I would gladly buy someone FOUR cases of Bitburger (or whatever) for a solution to my vibration problem.
James

 

I think we have been trolled.

 

Hi guys, I will try to get to my office later today and continue..

In the meanwhile, thank you for your comments and your future donations to our W210 beer fund are more than welcome!

 

So far, just a bunch of talk.
James

 

Internet forum is like Prom Queen contest.
We all want to be the most popular.
Just few take it to the extreme

 

 

Alright, finally got to sit down and have fifteen minutes to continue..

The reason why am I writing all the sauce around this topic is that I rarely talk out of context.
And the context is:

No matter how mint your car is, you can still experience vibrations.
Even super low mileage cars can have problems.
I bought/repaired/inspected several W126, R107, W210, W201, W220, W215, W216, W221.. and I got the impression that mileage isn't an issue (rather cosmetic), you should still replace most of the car components (including all rubber parts) to make sure your car is:
a] safe to drive
b] not prone to frequent service visits
c] in a new-like condition and you can enjoy safe+trouble free+true Mercedes experience+joyful driving for many years to come

So I know you want to know more and I'd like to prepare a detailed write up with photos, however seeing how impatient some of you are I will get straight to the point and leave that to another thread which I will link here later.

 

So knowing how many faces your vibration can have, I can safely state that at least with my W210, I have experienced about 8 different vibrations which I located one by one and took care of all of them and in this post I will address the most stubborn one which can be described as the following:

Felt as:
- Vibrations in your seat
- Vibrations in your steering wheel
- Vibrations coming from the rear-bottom-end
- Whining (very quiet, almost impossible to hear)

Unrelated to:
- Throttle/gas pedal position/revs
- Road surface
- Gear shifted (including N)
- Road incline

Related to:
- Speed (exactly 52Km/h to 78Km/h in my case)

 

There was not much left except for the transmission, torque converter and the rear differential.
Luckily, because Mercedes for some extraterrestrial reason puts the cheapest open differential known to humans even to AMG cars (unless you pay extra for the Performance Package in newer AMGs) I decided to do an upgrade and order a Quaife Limited Slip Differential which was the best decision I have ever made and I'm gonna do this mod to all my future cars.

Mind you, at the time I bought the Quaife differential, I wasn't sure whether it's gonna solve the annoying vibration issue but having analyzed the vibration problem for so long and pretty much isolated each problem I thought it could work out and it DID!
It was a long shot but it worked. On top of that, the car not only it runs buttery smooth as described by my cousin who drives VW cars and couldn't believe he felt like flying on a cloud, it also puts the power to the road much better and your ASR doesn't blink all the time. It is just amazing. It has totally transformed the car and made it exceptional!!

The installation isn't straight forward easy like replacing original parts but still can be done quite easily and cheaply. I will cover that in my next thread step by step.

I have the old differential under my office table right now and as I said in the beginning, it makes total sense right now after all the effort and I wonder why nobody was able to tell me earlier. If I had known this solution, I wouldn't have sold my W124 Coupe (one of my first youngtimer projects couple of years ago).

So what's the condition of the old diff?
- There is some (small) play between the gears
- The gears are worn out
- The outer bearings look great but when you try to rotate them by hand, they make a screeching sound and don't rotate freely

 

I know you have a 4matic, that could be a little bit more problematic but nothing that can't be solved. I suggest you get new bearings and races, get the play checked and corrected, plus of course new seals and fresh oil. It may save you thousands in the long run.

 

Your posts make me laugh

 

Good find.
I just can't help some skepticism that not every MB owner with vibrations should jump on differential replacement at 40,000 miles.
MB makes 1 million miles differentials, so hard to believe in wear at such low mileage.
Than your proceeding did not quite ruled out bad differential angle.
When I did not see the laser tool, each tool is having its tolerances and knowing this is rare tool, the mechanic's experience with it could be in question as well.
I agree on limited slip beating electronic traction. I was really pissed when I bought ML in it 2nd year, when widely advertised digital traction would dig my wheel down to the axle before computer would act and then it was too late.
Still not too critical on sedan.

 

hell, I just subscribed to the thread early on and just checking back periodically
when it finally gets down to the nitty gritty. reading from work so I don't have
time to play post-by-post

 

We can rule out the differential angle, the laser tool used by the Mercedes-Benz service maybe has its tolerances but I trust their skills plus I had it checked again at the AMG workshop just to make sure. It's at least 10x more precise and correct than removing shims and "feeling" the car.

I'm not saying every MB owner should replace their differential. That's why this whole thread contains tons of text information and a precise description of the vibration problem. Any MB owner having a similar issue can be pointed to the right direction (I hope). I'm not saying it is a panacea.
However, modding any RWD Benz by replacing the stock diff with (Quaife) LSD is such a great mod I'm now grateful for the whole vibration issue

 

Hi Raymond, it got text heavy, right .. For a good reason.
The next thread regarding the diff installation will be text and mainly photos heavy as I wanted to document the whole job step-by-step. I just have to make some time to put everything together.

What's your E320 vibration like anyway? Is it the same?

 

Plutoe, your posts across the forum are very low quality or even abusive. Please stop spamming in my threads. You better go and make some money so you don't have to drive a 1999 300TD (a car worth $500 here in Europe).

 

Looks like your ego is speaking here.

Btw.
Vibrations happen even on a new GL63 AMG.

 

Bad news guys.. I have been working on another car and the problem is the same even after all the above mentioned repairs and mods..
The vibration is basically very similar to the one described above, except it starts at 70Km/h and last until about 160Km/h.

I have just returned home from a long drive and will try to continue later this week and will keep you posted.

 

I can only wonder what happens >160 kph ?

 

Nothing.. It gets smoother up to 230Km/h where I slowed down.. This was the fastest I drove today.

 

While trying to figure out if the rear axle shaft could be the problem, I found this thread
https://mbworld.org/forums/w210-amg/...vibration.html

Maybe you'll find it useful, even though it doesn't offer the solution we are all looking for.

There are couple of hints though..
1] Torque converter bushing (I guess that's could be more related to downshift shudder)
2] Rear axle shafts (More likely.. I will investigate this)
3] Mercedes vibrations are among hardest to fix
4] Wheel bearings
etc. etc...

Read it yourself and chime in with your thoughts.. I am clueless now.

 

You forgot the main culprit >>> WHEELS.
Per my reading over 90% of those problems are wheels.
Owners take the wheels for re-balancing and checking sometimes even 3 times, to no cure and then, after tire replacement the vibration is not coming back.
Seems tire balancing and wheel checking is rocket science.

 

Hi kajtek, we will try to swap the wheels just to make sure but I think it is something else.. there is also that humming/whining noise, even at low speeds (±15mph).

 

I just replaced tires on our wagon.
The previous, low profile tires were giving me pretty strong whining noise at low speeds, that kind of quieted at higher speeds.
Lately I put original wheels back and still had whining noise, but that could be aged tires.
So now, on new Z-rated tires the car is quiet like Symphony waiting for music to start.

 

I have always had a vibration from 70 mph on to unsafe mph. With such finicky everything is connected cars, I agree with Kajtek1, start with tires and work your way in. After 2 sets of brand new wheels (18" & 19") and tires (diff brands) over time, my indie noticed my tires were chopped and I had play in my front bearings. Those were tightened up and the shimmy lessened. Of course it was not a G-AMG machine travel tightening of the bearings, but it helped. Since I placed miles on the tires with loose bearings, the tires wore in a uneven pattern so the tires are shot but not garbage yet. I am going to replace the front bearings and tighten them according to WIS machinist travel specs before I buy new tires- then pray. After that only the shocks/springs are left as I have replaced everything else.