Ben'sBenz

I bought my C about a month ago. This week it's gotten very cold outside with the daytime temperatures staying in the teens. I've noticed that when I drive the car after it's been sitting outside for several hours, there is a noise in the rear suspension of the car when moving over bumps or potholes. Could this possibly be a frozen shock/strut?

amdeutsch

Did you buy it private or from a stealer. Yes, I read your post on the service B $.

P.S.
You mention frozen. Winter weather?

RLE

Assuming it has less than 50K miles, it's still in warranty.

Take it to the dealer for an analysis. There should be no suspension noises regardless of temperature.

Boris0126

I kind of notice that with my car too, when my car has been off for couple hours in cold weather and i decide to drive it again as soon as i turn the steering wheel and start rolling from a parking spot or my driveway, it makes a hard noise in the front and after that the car is fine. I don't know if this only happens cause of the cold weather or what is the situation?

Carsy

Sounds as if the pads could be frozen to the rotor & make a noise when they free up ?

Ben'sBenz

We recently had a snow storm (who hasn't right?) and i'm wondering if it's ice build up in the wheel well that's causing the noise? I just don't know why the noise always occurs when the car is cold. After it's been driven for a while the noise stops. But I would think the more I drive it the more ice build up would occur.
@ amdeutsch, I bought it from a dealer, but not a MB dealership....yes, that's funny about the service B cost. What I forgot to mention was that on top of the outrageous cost for the service, they want an additional $20 to reset the service indicator. Can you believe that?!?!
@ RLE, yeah i've only got 14K on it so it will probably go to the dealer.
@Carsy, I think if the pads were frozen to the rotor, it would make some horrible noise just driving on smooth surfaces...which it doesn't. It just sounds like a worn out or frozen strut.
@ Everyone, I really appreciate your input.
Regards,
Ben

LaicepsYdobon

No; it's not a frozen strut. As its getting colder and colder more and more people are experiencing this (myself included). It's the bearings that are on top of the struct that need to be replaced. There was a thread about this before. You can read about it in detail here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...k-problem.html

My wife's C-class is not affected by this (she has a 2010) but my 2011 E-Class is creeking/groaning when its cold outside. Pissing me off ! I already took it to the dealer and had to wait 7 weeks for the parts to arrive from Germany (I swore it seemed like the parts were swimming themselves over that's how long it took) but I still have the same problem. I'm taking it back probably next week and having them change the bearing on top of the struck like I've read on the board before. In my previous trip to the shop they ordered and swapped out my front left shock absorber but that was not the issue. Apparently MB was using a cheaper supplier and this was the culprit. A bunch of cars got this bad batch. It's a smaller version of the BMW N54 Fuel Pump fiasco. They outsourced the part to someone else and the outside vendor did a sub par job. Not to sound like a spoiled brat but for a $70K car to sound like a 15 year old domestic (no offense to 15yo domestics) makes my blood boil.

Boris0126

I have had the front brakes and front rotors changed cause they thought that was noise but the noise continue so i took it back and they told me that my springs were defected cause the car was too low in the front and when i got it back couple days later the noise continue and when i would bring it back to them the car wouldn't make any noise -__- so then i decided to lower my car and change the springs to H&R Sport and so now if i bring it back to them with complaining about the noise again they are going to say that my warranty on the suspension is voided and that the springs are causing the noise, so now I don't know what to do?!?! -__-

Ben'sBenz

I looked up under the rear wheel wells last night and there was a lot of ice and snow build up at the top of the wells. I bet the tire moving up and down as I move over bumps is making contact the the ice causing the crunching noise. I broke the ice away and didn't notice the sound this morning when I left for work. Hopefully that's all it was.