Hi Everyone,

I'm very happy with my 2017 E300 overall, but I'm having some issues with my tires & suspension that are really bugging me.

For reference, I'm running the 18" AMG five spoke rims with with the 245/45/18 Pirelli Runflat tires.

I leased my 2017 E300 in late December 2016. About a month ago, I started noticing an "offroad tire" type droning noise coming from my front left tire. I also noticed a significant increase in road noise. Upon taking it into the dealership, they couldn't reproduce it, and returned the car back to me. The dealership is Mercedes of South Bay in Torrance.

The sound got worse. Also, I noticed that my suspension took on a side-to-side motion as opposed to a controlled up-and-down motion. I spoke with the dealership shop foreman and he noticed that my left front tire had some significant feathering on the inside tread. This is typically due to an alignment issue. At this point, the car has 2000 miles on it.

The dealership did an alignment, rebalanced the tires, and rotated the tires. Apparently, the car was significantly out of alignment, showing "red" measurements all across the board. They got everything back into the "green" range.

After the alignment, the car was perfect for about 3 days. Then the tire sounds started to appear again, in the same location - left front. Also, the suspension seems to have taken on a side-to-side motion again. These are all signs that the car has fallen back out of alignment.

I have not hit any significant potholes since getting that "green" alignment, so I'm not sure what could cause this. However, I will say that with these runflat tires, even small bumps in the road are amplified to surprising levels.

Here's my hypothesis and please let me know if I'm on the right track:

The 18" AMG rim + runflat tire combination is too harsh for the non-air-ride equipped suspension of my non-AMG E300. Consequently, the car keeps getting knocked out of alignment when I hit anything resembling a small pothole in the road.

I believe that my issues will be solved with a set of non-runflat tires and an additional alignment. I'm not sure how to approach the dealership about this because after several visits on a 2000 mile car, they are probably sick of me by now.

Any advice on this issue would be much appreciated. I really like the car, but these issues are very frustrating for me.

Thanks!

 

Bad suspension bushing? Seems that something is awry with the suspension of that strut that is throwing off the alignment. When something like that happens you remove the whole strut and take it apart to inspect all the parts.

 

Hi there!

Would you suggest that I forward this information to their lead mechanic? I'm not sure if they think I'm crazy at this point since I've brought it back so many times.

 

I would suggest that you attempt to get your dealer to try putting on a set NON run-flat tires on your car for a test drive, and see if it helps your issue.

 

They are just being lazy (WHAT A SURPRISE). I'm not giving you any hidden expert advice.

 

Bushes won't be worn in that time, perhaps damaged/out of shape but they shouldn't be worn otherwise we'd be hearing about this a lot more. If the car could be realigned okay and no play was felt in the system (if they bothered to realign and rotate tyres they must have checked for play in the system and done a general visual inspection of the suspension too) it wouldn't point to bushings being at fault.

I don't think the run flats are to blame either, plenty of people running 19 inches with even skinnier sidewalls without posting up alignment issues. I've smacked some potholes damn hard in mine (rubbish UK roads to thank for that) including one recently that had me stop and inspect the wheels such was the noise and impact of it all! But I've no odd handling or uneven tyre wear to speak of. Surely if run flats are so stiff that enough force is transmitted into the suspension system to knock it out of alignment, were you to have regular tyres, wouldn't the sidewall collapse to the point you'd strike the rim on the pothole?

Could there be a problem with the adaptive damper system being out of tune? Would certainly make the vehicle feel odd on the road though wouldn't explain alignment issues. Maybe your alignment wasnt causal and even though the weird feeling is back, the alignment could still be fine.

Certainly sounds bad, for a new car to be so out of alignment. If you go back and it's out of alignment again, get it straightened and ask that all nuts and bolts, tie rods and whatever else that affect alignment be paint marked to show if they rotate/move in future. Then if you have to go back with the issue again, it will hopefully be obvious what had moved and then root cause for that bolt or bolts turning can be carried out.

 

Get a second opinion. Maybe from a Pirelli tire seller. If you can feel it while driving, how is it possible the dealer tech can't. Did you drive with him?

What you are describing sounds more like a worn (not likely on a new car), damaged, (did you accidentally hit something), or defective suspension component than tires. A defective tire would have shown up early on, and would not have caused a "red" alignment condition (especially to any of the other tires), and would not have been corrected for 3 days after the "green" alignment. That BTW is the most curious part...that you didn't notice the defect for 3 days after the repair. Get the dealer to double check the alignment specs and ride with you.

 

The pirelli tires stink! I have pirelli non run flats on 18s on my c class. They feathered. I have had them balanced. I have had car aligned. I cannot rotate. Car has staggered set up. Still have noise. Hard to get rid of once feathered. need to find root of problem.

 

hello my friend
i have a w213 e200 and it is with R19 run- flat michelin and i have faced the same problem regarding the tires sound and i went to the dealership they said because it is a winter tires when i went to tires dealer he told me impossible that the tires make such sound so now i am really confused especially iam a very big MB fan and this is my fifth e class and i have never faced such problem i am afraid that it is a bearing issue !!!!!! possible ???? with mercedes

 

Winter tires are indeed more noisy. However some are noisier than others. Check tirerack reviews on your particular tire to see what other owners have to say. Unless there is any unusual wear, the noise level is intrinsic to that particular tire model. Road surface type is also a factor, smooth vs patterned concrete vs smooth blacktop, etc. Different tires will have a different tune depending on surface.

 

I have the W213 E220d AMG suspension, 19" AMG wheels, runflat tyres.

I do have a major issue on stability of the vehicle, due to front suspension. Changed back and front shock absorbers but still the issue is there. The car cannot stay in the road over 120km/h. Lost the back end 2 times with 80km/ h and some rain.

After changing first the back shocks the car is more stable, but front end still a big issue. Unsafe to drive! The local dealer after proposed to change the front shocks also now that the problem is not fixed says that it seems that this car has this type of handling.

The front axle suspension is very soft. The car entering in holes it keeps moving up and down, also left right. I am very disappointed!