Hi all. I had a local independent shop replace the front cv axles on my 4matic. Now I have a vibration when the car is in drive and stopped, very noticeable. Also when I drove the car away, the first time I took a right turn, there was a very loud pop on the left side front. I immediately took the car back to the shop and told them. The vibration was not there before they replaced the axles. Just want to educate myself for when they call me and tell me what they found... I do understand that normally a vibration at stop is a motor or transmission mount. Just wondering why I am feeling/hearing this after the axle replacement. TIA

 

unfortunately its well documented - you went with cheap chinese axles. The only way to avoid the vibration is to get quality axles - GKN or OE MB.

 

Great. The shop didn't give me a choice. They gave me one estimate. It's terrible. This is my wife's daily driver.

 

See if they still have the old axle. You can get the boot kit and just replace the boot, chances are the axle isn't totally destroyed unless you waited too long. The OEM one is pretty expensive, you might be able to get one from a junkyard or get a reman axle, not a new one. The new one gives you a vibration. Rockauto also sells a reman axle, but just the left. They seem to carry a few other brands of new axles, and there's contact info for one of them. I suppose you could call/email them and ask them if theirs causes a vibration and what they would do if it did.

I'm not sure why you replaced both of them, they don't normally wear out unless you had boots on both that were ripped.

 

GKN CV here - if he can’t source them himself then ask him you’ll give him the part and he installs

https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/GK-211330170180

 

Most other threads recommend the GKN, but there's a thread out there that says it didn't work for them. Used eBay axle or junkyard one is also an option. They don't really wear out if the boot is intact.

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/fy...#post-18076671

 

Update - so after speaking to the service advisor, he says they cannot find anything wrong with the axles, and that they used quality parts. He said that a bad axle wouldn't cause a vibration at a standstill . I informed him that there are many documented cases by w211 owners stating they had vibration with the car in drive after axle replacement. Of course he asked me where I heard that - told him very simple, google search "w211 vibration after cv axle replacement"..... The service advisor said they found a stored code for a bad intake manifold flap. They think that's what is causing the vibration/bad idle...... I did ask him, if they replaced the intake manifold, and the vibration is still there, what are they going to do. He wouldn't give me an answer, said he would get back to me Monday. Feel like I am in a no win situation here. I only get maximum 4 days off a month (2 this month), so I opted not to tackle this job myself.

 

I went and picked up the car today. Drove it around. Could not replicate the pop noise on the left side. The vibration is still there, but not as bad. It seems to change in severity each time you stop at a red light. I read the codes, getting a p2006, for the intake flap. No check engine light. Seems like the symptoms of vibration/rough idle coincide with this code. I did not notice the vibration- rough idle before I dropped it off. This is my wife's car and I don't drive it much, so maybe it just started happening. Either way, the intake needs to be fixed, so I will update once it is done. Thanks.

 

I've replaced the intake manifold and it doesn't really cause a vibration, it just gives you a rough idle. Normally you get a new intake from FCPeuro. Also replace the breather cover and oil separator on the passenger side, that causes oil to get into the intake instead of oil fumes so that gums up the intake flaps. Your problem definitely sounds like the cv axles, especially when it happens right after they were changed. I guess they tossed the old ones so they're no longer available? What was wrong with them anyway? The boot kits were only $40, even comes with a new axle bolt.

 

The boots had separated from the axles. I asked them about the boot kit, and they said they would not put new boots on, just new axles. They said they thought it would be a waste of money in labor to replace the boots, and then have the axles fail down the road. I will have to ask them if they threw out the old axles.

The best way I can describe it is , at it's worst, is the car vibrates so bad you can feel it in the steering wheel. It's like the steering wheel is shaking .It does vary in severity. I just picked it up this morning, and when I first turned the car on and put it in drive, it was smooth as butter. After the car warmed up, it started to vibrate and got worse as it got up to operating temperature. I am going to try it again first thing tomorrow morning, to see if the same thing happens. If it's smooth when it's cold and gets worse as it warms up, I wouldn't think it would be the axles that is the cause. As I stated before, it's my wife's car, and to be honest she doesn't even drive it that much. I might drive it once a week at most,. When I dropped it off it did not have any vibration or rough idle, but the shop is right around the corner, so the car would not be up to operating temperature when I dropped it off. I only noticed the boots had separated because I was rotating the tires. There were no issues to make me aware of any problems.

 

They just went the SOP route, usually easier to just replace the axle than to replace the boot, less work and you make more money on the markup on the part. If the axles weren't making any noise, you could just replace the boots. That's what I did on both of mine. The left side started leaking and I put in a new Cardone one from Rockauto, about $70. Right afterwards there was a vibration. I had saved the old axle though so I had my mechanic replace the boot after I ordered the boot kit. When the boot on the right side ripped, I knew to just get the boot kit. They can probably just put the car into drive and feel the vibration in the axle to troubleshoot it. A real MB axle is almost 1k.

 

I wonder why even the GKN ones could still have a vibration?

i have a GKN ready to swap for my axle (I have same issue...started immediately after a shop rebooted my axle)

what’s the contributing factor here?

 

so, the shop rebooted your original Mercedes axle, and now you have vibration?

 

Yes, correct. I believe they reversed the tripod bearing, because it was a torn boot only, just a reboot job and immediately after I had a vibration. At the time I thought no way, and figured my engine mounts just happened to go bad. Replaced them all and still there. I bought a GKN axle because I didnt feel like screwing around with a 150k axle, just havn't got around to installing it yet. I might get around to it in the next month.

In neutral there is no vibration, but anything in drive it vibrates when stopped.

 

interesting . Please update when you tear into it.

 

It's pretty straightforward to remove the joint and pop the ***** back in afterwards. You do have to bang on the joint afterwards to get it back in. I wonder if it's not all the way in. Anyway, would be interesting to see if your new axle is any good or not. It's kind of a project to take things apart so I've replaced the ball joints, sway bar links and tie rod ends while it was all apart, did the upper and lower control arms a while back.

 

I'm just being picky because I also didnt like that the shop didnt remove the inner metal ring, so it just looks "cheap"...99% of people wouldn't care, but it bothers me, so instead of pulling the whole thing, buying the boot kit thats these days $150, for $330 I have a new one...seemed most sense to save time - just a swap. I'll post back here once I have it done, I'll try to speed my timeline as now its on my mind! (had this axle for the past year...barely driven due to covid, so wasn't high on priority list)

 

The Mercedes boot kit is only about $40-$45. Didn't take that long for my mechanic to do it, lots of hammering to get the joint off and some hammering to get the joint on after the new boot was on. He did notice that the hole for the axle bolt was hollow and you can pack in grease for the joint just by taking the bolt out.

https://parts.mercedesbenzofwappinge...kit-2203300185

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mer...mer-2203300185

 

Just to give an update - I took the car to another shop, one that I used in the past. They are a little far from my house, but worth the drive. They took a look at the new axles and said they were installed correctly, and that the only thing they said is that the motor mounts look a little "flat", but not bad. They suggested that they could be the culprit but couldn't be certain. So I had them replace them, and the transmission mount. The car seems to be smooth now, no vibration when stopped in drive or reverse. All I can think of is that the old axles had some play in them taking up the vibrations that the old mounts did not. I will also update when I have time to take a look and see if I can see what axles the other shop installed.

 

Vibration in cabin when putting the car into drive or reverse with the brake on... is classic motor mounts.

 

yes, I am aware of that, but the car was smooth, no vibration, before the new axles were installed. Seemed strange that the axle change would cause this, but other members pointed out that there are multiple threads on vibration after non OEM axle installation.

 

A vibration at idle can't be due to axles... original or the replacement. So just a coincidence or maybe psychological. Vibration from the bad axle/s was the primary focus and when that was resolved, you picked up on another issue that may have been there for a while.

 

There's many threads that cover this and it did happen to me. Got a new Cardone axle from rockauto. Right after putting it in, got a vibration. Eventually I got a boot kit and replaced the boot on the original axle. Once I put the old axle back in with the new boot, vibration was gone. In his case, it's possible that the mounts went at about the same time as the axle. I think when mine went, one week they were fine and the next week I noticed a vibration. In my case I knew it wasn't the mounts as I had already replaced them not long ago and when I put the original axle in, no changes had been made to the mounts and the vibration went away.

 

I'll just add in another update- after driving the car all day yesterday, I can say that there is still a slight vibration that can be felt that wasn't there before . If I had just purchased the car now I would not think there is something wrong. It's not bad, not worth replacing the axles over in my opinion.

 

I get it... but again, unless the vibration is felt underway... then there's NO connection to the axle, whether it was replaced or not. The only thing I can think of is in the process of replacing the axles, the mounts were damaged... which seems highly unlikely since you don't have to touch them.