When i let go of the gas and the car slows down, it sounds like one of the bearing on the pulleys are squeaking or grinding. only happens occaisionally. i changed the idler pulley and the sc guide pulley and the s/c pulley this weekend, and that sound is still there? could it be the tensioner pulley? since its the same exact pulley as the idler pulley. how do can i tell if it could be the actuall supercharger itself? this car has been giving me so many headaches, and i still havent installed the 181mm pulley kit or heat exchanger. any ideas what could be the problem guys?


thanks

also, anyone know how much a shop would charge me to install the pulley kit and heat exchanger? like average?

 

You can use a small rubber hose and place it close to the pulley you feel is bad and you should be able to hear which one is bad. The rubber hose works like a stethoscope and allows you to pinpoint the sound you are looking for.

And for the installing the heat exchanger and pulley kit, all you need is basic mechanic skill and the right tools. I think they will charge you $500+ for the install. In order to install the heat exchange, you will need to take off the front bumper and drill a small hole in the bumper support in order to secure the heat exchange. You're bound to lose coolant, so plan on having more coolant. I would suggest doing a flush while you're at it. Check for leaks and reinstall your bumper. As for the pulley kit, you will need an e11 torx socket to loosen the belt and then you will need a huge socket, don't remember the size, and this tool to hold the pulley while you take off the bolt.

 

The e11 torx socket. Are you reffering to the "nut" on the belt tensioner so i can crank down on it to get the belt off then slowly let the spring go back?
the tensioner is wobbling up and down a little, so i think i may actually need a whole new tensioner. and from what i know, i beleive the tensioner is just bolted on by 2 bolts, almost positive, but can you verify? and the crank bolt is a 27mm, ive been doing a lot of research, but i just want to be 100% sure before i start taking stuff apart. i do need a coolant flush too.

also, i need to change the valve cover gaskets, plugs and wires (which i have), i just cant find a diy. i found one here, but its for a E55, https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...lug-wires.html

Is that the same for my C32 except that its a v8 instead of a v6?

 

Yes, e11 torx socket is to remove the tension on the tensioner pulley. Is the whole tensioner wobbling or is it just the pulley. I replaced the pulley before on the tensioner, but mine was not moving. Try to see what's loose with your tensioner by trying to move the pulley and then the whole tensioner by hand, of course while the engine is off. If you can move it by hand, then you may have a problem, but I highly doubt your tensioner is bad. The kind of stress I've put on mine, I just can't believe the tensioner has gone bad.

Did you get the needswing pulley saver kit?

The m113k is very similar to the m112k and you could definitely use those instructions. As for the torque values, I'm not too sure if those are the right specs and you would need a different part number for the gaskets.

 

I went out side today and checked the pulley. the tensioner pulley, seems like its bad, but i didnt change it this past weekend because i only ordered (1) tensioner pulley and (1) S/C guide pulley. So i replaced the pulley next to the S/C and the Idler pulley. the idler pulley looks the same as the one on the tensioner, i think thats why everyone gets confused when they look for a replacement "idler" pulley and nothing comes up because Mercedes calls them both "tensioner" pulleys. anyways i tried to check the tensioner pulley to see if it wobbles and it was pretty tight since the belt is on, same as the actual tensioner. i started the car and while its running, i can see that the tensioner does not stay still, it moves up and down a little bit. seems like the whole tensioner is loose or needs to be replaced.

Also, to figure out what that screeching bearing sound is coming from, like i said, i can only hear it when im slowing down, even when i dont hit the brakes, i just let off the gas and ill hear the screaching/ metal-to-metal type of sound. i even put the car in neutral at about 45mph, gave it some gas, just hit it real quick, and while the car is slowing down, its still makes the same noise. i dont know if that helps or not, but i just cant get rid of that freaking screaching sound. and i dont want to put the pulley kit and tune on until i get this car running perfect.

I did not get the needswings pulley saver yet, but i plan on gettting that before i have the pulley kit and heat exchanger installed, so i can have some relief of the idler pulley problem that i hear so much about. i also am getting the sl55 intake kit from parts.com buying the splitter, 2 boxes and 2 hoses. a few people say i can do without the bigger intake, just replace the stock filters with the k&n drop-in filters and ill be fine for now, but i figured if the car is running more boost, which means more fuel, so more air would make sense.

Loudandclear, youve been awesome with the advice. thanks. hopefully ill get my car running how i want it to, so i can start helpiong others. i just love this car too much to sell it, as much as it gives me headaches with these minor maintenance stuff.

 

I apologize for not being very detailed, but it seems you have been using the search function successfully. I too have experience a lot of little minor things, which has delayed my modding. I need to replace the rear main seal, the pinion seal on my differential, brake pads, rear discs, brake fluid, transmission fluid, transmission filter, and the strut bearings. On top of that I have a lot of mods pending to be installed. So I know how you feel, but they are just minor things that I can do on my own, minus the rear main seal, but I'll figure out how to get it done.

I did replace my k&n filter recently with oem filters because I was getting a lot of silicone in my oil. I had blackstone test my oil and they recommended to change the air filter. When I pulled out the filters, they were gummed up with dirt, and I was probably restricting my air flow. Once I changed the filters, the car felt a lot more responsive. I think with larger air boxes, the car would really improve a lot. I just wish there was some thing else out there that would be an improvement over the sl55 intake.

 

Yep, the search feature works pretty good for the most part. i try not to ask any questions thats already been asked, but sometimes i just cant find what im looking for.

I try to do any work that i can, on my own. i wont bring my shop to the dealership. and i know of 2 shops in my area that specializes in european cars. This is the 3rd shop i brought my car to, and hes not charging me 3 GRAND. I dont know if you read my other thread, but i brought the car to a private benz/bmw garage, they told me it would cost 3 grand, and thats WITHOUT the 4 tires that i need to replace. I went there the next day and picked it up. the list of things that they were going to fix were:

4 tires, reseal rear diff, reseal valve cover gaskets, replace plugs and wires, reseal crankcase vent cap, coolant flush, and replace 2 pullies and the belt tensioner assembly.

I took that money and bought, oem valve cover gaskets, magnecor 8.5mm spark plug wires, iridium 1 heat range colder spark plugs, mercedes coolant, nsk supercharger bearing, replacement idler pulley, and replacement s/c guide pulley. The total was about 500 bucks. and the fluid in the rear is full and has been full for the past 8 weeks since my other mechanic told me it was leaking, just a little around the housing, not dripping. maybe 1 day in the future, ill just buy the LSD quaife and have it installed and resealed at the same time. anyways, total for parts=$500 (thats with shipping charges added). My car is currently at the shop getting all these parts put on along with the 4 tires. minus the 2 pulleys that i did myself, but the owner actuallly pressed the s/c bearing out for me and the new one back in. once i started talking to him, i decided to have this guy work on my car.


But theres more instead of giving a shop 3 grand to fix my car and have it still be stock, i decided to waste some cash on some more parts. i bought 4 hancook evo 12 tires, PLM heat exchanger, k&n drop-ins, and the Eurocharged pulley kit and tune. total was about $1800shipped.

SL55 intake and the needwings pulley saver kit, are next on my to do list. Why do you want an alternative to the sl55 intake? that intake is alot bigger than ours. and you dont have to pay 700-800 bucks. at parts.com, you get the y splitter, 2 air boxes, and the air hose. ive talked to a few people with the install, veryy very very little modifications needed to install this onto our cars. and it was $320 for all the parts without shipping price. i am ordering within 2 weeks. i have the parts numbers if you want them and theyre posted on this site somewhere. let me know bud.

 

Loudandclear, btw, i spoke with a performance shop that is about an hour away from me, who is a dealer for eurocharge and they gave me a really good price for the pulley install and tune. Im gonna have them install it. seems like the crank pulley would really **** me and cursing at it all day, i mean all weekend. and i dont have to take the ecu out and ship it out and wait for it to come back, being a this is my daily driver

 

Found out what that grinding/squeaking sound is. Its 1 of 3 things, but it is a bad bearing.

1. Tail shaft bearing in transmission
2. Center bearing on drive shaft
3. Rear differential bearing

The mechanic said to leave it for now and just drive it. If one of them goes, then to replace it. This really pisses me off. Especially since i have a pulley kit sitting in my closet, and a free tune from a performance shop that is a dealer of eurocharge so i dont have to send my ecu out. And installing it with the bad bearing just doesnt sound like a good idea.

 

How bad is the squeak and how many miles does your car have?

 

Car has 91xxx miles.The sound is only noticeable when the windows are all up, stereo off, and you can hear the sound when the car is slowing down. So no matter how fast Im going, once i let off the gas, i can hear it. The sound is there when im accelerating but i can barely hear it because of the supercharger whine and the engine from increased rpms. The mechanic told me today that he had the car up on the lift and had the wheels spinning, and tried to hear where the sound was coming from. he started at the center bearing of drive shaft, but the other 2 bearings (tail shaft bearing and rear diff bearing) are all connected to one shaft so you cant pinpoint which one it is exactly. At least we found out that it wasnt the engine, not only did he take the belt off and test every pulley, but when we took the car out for a test drive so i can tell him what sound im talking about, he heard it when we were slowing down. i hit the gas again and took it to about 30mph, put the car in neutral and turned the car off, letting it roll to a stop, and there it was, that metal-to-metal grinding, shot bearing sound. He told me to drive it and since this only started happening about a month ago, just drive it, and the sound will be more pronounced. It just gets to me that i spent all the money to maintain it, and i just had him put new plugs, plug wires, valve cover gaskets, new tires mounted balanced and aligned, new belt, and performance heat exchanger put on, and to find out that the sound is one of those problems that happen to unlucky people, like myself.

 

I asked him if i was driving, and the bearing just went, would i have a problem. He told me that the bearing wont just go out of no where. the sound should get louder and louder, and if the bearing went, i will def be able to hear it. If i keep driving for like 2 years after the bearing went, then i will definitely have problems. This is what he told me. He has very fair pricing on his services, and i was introduced to him by a close friend who knows him very well, thats why he did everything for such a great price, and i know for a fact that he is not one of those mechanics who will tell you that you need this or that when you really dont. the reason why he said to leave it how it is now so we know which of the 3 bearingit is, is bec ause, he said to get to the center bearing on the drive shaft, you have to take off all the heat shields and exhaust, etc, which is a decent amount of time. then once we get to that bearing, we can see if its the center bearing. if its not, then we can pinpoint if its the rear diff bearing or the tail shaft bearing in the trans because now all the bearing are sepearted, but then if it happens to be the other 2, then he would have to put the center piece back in and go to the other bearing. so basically its just gonna be a pain and with my luck, he would take out the center bearing and it would probably end up being 1 of the other 2.

I'm just trying to get some second opinions, ya know. Maybe someone else experienced something similar. I feel like this car wants me to upgrade it, by giving me all these signs. First of all, the driver side headlight doesnt adjust up or down. i was the idiot who adjusted them and i guess i turned the screw to high and it broke the gear on the inside of the light. And i cant find the piece online. and neither could the mechanic. its not something that i woould expect to be sold. anyways, i would need a replacement assembly, and for my car since it has XENONS and those UGLY frosted lenses, it cost about 1 grand for ONE, good job mercedes. So i thought about getting a pair of aftermarket bi-xenons for about half the price of that. And he suggested that as well. there are some really nice aftermarket lights that ive seen for my car. im just looking for good quality.

Second, the sound could be the bearing in the tail shaft of the transmission, so what my car may be telling me is too upgrade the torque converter in the trans, and while youre at it, replace the bearing on the tail shaft since its all there anyways.

Third, it could also be the rear diff bearing, so why dont you just throw a Limited slip diff in the rear while your replacing the bearing anyways. and the rear diff has a tiny leak so you have to reseal it eventually. might as well do it all in one shot.

Thhats what im getting at from my C32

 

Check out these threads:

I'm thinking this could be your main issue:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...ing-sound.html

Check this one out as well:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...h-exactly.html

 

Yeah i think its a similar problem. It could be the whole driveshaft but i honestly think its just the bearing. reason being that i dont really notice it at all when accelerating. only when i let off the gas and let the car slow down by itself. if i hit the brakes while slowing down, the sound is there sometimes but its low. That would make sense since the bearing is spinning with the drifeshaft when i hit the gas, but when i let go of the gas, the drifeshaft stops spinning and only the bearing is. Im not 100% sure of that but im pretty sure thats how it works. So far everything is fixed on the car except for that bearing or driveshaft/ and the transmission jerk problem at the 1500-2000 rpm from 1st-2nd gear (still dont really kow what that is and dont want to buy a new tranny )Just wanna get this pulley kit on the car already, gonna order the pulley saver kit next week as well, and the sl55 intake from parts.com so i have all the parts here and when i think its ready to put em in, which im hoping is soon, then ill finally be happy with this thing.

 

is the squeaking more of a bicycle spoke sound? it could just be the front wheel bearing. Usually you can hear it in low speeds and not hear in high speed. My driver side front bearing went out at 70k and my passenager side went out at 100k.

 

Nope, not the wheal bearing. He said he had it on the lift, and had the car running, so the front wheels couldnt have been even moving if he had even gave it gas.

and what do you mean bicycle spoke sound?

 

when the wheel bearing goes out, it makes this sound like you get when you put a poker card over a spinning bicycle spoke....kinda like a tick tick tick.

You get a smiliar sound when the insulation rubs on the driveshaft of the car.

 

Oh i gotcha. It doesnt sound like a ticking sound or the card in the bicycle spoke sound. Its the sound of a metal touching metal, like a bearing down there needs some grease or oil. And the sound isnt the same pitch, its like a distorted screaching when i let off the gas, so im pretty sure its a bearing.

 

Finally gonna get this problem checked out, to anyone who wants to know for future references. Bringing the car to the shop tommorow for an oil change and my mechanic will check out the driveshaft. I notice the sound that Temjinx was talking about, sounds like a poker card on a spinning bicycle spoke, thats not all the time but i would start to hear it out of no where, and i would turn my head all over the place thinking something tapping or rubbing but its coming from right under the center console so i think its the insulation rubbing on the driveshaft as well. Im sure hell see all the problems once he gets under there. I want to start doiong work to this thing already. Ill get abck to you guys with the results.

 

I have the same exact problem as you with the rubbing and everything and mine is particularly bad at 40 mph where it rubs like crazy. Let me know how it goes cause I am considering that it is one of two things: the left wheel bearing, or the insulation on the transmission. Please let us know as soon as you solve this. At first I thought was the brakes, so I replaced all the brake pads and the front rotors. However, no luck fixing the rubbing.

 

Will do. Dropped off the car tonight, so ill be in touch with my mechanic in a day or two. Im hoping its just the center support bearing, U-joint, insulation, and/or wheel bearing and not something more serious.

BTW, when you hear this "rubbing" sound, does it sound like a ticking noise, like the poker card on the spokes of a spinning bicycle wheel?

 

It kind of sounds like it starts from lower speeds that slow grinding / vibrating sound 10 MPH to around 25ish. Then it desapears and when it reaches close to 40 or at 40mph, you can hear the grinding/buzzing noise and I can feel it vibrate on my gas pedal. If I just accelerate harder and pass 40 MPH, when I let off the gas and the needle reaches 40mph when decelerating, I hear the sound again.

 

My car doesn't vibrate or anything like what you are describing. I know it's a problem related to the driveshaft because i have put the car in neutral while driving and turning the engine off, and it still makes that sound. After my mechanic had it up on the lift, he tried to find out exactly where its coming from, he said it was one of the 3 bearings on the drive shaft.

Brought it to him the other day to check again because it has been getting annoying. He said hes almost positive its the bearing in the rear diff. I have a small leak in the rear diff since i bought the car, but it wasnt leaking bad, the fluid was still full, and all the other mechanics that i have brought the car to in the past suggested to leave it until problems arise. He told me to bring the car back on monday and he will put some "ADDITIVE" in the rear and see if that fixes the problem, before he seals it. He said he doesn't want to have me replace the seals, bearings, or worse, the diff, if theyre not the problem. This is the "better" way to go so i don't break my pockets. Most mechanics would just say replace the rear diff, drive shaft and bearings.

 

Tomorrow I am getting my car looked at as well. I have no fluid leaks whatsoever coming from the bottom of the car(Have not really looked, but have not seen anything dripping or puddles when car is parked). I am curious if we have a similar problem. Will let you know tomorrow. How do you check the diff fluid? Let me know what additive your mechanic puts in.