zsh

Hi,

Last few weeks I've been noticing strange clunky noise from what feels like front left suspension.
This happens mostly when I turn right and surface/road is a bit uneven. But it happens also when car is going straight, like you will see in the video provided.

It will also happen when going over small obstacle such as low pavement. When this happens I can also feel it through the steering wheel.

At the highway and decent road, this doesn't happen.

I have the time scheduled at the dealers on Tuesday when they will take a look at it, but I wanted to check with you guys if anyone had issues like this and what the cause was in your case.
Also if you know about any bulletins that Mercedes has released regarding this.
(I like to have as much ammunition as possible when going to dealers because most of them are.....well...you know).


I don't think its the spring thats busted or the shock absorber since I would notice this most of the time not just by sound but by how ride feels. My initial guess is something with sway bar / bushings?



Thanks in advance!


Here is a short (36 seconds) video that can hopefully help pinpoint the issue.


Car is a C63 AMG 2012 with 18000km on it

sighting

seems like its the front right.
Did you jack the front up and removed the when and visually inspect it?
could be a host of things. I would not drive that around to much until you actually look at the front. If you want take both fronts off and and compare the two.

-Marlin-

Oh crap, that's not good. I don't have a clue but I'm interested to hear what MB says about it. The good news is that it's not one if those problems that only you can feel and the dealer says they can't find anything wrong. That's distinct.

zsh

For some reason it sounds much worse in the clip than it does for real.
Its definitely front left, when you are actually in the driver seat it can't be misstaken for right. I guess its just the video thats weird-ish.

I read somewhere on this forum before that people also have the knock sound while turning at slow speed, like backing out of the garage. I have that as well.

But yeah, tuesday we'll see what they say. They will have mechanic ready for a ride so he can check it out in person. Hope its nothing that bad so that parts need to be ordered from gold mine far far away and I get stuck without car during the vacation :s

Either way I'll keep this thread updated

zsh

Update: They took the car in and seems to be the problem on with front left "spindle joint / ball joint and control arm" (hopefully correct translation). Those need to be replaced/fixed and apparently wheel alignment must be done right after.

As suspected they didn't have the parts so I got the new date at 18th of August. I was assured it was safe to drive the car in the mean time.

MaroonC63

My 09 clunk at low speeds also. Safe to drive? I think something "unsafe" might happen and upgrade to a new e63 with their wallet! Haha semi-serious.

abcut973

Yeah really scary noise from the video! Glad they figured out what it was because i couldn't from that small clip.

-Marlin-

That's cool. Minor surgery and no big deal. Atleast they found the root cause and your car will be right again after some parts replaced under warranty. That sound would have driven me nuts. I had a sticky caliper on a C350 once that only came out to play for me and not the service manager. Man, that was a fun game of "everything seems ok...."

AMGJAY

Experiencing the same issue but with my front passenger area. I didn't know what it was for over a week and happened to look in the wheel well and saw splash of fluid on the liner.

I will be taking it in to the dealer ASAP. Don't know what busted or how, but I will update once I find out.