parking lot just after backing up. As I write this is occurs to me that the car likely was in just two wheel drive so perhaps this is just a wheel bearing. If thats what it is its the first time one every failed like that in a car I owned. Wheel bearings that I have seen fail over time getting louder but usually holding together a long time. Thanks for any help, I will try and report back as soon as I have had it pulled apart.

ua549

You should post in the W211 forum. This is the W213 forum.