kingofire

Thought I would open a thread discussion on various noise troubleshooting and solutions.

I am getting a popping sound from either the rear deck or the pano roof when my car dips either going thru pot holes or speed bumps and what not. I also get a bit of creaking from behind the steering wheel area. Anybody experience this? If yes, what did the dealer do to fix it? I will be bringing my car to the dealership, just wanted to be well informed just in case they can't troubleshoot it.
Thanks fellas!

K-A

That sucks. Hopefully that creaking isn't trouble.

No rattles for me right now. I hate them, and with all the emphasis M-B put in expressing the solid build quality of the 212, I'd be upset if I had to deal with it.

2006 w203

well the pano roof has many things of which its made up of no?

perhaps something is loose in there

DHI

I've had my car for 9 months now...

Pano roof rattle free.

Rear deck seem to crackle under thermal expansion/contraction.

I have an annoying rattle from driver dash cowl when hitting even small but sharp road seams/cracks.

Other than that the car is rock solid.

kingofire

Thanks fellas for the affirmation that this car is solid for a lot of you guys. Nothing ruins a driving experience more than creaks and rattles. I am not the one for turning up the music to drown the rattles or what not. I bought a luxury car so I can be spoiled and coddled to and from my travels that day and loud music just doesn't coddle me...lol. I am pretty sure my dealer will be able to fix it as it is not hard at all to duplicate it. Happens every time I hit a dip a certain way.

i7iceguy

I have a constant annoying rattle coming from the driver dashboard.

MagicJack

I am just over a year and ~ 17,000 miles.

I recently started to get a creaking noise from the front driver's side of the car when I go over speed bumps or other low speed bumps. Not sure if it is from the wheel well or somewhere in the engine compartment. I think it may be a similar creaking when I push down on the hood over the wheel well and the hood creaks.

kingofire

Since I really like the interior/exterior of this car and I plan to keep this car at least 5 years, I decided to just soundproof this car. I ordered Fatmat rattle trap and my sound guy will install it when it comes in. $600 all told and done and its the whole car which includes the engine hood, wheel wells, dashboard, roof(not much since its pano roof), doors, floor, rear deck and the trunk. Hope it solves the rattles. Here is the link for fatmat just in case anyone else is interested. I find this to be better than Dynamat and at half the cost.

http://www.amazon.com/Rattle-Trap-Fa...6649576&sr=8-1

hyperion667

this is a cool idea.....there was a thread some time back about the felt-ish
wheel wells already.......is that true? did you find that to not be enough? just wondering because this kind of sounds like a cool idea to me, what about drawbacks? any down side to this that might affect ones decision making process? thanx man

another thing: is this a step that very loud stereo people take to reduce vibrations?

kingofire

I didn't even check the wheel wells but since the car is going to be gutted to install the fatmat, might as well do the wheel wells. I have done this to other cars and it does help a lot with road noise. One draw back to this is that you hear wind noise more and it can drive some people nuts. I find that having the pano roof, you hear wind noise more but I am willing to live with this more than rattles.

I have never encountered down side with the fatmat per se nor have I heard horror stories about it. It is made specifically for automotive use like dynamat is but half the price. Some people were buying an identical product to dynamat called Peel & Seal but fraction of the price at Lowes and Home Depot but there were stories of their cars smelling like ashphalt because Peel & Seal is meant to go under roofing tiles. Not a single issue with Fatmat though.

Try it out you will not regret it. If you do get it, you can get the 50 ft roll and it will be enough for the E350. I got 100ft because I want to do a double application one on top of the other to really get a "vault" like feeling.

hyperion667

haha! TO THE VAULT! that's what you could pronounce on the way to your car, LOL......
this does sound appealing like I mentioned......I will begin looking more into it, the place that I'm planning on getting tinted I'm sure knows about this technique.....
interesting in regards to the wind......I could see how that would be a nuisance, perhaps adjusting the radios volume, hehe...
I think I would also like that vault feeling upon closing the door...
that reminds me of those older luxury models with the chrome insets
on the door latch area.....those are really nice......I don't know if I'm being articulate enough.....lol...........couldn't find a good jpeg of an example...

MCF

I have one. It's the left glovebox door holder inside glove box. Anyone know if these can be popped off or not or does entire glove box need to be removed?

z28style23

I had a couple noises on my E. Had a clunk from the L/F at like parking lot speeds(ended up being the hood stops needed lubricating). 2 rattles from the instrument cluster area(had to felt left wood trim of cluster) and cluster was just touching the instrument cluster surround on the freeway or rough roads(felted the cluster surround). Now car is quite and solid. The new E is awesome.

LRM1

I recently noticed that something on the rear deck (maybe the sunshade) rattles like crazy when the music is played loud. I realize the sub (which really isn't all that powerful) kicks in, but the rattling is getting to me

MagicJack

I greased my hood stops with some ball bearing grease it did get rid of creaking noise from the front of the car while going over speed bumps or going up a drive curb.

Good advice and easy diy fix.

MagicJack

Any solution? I get an occasional rattle I thought was from the roofliner but now suspect it has to do with the rear sunshade. The rattle typically goes away after I raise and lower the sunshade.

akbro93704

creaky rear "shelf", rattle from beneath Comand screen area near air vents, another type of rattle in the cupholder area, cant pinpoint exactly where its coming from. Not impressed with the interior quality of the W212.

vapers

I have also started getting the right front rattle at slow speed over some bumps. My car is due for service B and hopefully they can fix it then.

kingofire

Good and bad news for me. I was able to pinpoint the rattle to the headrests. When I would raise the headrests to their maximum height the rattle wasn't as frequent and happened only on very bad roads and dips. Took it to the dealer and they padded the interior of the seats as best they could while not compromising the SRS. They did a great job as there is zero play in the headrests and zero rattle in the car as of now.

Bad news is that they tightened the instrument cluster to see if that would alleviate the creaking but it actually made it worse. Before the center stack would only creak on uneven roads. Now the creaking happens on both uneven and even road surfaces. My car was chirping away on the highway today so I called the dealership and will take it in on Friday and give them a second chance. If they can't then I am trying another dealership and if that fails, MBUSA will hear from me and have them fly out a service rep to look at the car.

Hope this helps for others. Oh, and I am actually impressed with the build quality in this car. They have used high quality materials throughout the cabin just from the feel of it. People who knock the material quality should sit inside a BMW 535i/550i or a Lexus GS350 or even a LS460. You'll be surprised how well built this car is. My dad has a white Lexus LS460 and I have a white E350. When parked side to side and had company over a couple of the guys mentioned how much richer my white paint looked compared to the Lexus. Quality is sometimes in the little things a mfg gets right.

K-A

Knock on wood, my interior is silent right now. I feel for you guys with the noises, and hopefully it gets fixed. People usually will assume an entire interior is of poor build if there is a rattle/creek coming from somewhere.... Which is understandable, as it's frustrating, and shouldn't occur at all, especially in a Premium Car, however, a lot of time it is one little area making all kinds of fuss.... And once that area is alleviated, everything goes back to nice.

About the Lexus, I was moving around my Mom's ES last night, and man, NO comparison to the build in the Benz.

I drove my W212 today, and it feels like an iron bull. Just so strong and perfect in the ride. It really becomes apparent after you drive other cars.

And you mentioned the LS, even the LS's interior is cheap/flimsy/chintzy to me in many ways. The build quality and materials in the E > the LS to me, by a longshot.

El Cid

After 11 months, only noise I have noticed is a very rare creak from the sunroof when it is closed. Occurs when going over bumps such as where a driveway and street have a sizable dip between them and car enters at an angle. Lke I said it occurs rarely so not concerned yet, but will probably mention it when I go in for A service.

prestno

[quote=kingofire;4288963]Thought I would open a thread discussion on various noise troubleshooting and solutions.

2010 E350, 3,000 miles. Exactly the same noises for me-rear shade rattles at normal speeds and bumps, and getting a creak behind the steering wheel when turning for parking. Sounds like the column inside. Car going in for service this week. Has anyone been able to get it resolved?

Grau E350

The W212 has the worst build quality of any German car that I've owned including a few Audi A6's BMW 3 and 5 series, MB and Porsche. It has 4-5 different rattles and noise problems in different parts of the car. Dash, rear, headliner. The dealer was absolutely worthless...the car spent over 40 hours alone at the dealer for rattle and noise issues.

Vault like, build qualiity....not my car. I must have had one of the rare W212s built in Detroit.

MagicJack

[QUOTE=prestno;4532939]My dealer took off the guides for the rear shade mechanism, looked it over and put it back in place. Not sure if they made any changes, but the rattle is gone for several months now.

fromthebeginnin

Wow that's too bad, not a pep out mine but the roads are generally ok in NorCal.