I am in a very frustrating situation at the moment. My C180 (less than 5,000 miles) is giving off a number of issues that make driving very uncomfortable
- Vibration on the floor on the right side, at all speed
- The car sways side to side t when turning (to the level that we can feel our heads and necks wobbling left-to-right)
- Extremely stiff suspension:
+ any imperfection on the road surface, albeit how small, can be felt in the cabin;
+ when going at low speed down a speed bump (even the lower one), the impact is felt directly up the spine (on both passenger and driver's slide). The impact is so apparent that the seat can be heard clicking back and forth within its own railing
+ strange and very audible noise in the back wheels when someone enters / exits the vehicle, and also when descending a speed bump
+ the overall shaking of the car's body can reach a stage that causes nausea for both drivers and passengers (when the car is only going straight at a constant speed, so driving skill is not relevant here)

All of the above occurs together, and the car was not at all like that in the past (issues have been happening over the last 2 months). I have brought it into a dealer for the second time, they did all the tests, had their technicians do test run over short and long distance, but came back twice saying they could not detect anything wrong with the car, and that their technician did not even feel anything out of the ordinary when test driving it (?!?!)

I am going to pick it up tomorrow morning and am at a lost as to what I should do next to get this resolve.

Any similar experience / solution would be extremely appreciated. I would probably try another dealer but then again nothing can be fixed if they cannot even feel the abnormality in the car.

 

Have you tried test driving another C180 to see if there is a difference?

Where are you located at? Others who are local may be able to chime in with advice.

 

In fact, on the same day that I dropped my car in, they gave me another C180 as a courtesy car, and I felt the difference immediately as soon as the car moved. I tried to tell them that as well, and suggested that they have someone test 2 cars back to back for the issues to be more detectable, but still, to no avail.

I am based in London, UK, brought it to the dealer in Stratford both times so far.

 

Have you taken a drive with a tech to give them a more accurate idea of what you think is a problem?

 

I can't second this enough... make a tech drive the car and go with them. Point out the differences.

 

Yes, that has also been done. The first time I brought the car in, I sat in the passenger seat when the technician test drove it for about 5-10 minutes. I pointed out whenever I started to feel the symptoms (shaking, swaying etc.) but he just apparently did not feel it at all even though I notified him the very same moment. This frustrates me even more because the "experts" do not seem to be able to detect any of that, while almost all passengers in my car could tell the car has issues.

The second time I brought it in, they sent it for an overnight test drive (which I, for obvious reasons, was not a part of) over a longer distance, and yet, this afternoon I received a phone call saying nothing abnormal was detected through the test drive and the full system check (all stats came out green, with no alert). I have a feeling that the over-reliance on computer testing is hindering the identification of the actual problem...

 

What is the latest status of this problem ? I have the same for more than a year also not resolved.