What do think is worn to cause this wear?
 

I got some really funky alignment wear on my tires, I suspect it's some sort of control arm, but they are all visually ok. Any ideas?

Attachment 442553

How were the alignment settings?

I haven't taken it in to get aligned yet, wear that extreme, I figured I have some bad joints, and after I replace them I'll get it aligned so I don't have to do it twice.

Normal considering you got most of the use out of the rest of the tire. These cars have a lot of camber so that's going to happen. Are you lowered at all?

Nope, stock air shocks. I had one blow out (front left) in the desert and had to drive home on it, so that may have caused them to wear really weird. That was 6 months ago though.

Looks like these are rears, so that could be toe wear as well. I second the suggestion to get your alignment checked.

Fronts actually.

Almost looks like it's rubbing on something. Is this stock size on a stock wheel at stock height? What does the other side look like? Does the wear you pictured go all the way around the tire?

Stock wheel, stock height.The other side's outside is really heavily worn, and yeah, the weird way wraps around the tire. I'll snap a picture of the passenger side when I get home.

based on how the wear bars are even all the way across, i'd say something was rubbing on this.
have you taken a look inside your wheel well yet?

Common on w211s
If the car is lowered the wear will be accelerated

You had a left air shock (which is the "spring") "blow out" so you drove home with the left side much lower, right? And this is the right front tire with wear on the inside, but the left front has wear on the outside, right? I don't think this a wear pattern due to worn components, this is damage caused by driving with the ride height too low on the left side. Have you looked for damage or wear inside the fender wells? Or was the car pulling very hard to the left and you needed to steer hard right to go straight? Either way I think you can safely get new tires and an alignment.

These cars wear the inner edge no matter what you do. It really sucks.

My tires used to look like that on the inside edge after 5000 miles.
After 6k in tires and alignments in two years I finally took matters into my own hands.

I run K-mac bushings in my front thrust arms, and slotted the subframe for the front control arms. I was going to put adjusters in the slots, but ended up slotting until I had the camber where I wanted it, then locking it down and forgetting. I also run a K-mac kit in the rear for the last 60,000. If it ever fails I will build custom control arms and toe links.

I built a wooden jig to do my own alignments. No more uneven wear. I get around 30,000 miles out of them and still have tread left. Problem solved. Should have learned quicker.

True, but his left front has wear on the outside edge?

Looks like classic toe wear to me

Post pics of the other front tire for comparison