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My car is a 2012 4Matic and last week, I briefly heard a slight rattling sound while accelerating and thought it might be the exhaust rattling because I just had the resonator removed a couple of days prior and thought it might be rubbing a shield or something. The sound was not loud and didn't even sound mechanical and I didn't hear it again that day. The car sat for a couple of days and I took it out to run an errand and again heard the noise but this time it was a bit louder and sounded somewhat cyclical, like something rubbing in the wheel. As I drove it kind of came and went but was never overly loud so I pulled over and checked wheels and undercarriage, seeing nothing amiss. Got back in the car and drove a bit further, the sound got worse so I tried to turn around and head home but it was clunking loudly and barely moving. I shut it off and had it towed to the trans shop where I recently had it serviced with a fluid/filter replacement. I've been cursing the trans shop all week for screwing something up but just got the report that the front U-joint blew apart, causing the driveshaft to bang against the underside. Long story short, the tranny is fine, driveshaft and u-joint being replaced. Overall, not bad as it'll be about $1200 as opposed to $3-4k for a trans replacement.
I searched the forums and can't find any other instances of this...guess it was just a fluke? I do have 104k miles on it but would not have expected that.
This was a major problem with Cadillac CTS and was one of the reasons I changed to MB. This is the first one I've seen here also. Cadillac used different bolt designs in later years and that apparently fixed the problem. The CTS problem would result in a $4K repair bill. Sorry, this has happened to you George!
My car is back on the road and overall I’m quite pleased with the results. There was a bit of a delay in getting parts but fortunately the shop let me source the replacement OEM driveshaft through mbparts.mbusa.com (Mercedes-Benz of Wilmington De) at a 25% discount. So opposed to the shop’s $900+ cost, I was able to get it for $660. Throw in a few bolts and some labor and I got out the door under $1000.
Most importantly, I was able to confirm my suspicion that this failure had been underway for a couple of months as I had been feeling a minute shudder between 40-50 mph. I had attributed it to a recent wheel repair, even re-balancing a coupe of times, but now the shudder is entirely eliminated.
See the attached picture of the failed U-joint.
I just retrieved my 2013 C350 4matic from the shop. It was in for the same thing. U-joint on the right front blew up. Tony at German Auto in Calgary said this model and other 4matic cars of this era are,"known for having this problem". Great, I have 3 more u-joints like this on the car. Still love it tho.
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