orangemarlin

A couple of days ago I was driving my CL600 at about 80mph on the 101. I had been driving for about 150 miles when all of sudden the car started to get a high frequency vibration. At first, I thought it was the road, but I changed lanes back and forth, and it just didn't seem to be the road. I pulled off the highway at the next exit to a gas station to check tires, wheels, etc.

Nothing seemed to be amiss. I put gas in the car, checked the tire pressures, and took off again. The vibration was still there. Then about 2 miles further down the road, I felt a strange shutter, and the vibration disappeared. I drove to San Francisco (about 400 miles) and back, and it did not reappear.

I called my dealer and they didn't think there was anything wrong based on my description.

Am I worried about something that doesn't exist or is this indicative of an underlying problem? Anyone have any suggestions?

Silver_Lana

Sorry to hear that dude.... you should probably have your suspension checked...perhaps the adaptive suspension was trying to correct for a road condition that wasnt there.
Its a probability.... or a symptom of failure.
Let us know how it turns out.

-Opie

awiner

Sounds like a problem with the ABC system. You may want to have the dealer run a complete diagnosis on the ABC. Early 2002 models had a problem with the ABC system. There was a pretty major recall on it to fluch the hydrolic fluid and replace the filter, then run it though a complete Diag.

This causes me concern. I've heard about complete ABC system failures that cause the system to collapse and will buckle all for qtr panels from the sudden drop on the wheels.

RJC

Once I had a similar problem with a Porsche 930 Turbo I'd owned...after careful examination of all the tires I found a peice of tar about the size of a credit card stuck to one of the tires. I removed the tar and the vibration was gone.

Cquest

Hi Orange,

I had the same problem with my previous E 430 (01). I once felt the vibration, and later it disappeared. And I took it for 300 miles from Detroit to Pitts, and everything was fine. I described to the local dealer thro phone. The technician told me it should be fine.

When I was about to sell the car, the prospective owner had it checked entirely at the local dealer. They found out pretty serious problem in the suspension. It was underwarranty, didn't cost me a cent to replace the parts.

However, your car is a much better one, might not share the same situation with my case.
Hope it helps.

victoryroad

I've had my '02 CL 500 Sport since Sept and the only problem was a loose connection of the ABC system that caused a minor fluid leak when I raised and lowered the car recently. The tech tightened the connection and there is no indicaiton of a leak since. Never had any other problem with the car in 10000 miles. (I love to drive this car.)
I suggest that you have the tech run the complete ABC diagnosis, but it may have been as simple as something stuck to a tire, as suggested in a post above. It happened last summer to my wife's 740i when some tar that was used to patch a parking lot stuck to the wheel. The effect was quite nasty on the road with vibration and roughness. Fortunately, it was quite hot and the tar ran off after a bit of driving.

CS1946

Sorry that I can't help you since I don't own a CL. Sweet, sweet selection of cars, though!

orangemarlin

It's one of those bad news/good news things.

Apparently, my parking brake failed and several parts were thrown into the rear brake rotors. What I had noticed while driving on the freeway is the shattering of the parking brake. The result of this problem was that parts of the parking brake got caught in the pads of rear brakes, which caused a horrendous squealing noise from the rear.

So right now, my brand new CL600 is in the shop getting the rear brakes and rotors replaced.

I'm glad that my technician was able to diagnose and fix the problem. It worries me that something like this happened. I know it's a statistical population of 1 car, but I find it problematic that I buy a $140,000 car and I have a major problem like this. It bothers me that Mercedes quality control hasn't brought up Chrysler...instead, I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that Chrysler junk is bringing down Mercedes.

If I had wanted a PT Cruiser (and I find the PT Cruiser one of the ugliest and most derivative cars ever built), I would have bought one.

I continue to be happy with my Porsche and BMW's. Both car companies are independent, and build their cars with the best products out there. I want my high-end Mercedes (S, CL and SL) built like BMW's and Porsches.

I still love my car. I'll accept that this problem is one-off. But if I have any more major problems, this may be my last MB. I'm open minded, but concerned.

mbtech208

Glad to hear your problem was fixed. I'd like to point out though, that a six-figure price tag does not guarantee perfection. Look at the car for what it is: a mechanical object with thousands of parts that could potentially fail at any time. If anybody built a car guaranteed to never break, it'd be astronomically expensive. I'd also like to point out that the Chrysler Corporation had absolutely nothing to do with the design or manufacturing of your parking brake components, they're pure German.

shoobie

we got rid of our '01 CL500 after numerous ABC failures, funky vibrations, and fruitless trips to the dealer service center. i just didn't feel the car was safe to drive any longer.

JamE55

Agree with mbtech about the "six-figure price tag does not guarantee perfection". You can take a look at the upcoming SL55 and they're already having issues with them. Also look at Bentlys, Ferrari's and Lamborghini's, these are all six figure cars and again no guarantee that they will not break down. It's just one of those things.

orangemarlin

I Agree with some of your comments that the price does not guarantee perfection. However, this is a significant failure of the car (brakes for heaven's sake) rather than a minor fit/finish issue. And the fact of the matter, other than my temperemental Z8, I've never had one single major issue with any of my last 10 BMW's. I'm smart enough to know that I'm not making a valid statistical comparison, but considering this is my first M-B, it's not exactly making a good impression on me.

But, if over the next year or so, and this is the only issue that arises, I'll be happy!

I still don't like Chrysler being around. It's like a black hole, sucking resources from the rest of the organization.

Frissen

I was on the road doing 70 or 75 mph all of the sudden I start spinning, the brake lever almost flies out of the console and the rear tires started smoking by being locked. I got flatbedded to an independent shop that took apart the rear brakes and finding all of the parking brake parts broken inside the drum.

I then took it to the dealer and another 190E identical to mine was being flatbedded with the same problem.

At the end we found tha the lugnuts were a 1mm too long and thus braking the parking brake mechanism.

This was before the Chrysler merger...