khutchinson22

Fortunately theyre fairly inexpensive. Im going to replace the other sides ball joint and forward control arm in the next couple days. I want to make sure i dont need to replace both rearward control arms before i just order one.

khutchinson22

Worked on the passenger side today. Replaced the forward control arm and the rearward ball joint. This repair has yielded the most substantial improvement in vibration since I started this mess. It is 30%-40% improved!

During the repair I noticed that the up/down movement in the ball joint that attaches to the strut is consistent with the drivers side. About 1/4" in up/down play. I have ordered the rearward control arms. I also noticed cupping on the inner side of the tire and ordered new tires as well. They are arriving at different times and will be done separately so I can isolate the cause. At this point I HAVE to know. After all I've been through I MUST know the culprit.

Stand by for results!

fireman685

Sounds like a cumulative effect. New tires will make a dramatic difference but of course wait till all the other work is done first. Get new tires and then go straight to a dealer for an alignment.

khutchinson22

Alignment and tires done and WOW what a difference! The vibration is almost totally gone! There is still one coming from the rear it seems. It goes away after driving about 5 miles so it seems that heat has something to do with it. Going to change the differential fluid tomorrow and see if that helps. After that I would imagine there is a flex disc issue. Fluid is cheaper so that's getting done first.

fireman685

I'm telling you, replace the flex disks and you'll be amazed. I am currently 100% vibration free since replacing mine. Just a plain visual inspection is not good enough. You need to get a pry bar and put some force on them. If you see the slightest crack it's bad. I used a Febi brand disks.

khutchinson22

I will take a look tonight when I'm replacing the control arms. The only thing that makes sense, in theory, with the intermittent component of the symptom is driveshaft.

Do you remember what the flex discs cost? Does the entire exhaust have to come down to remove the shaft or does it even need to come out to replace the discs? Can it be done on jack stands or do I have to use a lift?

fireman685

I took my car to a place that I could rent a lift. You can do it on jack stands but having it up in the air will make things so much easier. The exhaust does not need to come down. You will need to unbolt the carrier bearing though and there are two little panels you have to remove to expose those bolts. You'll need to do that to provide enough room to slide the shaft back and forth. Also with the front one you'll need to remove the transmission mount which is very easy. They are cheap so you should consider putting a new one on if it's age is questionable.

How many miles are in this car?

khutchinson22

115k and the Trans mount has already been replaced.

As for the carrier bearing and mount, can that be done at the same time or does the shaft have to be removed to do this?

fireman685

If you want to replace the bearing you'd have to remove the shaft completely for that. When I had it unbolted from everything I felt it would slide out the back without any problems without having to remove the exhaust. My CL has almost the same mileage. My carrier bearing is fine but my flex disks were both in really bad shape. I waited way to long to replace them. I have to use the cruise control for sure now otherwise I'm doing 80+ mph without even realizing it.

fireman685

This was the rear one. Front looked pretty similar.

khutchinson22

I think my reluctance to change the flex discs has come from the dealer saying they were fine but at this point I feel that it's a worthwhile $200 to eliminate it, at the very least, as a possibility. I will probably do the shaft mount at the same time though since it's only another $40 and I'm already in there.

After this and the control arms that I'm doing tomorrow there really isn't anything left except the rear suspension bushings.

mbaum7642

I had a similar problem on my 2000 SL500 that came with cheap Nexen 3000 tires mounted on Mandrus Millenium rims. After several tire balancing efforts and alignment checks - and the damn tires would not wear out - I gave up and replaced witha set od Continental DWS+ ( the new model) and all the problems went away. Car ridees and handles like new.

Gilbert Madayag

Try the pulsating dampener by the pressure limit
Ing valve. Easy DIY project.

CerBErusM113

Did my flex discs this weekend and the car seems a lot sharper and it limited a lot of the vibration at high speed. Looking to balance tires and have the vehicle realigned. Hoping this helps my vibration issue.

AMG 17GT

Just changed the pulsation damper for 2nd time in 2 years. This is the new design part as well. Car felt like a super bad power steering pump failure.

Thought it was flex discs.

khutchinson22

Still, to this day, beating my head against a wall trying to figure out this stupid vibration.

Front wheel bearings were done recently. No help.

Changed rear diff fluid and that made it WORSE!

Any idea what could have caused new fluid to exacerbate the problem?

haydenb121

I know this is old.....but did you ever manage to find that the problem was? I've got vibrations at 70 to 85mph not always it's intermittent, feels like its the rear.

Changed trans mount, not helped, flex discs looked fine, but I think I will change along with the centre carrier.

Have you looked at rear subframe bushes?