beefstallionAMG

My w208 was nearly hit head on by a car in the wrong lane. I missed most of the hit but ran into a curb to avoid the oncoming vehicle.

The oncoming car grazed my rear bumper and outer tail lamp. My passenger rear wheel was bent when it hit the curb. Suspension parts on the passenger rear axle and subframe crossmember were bent.

The rear wheel, passenger rear suspension assembly, and subframe crossmember were replaced in addition to outer tail lamp and bumper strip.

I'm now getting a creak under acceleration. Everything was laser aligned and in spec. There is no noise when going over bumps etc. It is only when the rear end is being put under load from a dead stop.

Is there a torque spec for the rear subframe bolts? Is there a bushing adjustment? The car went to a so called European car specialist, but they didn't have the best expertise when it came to Mercedes AMG's.

beefstallionAMG

At this point, I'm going to lift up the car and check to make sure all of the bolts on the subframe are torqued correctly.... anyone with more knowledge of this than me is welcome to chime in.

gregory13lil

My car used to creak as well under acceleration and it ended up being the differential. The differential has two bolts in the rear of it that look like 2 bells. Mine had come loose and just needed to be re-tightened. Put it on a lift and have a friend place it in gear with emergency and normal brakes applied and hit the gas a little bit while you stay underneath the car watching for noise and moving parts. That's how I found my problem and may make your hunt easier as well.

Greg

beefstallionAMG

Does Mercedes call for any type of thread lock on the subframe crossmember and differential? I'm not sure if they were torqued correctly and are backing off because thread lock was not used or if they were not torqued down correctly to begin with.

beefstallionAMG

To update the creaking was corrected. The bolts were torqued down and thread locker was used so they don't back off. Bolt 11 and the two bolt 23's from the schematic on the differential were finger tight when the car was returned to me by the auto shop.

The car will never go back to that self proclaimed "European Car Specialist"

gregory13lil

We both had the same issue except I didn't use locktight...will do now. Glad I could help.

Greg

beefstallionAMG

Thanks for your info. In my case the shop dropped the crossmember and never torqued down the bolts. They couldn't have been more than finger tight. On top of that the torx head bolts on the crossmember were all chewed up. I'm going to replace all the hardware in case the crossmember ever needs to be dropped again... just really sloppy work. I know children that could have done a better job.


I can see how the diff bolts can loosen over time. I'm going to periodically check them with the wheel bearing bolts and steering gear bolts.