I replaced both engine mounts on my 2011 E350 4-Matic. It was one of the most miserable jobs I have done on a car in quite some time, but I knew it was not going to be easy after reading several posts on the subject. I was unable to crack the top engine mount bolt loose on the passenger side. I struggled with it for almost half of the day and finally got it. Fast forward to the wee hours of the evening I got everything back together.

The next morning I took the car for a test drive and while going down my driveway I noticed the steering wheel is off to the right by about 45 degrees. Not sure why, because the steering shaft and rack only go back together one way. Anyway, as I begin my drive up the street I hear an awful noice in the front end and the car is loosing power. It regains power but now the ECS Inoperative light is on. So my steering wheel is off by 45 degrees and the ECS has an issue.

I read that care must be taken when removing the steering shaft from the rack or possible damage to the clock spring could occur. So with that in mind, I don't believe the steering shaft was rotated while apart.

Here are my symptoms:
1. ESC Inoperative warning on dash;
2 Steering wheel is off center;
3. Cruise Control does not work;
4. Right turn signal does "not" cancel when recovering from a right turn;
5. Left turn signal does cancel when recovering from a left turn;
6. Wipers work;
7. All other functions on the steering wheel appear to work properly.

I am thinking I have a problem with the Steering Angle Column Sensor, but I don't understand what could have gone wrong. Am I on the right path?

Any ideas?

Appreciate your thoughts.

...Dave

PS: Aside from the above issues, the car feels great with the new mounts.

Bump.

I am still hoping for some input from the forum. Another clue is the "auto hold" feature does not work.

My steering wheel is 90 degrees off center. I was relatively careful not to rotate the wheel while the rack was disconnected from the shaft, but perhaps it moved 90 degrees while apart. When I disconnected the shaft from the rack it appeared it would only go back on one way. I am stumped.

Any ideas out there?

Thanks for your responses. I will get back under there to check the steering shaft alignment.
Will report back.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...22e8d980e5.jpg
I want to follow up on this thread to close it out. I got back under the car, made sure the wheels were straight and noted the steering wheel position was approximately a quarter of a turn off to the right. As noted in previous posts I found, there is a plastic "guide" on the rack that, for the most part, only lets you slide the steering shaft onto the rack one way. So, in order to correct the steering wheel position, I removed the plastic "guide" which allowed me to pretty much slide the steering shaft onto the rack at any position I chose. I slid the two together and check the steering wheel position. I repositioned the steering shaft on to the rack one tooth at a time to get the steering wheel lined up perfectly straight, then tightened the bolt securely. I took the car for a drive and everything functions normally now.

I am still not sure how or why the steering shaft got out of alignment. Perhaps there are splines of some type up in the column that became misaligned when I disturbed the shaft during the removal and replacement of the left side engine mount? Who knows? All I know is my steering wheel is straight, the car tracks straight, everything in the column functions as it should and my car is now smooth as glass at idle.

It was a tough job and I'm glad it's done!

The teeth are in good condition. And the sleeve was a tight fit on the rack. I don't know what the inside of the steering column looks like, but I was thinking maybe there is a splined sleeve with a splined shaft that allows the steering column to extend and retract when adjustment is made by the driver. Perhaps I pushed the shaft in too far which disengaged the connection and when I pulled it back down I didn't realize it had turned slightly.

In any event, everything has been working perfectly since I disconnected the shaft from the rack, removed the plastic sleave, straightened the wheels and reattached the shaft.

I would also like to mention again that the new mounts made a huge difference in the way the car feels. I guess the original mounts failed slowly over time (78,000 miles) which is why I really didn't notice the vibration at idle until I read about it in this forum. After I realized what the deal was it drove me crazy until I changed out the mounts.

The old mounts were pretty much fully collapsed when compared to the new ones. The car does seem smoother and more balanced around town. Not much difference, if any, at higher speed.
I had previously replaced the transmission mount when I first started noticing the vibration at idle, but was disappointed it didn't fix the problem. At that point I knew the engine mounts were next. I procrastinated in tackling the job because I thought it would be a little more time consuming than the transmission mount. Boy was I right! But now that all mounts are new I am very happy with the results.

There are 2 engine mounts and one transmission mount. The transmission mount was very easy to swap out. The 2 engine mounts, not so much.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...6856e73452.jpg

[QUOTE=Youngd;7494359]I wanted to add one more piece of information that may be helpful to those with a pre-facelift E350 4maic. I found it difficult to nail down exactly which style engine mount fit my car. I spent a lot of time on various websites but still had conflicting information. Apparently, there are 2 different types of mounts specified for the E350. I didn't want to get the car apart and discover I had the wrong parts, so I ended up ordering both types and returned the ones I didn't use. As it turned out, the mounts pictured above were correct and, although many sites specified the mounts pictured below, the ones below were not correct for my application. Perhaps the mounts pictured below are for a non-4matic?
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...ce6c131427.jpg