2011 E350 Sport steering issue
06-12-2021, 04:07 PM
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2013 E350 Sport Pkg. Staggered Setup
Oversteer/Understeer unease
Hi - I am a newer MB owner and have been lurking here for a few months. I am having what I feel to be a serious issue I am hoping someone in this community can help me. Please let me know if you have any ideas. This is the description I have provided for the local MB dealer.
My primary concern is that the car has some type of steering issue that causes the car to pull to the right, and then almost push back to the left. The best way to describe the problem is that the car feels “loose” or almost “unstable” and it will almost drive itself out of the lane. The car turns fine; the problem is with the car staying straight. It feels like you really have to “work” to keep the car straight, constantly very slightly correcting the car. The feeling is definitely more pronounced at a higher speed, and almost undoubtedly when the car is driven on the freeway 60-70MPH you will feel what I am describing. I drove the car 250 miles yesterday, on a variety of different roads, and it did this the entire drive, so I am confident what I am feeling is not road drift. It was particularly bad when the road was wet.
If you drive the car around the block you will likely not experience the problem I am having. It has to be driven on the highway.
I personally feel like this is a safety issue. I need to be 100% confident driving the car on the highway, and right now I am not. I had several moments of concern yesterday on the freeway, feeling like the car reacted in a way I wasn’t expecting.
I do not know exactly what part of the car to pinpoint, but there is undoubtedly an issue. I don’t know if it is a tire issue, a steering issue, if it is some type of tie rod, or stabilizer issue, but I have never had a car react this way and I most notably drove our ML350 - it does not react like the E350.
My primary concern is that the car has some type of steering issue that causes the car to pull to the right, and then almost push back to the left. The best way to describe the problem is that the car feels “loose” or almost “unstable” and it will almost drive itself out of the lane. The car turns fine; the problem is with the car staying straight. It feels like you really have to “work” to keep the car straight, constantly very slightly correcting the car. The feeling is definitely more pronounced at a higher speed, and almost undoubtedly when the car is driven on the freeway 60-70MPH you will feel what I am describing. I drove the car 250 miles yesterday, on a variety of different roads, and it did this the entire drive, so I am confident what I am feeling is not road drift. It was particularly bad when the road was wet.
If you drive the car around the block you will likely not experience the problem I am having. It has to be driven on the highway.
I personally feel like this is a safety issue. I need to be 100% confident driving the car on the highway, and right now I am not. I had several moments of concern yesterday on the freeway, feeling like the car reacted in a way I wasn’t expecting.
I do not know exactly what part of the car to pinpoint, but there is undoubtedly an issue. I don’t know if it is a tire issue, a steering issue, if it is some type of tie rod, or stabilizer issue, but I have never had a car react this way and I most notably drove our ML350 - it does not react like the E350.
Regarding the understeer/oversteer at varying speeds, I've concluded that my experience was tire pressure related. (I also disabled the Attention Assist, not sure if that helped)
Tire pressure can alter a tire every +/- 10° f, by +/-1psi. I'd experienced this with 2 other cars that were FWD prior to purchasing this E350 RWD. Each car had it's own specific issue. One had uneven wear and 4 different tires (rental), it also had strut/shock wear (2016 Cruz). Another simply had alignment and tire wear (2017 Altima).
To the point.
2013 E350 Sport Pkg. (Stock)
front: 245/40 R 18
rear: 265/35 R 18
Gas door says 'COLD' psi;
35psi front, 36psi rear for normal driving.
35psi front, 41psi rear for max load driving.
*warm tires up to +4psi.*
What I did was drive the car 2mil to an air pump and used the +4psi.
I used 39psi front, 40psi rear for normal driving.
I have yet to use the max load rating. It performs much better this way and is stable at low and high speed.
*Disclaimer
My car was fully serviced by Mercedes of Annapolis 1k miles prior to my purchase. I also had new rear tires put on as the front were already in new like condition. The used rear had irregular wear on the inner tire which I think is for straight line stability. Had it aligned but it still had a slight bit of understeer/oversteer, sensitive, correcting a lot. Since readjusting tire pressure with that method I've had no issues kinda. I'd lost 1 lug bolt during this whole process too which I think caused the bad inner wear.
Where I do feel differences is with these current temp swings. We've gone from 102° to 80° in a matter of hours. We've gone from 92° to 69° high/low so I don't know what's up with Maryland weather but it's important to not tire sensitivity to temps, driving style, high speed (anything over 75mph) can effect the driving characteristics of the car. This car is by far the most sensitive to tire pressure that I've ever driven and I've driven a lot of cars and I currently do rideshare so I do a lot of miles on road.
It's no where near the Chevy Cruze I'd rented which felt like I was on an ice skating ring on dry roads 🥶 nightmare. The car drive like a rear wheel drive car on bald tires in the rain. This one mechanic for that issue dropped the rear tire pressure and raised the front which made it understeer more fixing the oversteer temporarily.
I can only assume Mercedes puts that tire pressure rating for regions that have fuel attendants.
