bdgdl08

It's not louder, is it?

LILBENZ230

No not louder, quieter.

bdgdl08

Just making sure!

Glyn M Ruck

Once a tyre has become noisy due to air pumping through feathering & cupping you might quieten it a bit through rotation/pressure, but a certain amount of noise is usually there to stay.

johnand

Yep. I suspect Matt's decrease in noise is from the feathered tires running the opposite direction.

LILBENZ230

Actually my tires weren't yet visibly feathered. They still looked fine and had 6100 miles at rotation. I figure if I do this regularly it might make them last longer.

Glyn M Ruck

Good! Can you feel a bit of feathering by running your hand counter old rotation? You should be able to feel long before you can see.

LILBENZ230

I don't know what I'm feeling for, but I don't feel anything unusual. The Kumho tires I had before didn't develop this trait for until they had about 15,000 hard miles. I've been easier on these tires and they have half that (in addition to be rated as a much better tire).

LILBENZ230

Argh.. I'm getting bulb out warnings on both license plate lamps.. which are working fine.

Glyn M Ruck

Ignore it - go grab a beer. If it still bugs you grab another beer & contemplate the problem. Then grab another beer & a screwdriver & clean the contacts.

LILBENZ230

If only I could stand to drink that stuff. How about tequila?

W203E35

1800 Anejo Tequilla straight (no training wheels)

LILBENZ230

Nay.. I can't drink tequila straight. But that restaurant you saw in the video of Monica singing, Karo, make something called a Suicide Margarita. 4 shots of tequila, 1 shot grey goose, and three shots of.. does it even matter - something else. 1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, floor. Or 1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, gay. I love that drink. It's 11oz of alcohol.

Glyn M Ruck

Tequila is good - as long as it's booze!

W203E35

Have you had these before?

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink735.html

AudiosMotherF***** (name of drink)

nrg_mike

I had that same problem w/ my coupe. I had to buy new bulb housings to fix the problem. I guess mine were warping and the connections were going bad. 50 friggin bucks for those too!

LILBENZ230

So as an update...

I'm now at approx 81,500 miles. Since the 60,000 point:

I have a failed city light. (big deal, right?)
My HVAC system shut down randomly 2x the other day while in Auto mode.
I have tons of popping from the steering. Bushings, I'm told, not critical.
I've had to replace rear brake pads @ 75,000 miles.


All in all, though, this still is one of the most reliable cars I have owned.

bdgdl08

Sounds good to me. The aircon thing would worry me a little, though. I don't have any idea what that would be. I'm ready for new rear tires and new front brakes myself, but I'm completely broke right now, so that's a no go. I'm just over 40,000 now. I don't know weather to replace my rotors. I don't think I need to, but I really don't know. I haven't looked at them.

W203E35

Ahh this Benz has aged soo well. All the good times we had in the backseat.

Edit:
Wait a minute this isn't Patrick's thread

bdgdl08

Glyn M Ruck

Hey Matt - good to see you back. Understand you had some problem with the nannies. Just returned from 7 weeks in the US & having computer trouble with the site again. About to do a clean build on my machine.

Good to see your car being reliable. Reflected that my car started perfectly after 7 weeks away on a 6.5 year old battery. Mine too is easily the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned - amazing.

Your popping is either rack or castor bushes. No big deal as long as you are not wearing tyres unevenly.

I will now be back to pester the crowd.

johnand

Matt, popping in the steering can also be swaybar endlinks. I have some very slight popping/groaning in the steering when entering and exiting my driveway. Since I have a new steering rack and control arms that the dealer replaced just before warranty ended, I tracked down the popping to the swaybar endlinks. I plan on replacing them in the next month or so.

I wish mine was as reliable as yours has been, but still not bad. After I got all the issues sorted out under warranty, and some myself with STAR, I would say mine is still been pretty reliable. My Nissan Sentra still beats it out for reliability, but still very happy with my purchase.

Just under 70K, and still rolling on the original brake pads Just about to get a pair of the Continental DWS tires for the rear based on your recommendation. After 30K, the Michelin Pilot A/S's are essentially racing slicks

johnand

Glad to see you back with us Glyn

LILBENZ230

Yesterday I had the tires rotated across the axles for the 2nd time (now at 12,000 miles total on the tires). They're wearing pretty even - I had to drop the PSI down in the rear tires some to around 33 because it looked to me as though they were getting worse center wear. The fronts still look new. I also had Service A performed.

The popping noise is different for me than what you're describing. I don't get any pops or groans over bumps. I get it when the wheels turn. I can turn the steering wheel while sitting still or especially when backing up and get a series of "pop pop pop pop pop pop" that can be felt in the wheel. It's not terribly loud or rough. Like I say, tires in the front are wearing very well and no other manifestations. I just took the car on a 400 mile trip last night and covered the last 75-mile-lonely-interstate stretch in 49 minutes. I reset the "after start" trip meter for that part to see how such high speed cruising affected MPG. It started at 23.3MPG and slowly climbed to 26.1MPG by the time I exited the interstate. Overall MPG for the whole 400 mile journey was 30.3MPG, brought down from 32.3 by the interstate.

I took this photo during acceleration.. Wow it turned out really blurry.

tommy

Not really - the "X" is pretty clear.