Tjdehya

Well I got my car back from the dealer after they had the car for 6 days and it’s still not fixed.

On the day of Pickup I noticed a very unusual and tiny vibration coming from the center of the steering wheel. I told the dealer and they had a maintenance rep come out to look at it. But the vibration was tiny and it was only if you put your hands on the horn. So I figured that I never drive with my hands there and was tiny and maybe I was being a little too picky. Also I was just happy to finally get my hands on the car after waiting for it. The car had 11 miles on it at pick up.

400 miles later and now the whole wheel vibrates, it’s slightly stronger and it’s annoying. When sitting idle it can be felt if you put your hands anywhere on the center or hold the wheel at the 6'oclock position. When driving at speeds 10-40mph it can now be felt at the 9 and 3'oclock position. At speeds 50-80mph the whole wheel vibrates with the greater intensity at the 3, 6, and 9 positions.

A couple weeks ago they had the car for a whole day and they couldn’t fix it. Last Tuesday I left the car with them while I went on a weeklong business trip. I picked my car up today and it’s still the same. At first they tried to tell me that it was normal but I said "NO" because I test drove two other E550s (2010 E550 p2, 2011 E550 p2 4matic) and they didn’t vibrate. I traded in a 2009 E500 and it didn’t vibrate. I have owned numerous cars and even my first car (1995 Honda Civic) didn’t vibrate like this.

The vibration is only in the steering wheel and nowhere else inside the car vibrates. The car feels rock solid but the wheel vibrates like a flimsy piece of metal attached to an old generator. The vibration is not intense, visible, audible or noticeable to anyone but the driver at speeds above 40.

I don’t think this qualifies for the lemon law because it "must substantially impair the use, value or safety of the vehicle." So it looks like I flushed almost $70k down the toilet because I cannot drive this car. I have had to resort to driving my Nissan Rogue because driving this has just become unpleasant.

htn75

No vibration here. I know the feeling though. It makes you just want to get rid of the car period. Hopefully they will find a fix soon.

petee1997

This is totally unacceptable. Put everyone on notice fix or replace, no ifs or buts. Manufacturers don't get a free pass on a Honda and most certainly not on a $70,000.00 MB. Demand a loner car and don't return it until the car is right. This is their problem, not yours.

Dema

I have the same problem, my car is 2010 and it is tiny vibration is coming from center part. Exact your symptoms, you can't feel it unless touch the center insert. It is really annoying and no one of my cars had it. Are you sure you did drive other instances and no vibration? I had impression it is design flaw. But now it looks like I am in your situation and I am pretty sure no one dealer is capable to fix it.

Tjdehya

You are right; I will call them tomorrow and tell them to give me a loaner until its fixed. Today I agreed to bring the car in next week again but the car is un-drivable for me and I am driving my other car because of it. I should definitely drive their loaner until it’s fixed. The attitude I get from the dealer is that it’s my problem not theirs since I drove it off the lot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dema

I have the same problem, my car is 2010 and it is tiny vibration is coming from center part. Exact your symptoms, you can't feel it unless touch the center insert. It is really annoying and no one of my cars had it. Are you sure you did drive other instances and no vibration? I had impression it is design flaw. But now it looks like I am in your situation and I am pretty sure no one dealer is capable to fix it.

Yes it was a tiny vibration at pickup but now the entire wheel vibrates. I can’t guarantee that the 2010 E550 didn’t have it because that was before delivery of my car and I did not intentionally feel for it. But the 2011 E550 4matic was on the day I first brought my car in for service and I did intentionally feel for any kind of vibration and there was none.

HBerman

I can feel an almost imperceptible vibration in my steering wheel at idle, but I can ONLY feel some road feedback at different speeds and road surfaces. The steering system changed on the W212 to have much more road feel compared to the W211 which had too light a feel. Additionally, the assist on the W212 is designed to cut off at speed for fuel economy purposes. It sounds like your situation is more constant. I hope the dealer can isolate the issue. It might also be a motor mount issue, but I would think that you would be hearing noise in that case.

mg-E550

is there a "higher-up in the mercedes heirarchy that you can call...or maybe another dealer to try and see? (admittedly not something you should have do do with a 70k car)

I havent had this issue although sympathize with you as I had an issue of this type with a BMW 650.

hyperion667

man, I would be flippin' out if this happened..........I hope you find a resolution

pb_mb

Call MBUSA and open a 'case' on it, they will check up on the dealer while they are fixing it and maybe they will send out one of the 'regional technicians' to further 'evaluate'. Make sure to tell them how many times you have already left the vehicle there / number of days. Just have to move up the chain of command to get results. I had this problem on my Audi, and they had to replace the control arms for the problem to go away.

ttoE550

Just to throw out a possibility, there might be two things unrelated to each other which confuse the issue.

First, my 2010 E550 4matic steering wheel vibrates at idle because of the AC compressor. I found it disconcerting at first. I took it in to the dealer (whom I trust) and they said it was normal. Turning off the AC turns off the vibration. But I do not feel the vibration other than at idle (but I have not really paid attention either).

So, if we accept the AC compressor vibration at idle as "normal," then the vibration you feel at speed might be due to something like an unbalanced wheel, a bulge or an object in the tire, or something similar, which could cause the vibration to increase at higher speeds. You might want to inspect your tires and/or have the dealer check them for defects or balance.

Tjdehya

I finally get to bring my car back in for service tomorrow. They will be giving me some crappy car from Enterprise. I have a case open with MBUSA. I told them I want the car fixed or replaced. At this point I want the vehicle replaced but they said that the paper work will take up to two weeks, and E550's are hard to get so the bottom line is that I just want an E550 that drives like a Benz and not like a hooptie/jalopy/clunker/beater.

Dema

Great to hear almost success story, perhaps I should go your way.

Tjdehya

Is that sarcasm? This is FAR from a success story. This is $70k nightmare.

HBerman

I'm not sure what your point is with that comment. When one spends $70K on a vehicle, it should perform to the designed high standards that the MB engineering department set for the specifications. Unfortunately, sometimes a part from a supplier is sub-standard and that creates a whole set of issues.

I had a 2004 E500 that was a nightmare with regard to the telephone system. Noone could hear what I was saying on a conversation. The Atlanta zone manager got involved and the "uber" technician from Atlanta worked the car over. Finally, they replaced (with latest manufacturing versions) the Gateway Module, the Telephone Module, the amplifier and once again the phone. Finally, things worked, but they had no idea which of the components was at fault. There were other issues with this car with regard to the fuel system, transmission, A/C, SBC system, etc. I finally traded out of the car in the fall of of 2005 after not having the use of the car for a total of more than 50 days of ownership.

BTW, this was on my 2nd 2004 E500. The first one came in with the incorrect headlights (correct option code, wrong parts). MBUSA finally replaced the car with a new E500, but it took 4 months to get it.

If the dealer cannot resolve the problem, then the next escalation is to the MBUSA zone office in Atlanta. If they can't resolve it, then MBUSA will buy it back. In my case, I added an additional option to my car (at cost) for the replacement vehicle.

hyperion667

geez man, I hope this comes out good for you T,
you deserve more than that for 70K no DOUBT!

good luck man

kingofire

Make sure the tires are balanced. Sounds like they are since the vibration is only in the steering wheel but just to be sure, I would go onto tirerack.com and put your zip code in and see what installers around you have a hunter force balancing machine and get them rebalanced. Second I would check the motor mounts and see if any are leaking oil as one might have shifted if you hit a big pot hole. If that is not it have them check the wheel bearings on the shaft, its a silent cause of steering wheel "shimmy". If that is not the culprit, the last thing is to have them replace all 4 brake pads. Sometimes if alignment or balance is off, one pad might wear faster than the other and cause balancing issues. In my experience, whenever there is only a "shimmy" felt in the steering wheel, 9 out of 10 times it is the brake pads not wearing evenly. You might want to try this first if they have done all the other checks. Good Luck!!

P.S. There is nothing more annoying than having a shimmy in the steering wheel. It is the one thing you have to hold through out the commute. It drives me bonkers, especially when you can't troubleshoot it regardless of how much the car costs.

simatuan

if your car vibration at idle that because A/C "on" if vibration as speedin tires,balance or alignment.....

Tjdehya

Just an update, I know no one here cares because you are having no issues with your car but I just think I should let people know what happens when you buy a $70k lemon from Mercedes-Benz.

It’s been almost two weeks and they still have my car... yea thats right I paid almost $70k for a 2011 E550 that I haven’t driven in two weeks because it’s in the maintenance shop. They called me on Tuesday to tell me that they cannot fix the car. Quote "that’s just the car there is nothing we can do about it." They said that the vibration is not "excessive" and that *hint* *hint* paraphrase "come pick your car up and deal with it"
I said *hint* *hint* paraphrase "NO! Go F-yourself you are not going to sell me a POS $70k car and tell me to suck it. Fix my car or get me a new one!!!"
Later that evening I spoke with a MBUSA rep who echoed the same thing. We spoke/argued for about 1/2hour. They kept using the word "Excessive" and I kept using the word "NO!"
My main point to them is that no 2011 E350, E550, ML350, 2009 E550 drives like this one so therefore there is something wrong with this car!
So I spoke with the Maintenance rep again yesterday, he took the car out for a spin again and evidently the vibration can now be felt through the floor of the car, the same vibration that is felt through the wheel. So it seems that this problem is just getting worse the more you drive it.

Judging from the warm, wonderful, calm but volatile conversation I had with the MBUSA rep it seems that I will have to get lawyers involved. I find it hard to justify a safety issue on this but there is no doubt that there is a value issue involved here. This car now falls into the category of a LEMON. Stupid me! I actually thought that MB would stick by their product but sadly I was wrong and it will now come down to if I can find a lawyer that is better than theirs.

HBerman

Sorry to hear that the problem still persists. I assume that they have already tried to force balance the tires after determining that both the rims and tires were within runout/out of round specifications. The fact that the vibration has a greater amplitude so that it can be felt in the floor would indicate that it's some sort of tolerance or resonance issue. Have they checked the balance on the drive shaft? How about the splines into the transmission and the differential for proper lubrication? Does the vibration happen at both suspension settings? I'm just throwing out ideas here of course. I have been monitoring any abnormal vibrations in my car, but none have arisen. The suspension and tires on my E550 is different than yours because of the luxury trim level so my observations are not directly comparable.

I had a resonance problem (at 55mph) with a 320i BMW years ago for which noone could find the root cause, but kept symptomatically pointing to tire balance. Eventually, a California club member diagnosed it as too soft bushings in the front anti-sway bar. He had a stiffer set made up by a shop and all the vibrations went away! The root cause was the A/C unit that was added at the port facility that created the opportunity for the resonance issue. BMW knew about the issue, but refused to do anything about it. Drove me absolutely crazy for a year until the solution was found.

hyperion667

jesus man, in a way I do care because it could happen to me or any one of 'us'...
I'm sorry you're going through it......try to have some hope.......
thanx for sharing the story

kingofire

220S

Tjdehya, did you speak with the regional tech who works with the dealer in your area or just somebody on the phone from MBUSA? You don't need to spend money with lawyers, but you do need to open a case with MBUSA. You need to write to them in a diplomatic way about this. I know it's hard to stay calm, but you are in a good position for a buy back if the dealer cannot correct the issue.

They always say "it's not excessive" or "it's within specs" hoping to get you to go away. And unless the regional MB tech has been involved, it's MBUSA being told by the dealer that everything seems okay and "within specs." Troubleshooting is not something a lot of dealers like to do or are even good at. It costs them money and they worry about whether they're going to get their labor time rebated back from MBUSA.

If you don't go away, then they will do something about. It just takes time and yes, it's a big PITA. I'm not taking sides at all here, but imagine MBUSA simply saying okay to every little thing that consumers complain to the dealer about. You're not one of them, but unfortunately there are a lot of weirdo owners of cars out there who complain about the most stupid crap and usually about stuff that is actually working the way it's supposed to work (read the manual, stupid!) So, you have to pretty much go this complicated route and get somebody's attention. You will, just hang in there.

Gorgatz_3

IMHO...check your tyres.(wheel balance, correct tyre inflation/specification, wheel alignment, etc..)

uclachan

hi~ new to this forum
i am planning on buying 2011 E350 (not E550).
i'll make sure i check the vibration. coming from BMW, (if you see my "Drives") it's very difficult to deal with the corp. BMW North America only do marking for BMW. every decision comes from HQ(germany) and it takes long time. i heard and experienced what you are going thru. in fact, BMWNA is buying my car back. not sure about MB but i am pretty sure they have one. buy-back program gives better rating (consumer rating in this case) for lemon. so basically, if you have a good case (your car being lemon) MB will buy it off from you. won't give you the whole amount money. but it's better than "Suck it all up" ask for buy-back. they may like the idea. this case, no one needs to hire lawyers. lawyers do cost a lot. and after that, BM will have 1 lemon on their consumer report which will give bad image on ppl like me(future buyer).
good luck OP. hope you resolve the problem. make sure you document everything (papers, conversations, video clips, radio records and etc) write official complaint letter (not a phone call) to MB customer relation (something like that. look at the end of your manual,. it will show where u need to send your letter).certified mail will do. address your problem and back it up w/ your facts (paperworks from your dealer. "not able to fix") and tell them what you want in return.

Dema

It is reality of Benz. Instead of enjoying your car you enjoy tons of unpleasant talks with dealer MB North America, keeping all records in right order, have video recording and so on. So you waste your valuable life time (I want to remind that we do not live forever) for these exercises. Take a good lesson, no Benz for sure. It happened for me once when I bought Sony products and had endless problems which never have been addressed by Sony. So I have stopped any buying from them and feel much better now.

And yes, it is my last Benz for sure, do not want to support maker ruining our lives for nothing.