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I have finally solved the mysterious (W210) vibration. I have replaced EVERYTHING (about $10k USD in new parts) and finally found the culprit. It makes total sense
I was trying to figure this one out for 12 months including keeping my E55 for 3 months in AMG and MB dealerships where they were trying everything only to be left clueless.
Luckily I have more cars so I treated this as a project and didn't sell the W210 in the process but it was close..
I will prepare a detailed write-up with photos because I know many of you have vibration problems too.
Wow, I am breathless and all it cost was ten grand---wada deal--- am I glad my rust bucket doesn't vibrate, but anxious to learn in your short post what part on your car caused your insanity!!
Those are the worst. But on the bright side, the car feels like a brand new car by the time you have replaced brake pads, rotors, shocks, tires, bushings, tie rod ends, axles, drain and fill rear diff, change transmission fluid, and driveshaft bushings lol.
Those are the worst. But on the bright side, the car feels like a brand new car by the time you have replaced brake pads, rotors, shocks, tires, bushings, tie rod ends, axles, drain and fill rear diff, change transmission fluid, and driveshaft bushings lol.
Yeah, the car feels good now and it's totally worth it. I believe the W210 chassis offers a nice sport/comfort balance and V8s especially are pleasant to drive.
So the problem started back in Germany where I bought the car, originally imported from Japan as a mint condition, low mileage (40k miles) car.
I never thought I would buy a W210 because I thought they were never good and I couldn't get to like the body design, especially the front mask and headlights. Only after I had a chance to drive a W211 E55 and W215 CL55, I started to appreciate the M113(k) engine.
I figured out I don't want the potentially problematic and costly W211 chassis and didn't really like the W212 because they always felt a little bit cramped inside and too "plasticky". Also I heard horror stories about their reliability so I thought W210 with M113 could be a good, reasonably priced bet.
So I found the best condition I could and bought it for 12k EUR. Mind you, similar condition E55 now costs around 15k EUR to 25k EUR in Europe.
Interior and exterior condition was immaculate and the engine was running great so I thought even if I'd have to replace most of the parts (which you should do anyway since every old (±10years and older) car needs a lot of care if you wanna make sure you are driving a safe car.
I drove back from the dealership and knowing one of the wheels has a curb rash I knew the vibration must be coming from this source.
So logically the first thing I did was replacing: Tires and wheels
This helped but only slightly, the vibration was still present.
So among tons of other components, I replaced the following: A 210 330 8807 + A 210 330 8707 Control arms
A 211 330 0335 Ball joints
A 129 410 0115 Flex Disc Kit
A 140 350 4941 Diff Front bushing
A 210 350 7408 Repair Kit Rear Suspension
...
Front and Rear Shocks
Front and Rear Springs
...
All bushings
All vibration dampers
A2022404917 Engine mounts
....
Some of you may have noticed a driveshaft in the picture above. Yes, I replaced the whole driveshaft too. The original one was in a bad condition and fixing it would be around 300EUR with 20% chance it wouldn't work right and it wouldn't be a long term solution anyway so I decided to buy a new one.
You can imagine my disappointment when the car still had vibrations.
I went back to my local Mercedes-Benz Service and asked them to fix it no matter what it means in terms of replacing. I had some work overseas so I let the car with them for 3 months and after countless test drives and trying to figure out what's the problem they didn't find anything wrong.
All I got was compliments on the car condition and hints and thoughts and their final suggestion was: Transmission
Buying a new torque converter would be a good start. But would you do it if there was no absolute certainty? Parts + labour are around 1800EUR.
Doing the whole transmission job would me north of 8k EUR.
I don't mind paying for suspension components, they add to your safety. But throwing money at things just for the sake of trying something doesn't make sense so I didn't take this route.
I thanked them and took my car to a specialized AMG/Racing cars workshop. To my surprise, what do you think they found out?
.. Bad differential angle - That's what I found in multiple threads.
We had a choice of either removing the many times mentioned in other threads differential shim or use a specialized Mercedes Laser Angle measuring tool. We chose the latter
Interestingly, this didn't change anything. At least we can sleep well the angle is right.
So the specialized AMG/Racing cars workshop had the car for about a week and didn't find anything except one little detail.
They told me the car is too old and I should buy a newer one. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
So couple of parts and several wise old and young men later, I was not any wiser.
What do you do with such a sweet car where everything else is sorted out but the drive. I liked the car too much to let it go, even though I had a guy who was interested in acquiring it.
I decided I can't sell something that's not 100% and as I treat my cars as projects, I was determined to succeed in this one too.
New complete rear driveshaft with center support and new bushings and flex discs will be here in a couple days. My ujoint was ratchety with 2 distinct flat spots. Please post solution asap so I don't have to tear it all apart again.
09-01-2016, 05:25 AM
