Driving Vibrations FIXED from DIY Transmission Mount on 2005 C230
02-03-2014, 05:08 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Driving Vibrations FIXED from DIY Transmission Mount on 2005 C230
Wish I had a little more assistance from this forum, but now I can pass on some much-needed knowledge here so that the mechanically declined can also fix vibrations WHILE DRIVING (not vibrations during idle or reverse) w/o killing their wallet or themself.
STEP 1- Get the FRONT of the car up. It really pi ssed me off that a lot of smug DIYers seems to gloss over this step, like everybody knows how. If you do this wrong, you die so, um, worth talking about! Look on the side of your door, it tells you the weight of your car- use this to figure out what jack and jack stands to use- my car weighed 4,300 lbs. so I got a 2 1/4 TON jack stands. For the jack, I got a 2 1/2 ton one which SUCKED- it lifted my car like 2 inches off the ground- seriously! So what I did was buy these rhino rails- you drive up them and it gets your car like 6" off the ground- not great, but good enough. As a back-up precaution, I put ONE jack stand underneath the front-center of the car (see red arrow). An alternative would be driving it up a curb. Make sure to put tire blocks (wheel chocks) behind the back tires, put in park and put on the EMERGENCY BRAKE. Again, you don't wanna die, so do this shlt RIGHT. Push the car and see if it moves before getting under, and have a buddy watching to make sure no car slams into you- I put an orange cone by my car and had a buddy helping/looking out. I made sure to have access from left and right of the car just behind the front tires- this is where I layed across to work.
Step 2- Use a jack to jack up the transmission pan. You need a 10"x10" (inches) block of wood 2 inches thick so the pan doesn't dent. I stacked two 10"x10" that were 1 inch thick- I jacked it up, then centered it, then only propped it up like an inch or less- It's attached to the exhaust so if you don't wanna detach the exhaust (I didn't), just don't jack it up too high or it could damage the exhaust or transmission pan.
Step 3: Remove the cross brace (purple arrow)- Mine had 3 bolts on each side that needed to be removed with a 16mm socket wrench and 2 in the middle- 13mm. To be safe, keep track of which bolts went where so you can put back in same order. Now, TAKE cross brace completely OFF- why? You need to inspect the flex disc to see if it's cracked/frayed- sometimes vibrations happen b/c of the flex disc (not the case with mine). If that's the case with you, watch this video.
Step 4: Remove the transmission mount (green arrow)- held by 2 16mm bolts- *Make sure when you're taking it out you note the ORIENTATION of the mount and replace in the exact same orientation- (the middle metal piece of the transmission mount is angled) It's one way or the other. Now you can inspect the flex disc located above the transmission mount.
Step 5: Putting it all back. 16mm bolts get torqued to 40Nm, 13mm bolts get torqued to 25Nm. If a bolt happens to be 17mm (not the 2005 c230 but another model), torque also to 40Nm. Put transmission mount on, tighten and torque these 2 16mm bolts first, then put 16mm bolts on cross brace, but keep loose so you can line up the 13mm bolts- tighten and torque the 13mm ones, then tighten and torque the 16mm on the cross brace. Always hand thread bolts at first, then use a ratchet.
My vibrations were reduced by at least 80%- good enough for me to not think about anymore. Cost me $30 (OEM part# 2202400118) b/c I took all the tools, equipment I bought back to the store cuz that's how I roll.
STEP 1- Get the FRONT of the car up. It really pi ssed me off that a lot of smug DIYers seems to gloss over this step, like everybody knows how. If you do this wrong, you die so, um, worth talking about! Look on the side of your door, it tells you the weight of your car- use this to figure out what jack and jack stands to use- my car weighed 4,300 lbs. so I got a 2 1/4 TON jack stands. For the jack, I got a 2 1/2 ton one which SUCKED- it lifted my car like 2 inches off the ground- seriously! So what I did was buy these rhino rails- you drive up them and it gets your car like 6" off the ground- not great, but good enough. As a back-up precaution, I put ONE jack stand underneath the front-center of the car (see red arrow). An alternative would be driving it up a curb. Make sure to put tire blocks (wheel chocks) behind the back tires, put in park and put on the EMERGENCY BRAKE. Again, you don't wanna die, so do this shlt RIGHT. Push the car and see if it moves before getting under, and have a buddy watching to make sure no car slams into you- I put an orange cone by my car and had a buddy helping/looking out. I made sure to have access from left and right of the car just behind the front tires- this is where I layed across to work.
Step 2- Use a jack to jack up the transmission pan. You need a 10"x10" (inches) block of wood 2 inches thick so the pan doesn't dent. I stacked two 10"x10" that were 1 inch thick- I jacked it up, then centered it, then only propped it up like an inch or less- It's attached to the exhaust so if you don't wanna detach the exhaust (I didn't), just don't jack it up too high or it could damage the exhaust or transmission pan.
Step 3: Remove the cross brace (purple arrow)- Mine had 3 bolts on each side that needed to be removed with a 16mm socket wrench and 2 in the middle- 13mm. To be safe, keep track of which bolts went where so you can put back in same order. Now, TAKE cross brace completely OFF- why? You need to inspect the flex disc to see if it's cracked/frayed- sometimes vibrations happen b/c of the flex disc (not the case with mine). If that's the case with you, watch this video.
Step 4: Remove the transmission mount (green arrow)- held by 2 16mm bolts- *Make sure when you're taking it out you note the ORIENTATION of the mount and replace in the exact same orientation- (the middle metal piece of the transmission mount is angled) It's one way or the other. Now you can inspect the flex disc located above the transmission mount.
Step 5: Putting it all back. 16mm bolts get torqued to 40Nm, 13mm bolts get torqued to 25Nm. If a bolt happens to be 17mm (not the 2005 c230 but another model), torque also to 40Nm. Put transmission mount on, tighten and torque these 2 16mm bolts first, then put 16mm bolts on cross brace, but keep loose so you can line up the 13mm bolts- tighten and torque the 13mm ones, then tighten and torque the 16mm on the cross brace. Always hand thread bolts at first, then use a ratchet.
My vibrations were reduced by at least 80%- good enough for me to not think about anymore. Cost me $30 (OEM part# 2202400118) b/c I took all the tools, equipment I bought back to the store cuz that's how I roll.
Last edited by scottonfire; 02-04-2014 at 02:19 AM.
02-04-2014, 02:52 PM
#3
Senior Member
Thread Starter
No prob. There were other threads about this, but none that walked you through the whole process, so that's what I wanted to do here.
Last edited by scottonfire; 02-04-2014 at 02:55 PM.
