Hi, I'm Paul and I'm new to this forum. I'm turning to this board as really a last resort since I've not been able to find solid advice elsewhere and you guys here seem to be really knowledgeable.

I was hoping someone from this board would be able to answer a couple of questions I have about interior noises that the dealer has not been able to fix. The noises are really irritating and stand out, because the CLS is otherwise a very solid piece of engineering.

1. Vent noise/dash

When I turn the car on and as air starts to circulate, I get a variety flapping/clapping/suction/clicking noises eminating from the centre vents. Also, during take-off and braking I sometimes hear plastic moving behind the dash. The best way to describe it would be slight clunking. I'm almost certain it has something to do with the vents, but the dealer has no idea.

Has anybody experienced such odd noises?

2. Steering wheel

When I turn the steering wheel, it makes a slight, but constant noise. It's almost as though there were grains of sand in there somewhere. Also, on rough pavement, I get a metallic/plastic buzzing sound from the steering wheel. Dealer is unable to locate the noise, suggested replacing the steering wheel, which I think is nuts.

3. Various ticks and creaks from COMAND cluster/AC controls

It started this summer and I had the dealer take a look at it. They applied Krytox and some of it disappeared. It still creaks when my knee touches the side panelling, however. Does anyone know if there's a simple DIY fix for this?

4. Passanger seat shakes and rattles when emtpy.

If any of you guys have had similar issues and have been able to resolve them, I'd really appreciate a few pointers in the right direction. I really love the car otherwise, but it's the small things that end up ruining the general atmosphere.

Best regards,

Paul

 

A few thoughts:

1- Ensure your tires are balanced. After about 5,000 miles, mini-vibrations begin to rattle things that would otherwise not rattle.

As far as your other rattles, not sure, sounds if some one had taken your dash apart maybe to change something and did not put everything back together properly.

Good luck.

 

As mentioned passenger seat may be an indication that you need to have balancing done, I recommend “road force” balancing http://www.gsp9700.com/

 

Haven't heard of it in the CLK but the 203 chassis had plastic arms on the foot well vent motors that would crack. The stepper motors would turn around in the hex shaped drive of the arm and click. Hard to tell with out hearing. It also left an ACC code accessed via Star Diagnostics. The dealer should be able to find that easily. There was a bulletin on it.

 

Hi,
thanks for all the replies. I just had the wheels balanced when putting on winter tyres so that's probably not the problem. I think it would be useful, however, the have the both the front and rear axels adjusted.

Konigstiger, thanks but I can't take advantage of that since I don't live in the USA.

Update. Yesterday I decided to take care of some ticking noises from the centre vents and centre console panelling. I covered some clips and contact areas with MB special lubricant and felt tape. In order to do this, I took out the centre vent piece and examined the inside of the dash. Everything looks perfectly solid, no noises when touching components insider the dash and nothing moving/flapping around.

This leads me to believe that Ludwig might be correct, the flapping/clapping noises might be coming from some control instrument behind the dash.

Oddly though, I took a test drive w/o the centre vents installed and the whole dash was dead quiet. In my opinion, however, there are no pieces in the vent assembly that could make these noises. The only noise it can make is a plastic'y tick.

Paul