yeah thats what i meant. I’m sure engine and transmission mounts would help, but this seems like something bigger. Will do wheel bearing adjustment on the weekend. I cant believe i have this rubber strip vibration and its not something to do with the wheels. But the fact it got a lot better a fluid change probably indicates it is the transmission torque converter.

 

I've been doing my head in with this problem and have been doing reading after reading after reading after ... well you get the point. After reading many forums with many different cars all the people that had the problem similar to mine was related to the u-joint. When I checked mine there was some very slight play when pushing up and down, I have since learned that there should be absolutely zero play in the u-joint. I'm going to inspect it again on the weekend to make sure the play is at the u-joint and not at the transmission side, it's a little hard on these w209's to visually inspect as I recall there were a tone of things in the way of you being able to see the u-joint, in fact I thought it didn't even have one when I first inspected it but it does. The joint is just before the center bearing on the transmission side of the drive shaft.

I will inspect again on Saturday and if i feel any play and can confirm to myself it's not from the transmission, I will be looking for a used drive shaft as I don't think you can just replace the u-joint in these. I honestly can't see how the torque converter can make the rumble strip sound, like just thinking about how a torque converter works I can't see it shaking in any way no matter how bad it is and making the sound I'm hearing on top of this I have no gear change issues, slipping or anything like that. There was also a comment I read from a forum member who has worked in a transmission shop for over 15 years and he said that they have never seen any vibration from transmissions they are always from the drive line (but it's the internet who knows).

This would also explain the lack of information I have found on all the Mercedes forums about rumble strip noise. I think out of literally 100 threads I read only one person said that the noise was fixed by a new transmission everyone else either never commented on a fix or said that the issue returned even after having the torque converter replaced. The sprinter forums have a bit of this issue going as well they have categorically named it RSN (Rumble strip noise) but here to there have not been many people with an actual fix. The couple of guys who disabled the torque converter or locked some solenoid said it solved the issue but I'm thinking now was the issue only solved because the torque converter wasn't putting any extra pressure on the driveline.

I really hope I find this before I sell the car, not just so the next owner doesn't have to play this guessing game but also to once and all put an end to this issue that has plagued so many people with no solution.

rant over

 

Wow that's some research there! Well, let us know what the weekend reveals.

 

It's the Mfing U-joint. Who would have thought. I wonder how many transmissions were replaced needlessly. Not only is there play in it, I even saw a little crack in one of the rubbers. I've done a video and took pictures of the problem, just trying to work out how to get it of the phone, stupid iphone.

 

You can actually see that the grease has escaped and been flung around.

Video coming soon, I live in Australia where we have 3 world internet speeds fml. Putting it up on youtube so it can help others.

 

Oh wow! So what is your plan now? Going to grease it further and leave it until you sell the car or what?

 

I don't think you can grease it. I could easily sell it most people wont notice but I don't want to be a dick. My first option is find a place that repairs these as MB doesn't offer a replacement u-joint you have to buy the whole shaft. If I can't find a place that does it then I will be looking at wrecking yards. I'm pretty confident though I will be able to get it replaced, its not called a "universal" joint for no reason :P

Here's the vid, god i hate the sound of my own voice lol