Aggressive

Hey guys, I went to the Benz dealer the other day for a noise from my rear pass. side tire. It sounded like it was not balanced but you can also hear it at low speeds(15-20 mph) The Stealership told me that both rear tires were "scalloped" and needed to be replaced. They wanted over $300 a peice. I know, they are out of their minds!! I have tire shop I trust and plan to bring it there. Has anyone else had "scalloped" tires? I have 47,000mi on the car and the tread still looks great. I hate to replace them now but the noise is driving me nuts!! I thought of getting my tires balance and hope the sound goes away. If I do that and noise is still present then I wasted the money to get them balanced. Scalloped tires sound more like something is wrong with the car.


This is my major concern:

Cups or scalloped dips appearing around the edge of the tread on one side or the other, almost always indicate worn (sometimes bent) suspension parts. Adjustment of wheel alignment alone will seldom cure the problem. Any worn component that connects the wheel to the car (ball joint, wheel bearing, shock absorber, springs, bushings, etc.) can cause this condition. Worn components should be replaced with new ones. The worn tire should be balanced and possibly moved to a different location on the car. Occasionally, wheels that are out of balance will wear like this, but wheel imbalance usually shows up as bald spots between the outside edges and center of the tread.

Sportstick

Once it's up on the alignment rack, they can root cause the problem...the damage to the tires is just a symptom. After either an alignment or correction of whatever they find is wrong, absolutely DO NOT BUY TIRES FROM A DEALER.

There are several discussions to be had about what tires will best suit you, but look to tirerack.com or other high-quality, high-volume distributor. On tirerack, spend a good bit of time reading the Survey Results and Tire Tests tabs, which are on the left of the home page to first determine which category of tire you want, then read the results and consumer ratings on individual brands and models. Good luck!

Amaxm

You could buy my takeoffs that are brand new - might even work a deal with you... waaayyy cheaper than the dealer...

https://mbworld.org/forums/wheels-ti...s-5-miles.html

Aggressive

Amaxm, thanks for the offer. I will be able to get new rear tires for a decent price. I am still shopping around/ researching which ones to get. Your wheels seem like a great solution but I did not intend on spending over $1000 to fix this upredictable situation.

I any case, it looks like need to replace rear tires and get and allignment. I will be furious if it turns out to be a suspension component, bearing, or bushing. If thats the case there will be no way to recoupe my money for new tires.

I talked to my MB service tech and he said they checked everything on the car.

absolutleo

get rid of the oe continentals completely. they've been giving most ppl a lot of grief.

JimPap

Agg,

You didn't say whether or not that you visually confirmed that the tires were scallolped.

Since the noise also appears at low speeds, I'm wondering if its the tires at all? (scratch head)

Does anyone know if the rear end of our C300s have adjustments that are performed during a front end alignment that might account for a scalloped condition??

mikepottier

I just purchased a new 2014 C300 from a dealer in NH. At 1,500 miles I started to hear a drastic unbalanced tire noise from the right rear tire. The dealer looked at it and determined all 4 tires were cupping and replaced them all and did a new alignment. I am 300 miles into the new tires and the noise is coming back again. Has anyone experienced anything like this? The dealer is going to look at it again this week but said there are no visible issues e.g. suspension issues or such and the alignment was "spot-on" from the factory. Any info is appreciated so I am armed with data when I go into the service department. Thanks