jhpmbusa

very interesting, yea i am thinking they have designed this way from factory to make it feel more sporty. i do not think vibrations makes a car any more sportier...rather it is very annoying.... I really wonder if all sports drive like this but most people do not notice it and say their e300 is smooth.

I also noticed, you need to be on very smooth roads to feel the vibrations and not every type of roads will re-produce this vibration... therefore one of my assumptions are that not everyone drives on newly paved roads during their daily commutes! the worst part is, once you know its there... it never goes away..... i have around 18th months left on the lease and i literally enjoyed the car no more than 1 week. If all future benzes have this vibration, this will be the very last benz in my life time lol

JK2

My dealer has ordered a new rear diff for me. No other details provided yet, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

I found this interesting article on how vibration analysis works - https://www.brakeandfrontend.com/dri...th-vibrations/

jhpmbusa

oh wow very interesting that they think its coming from the back end instead of the front?? how did they come to that conclusion?? and when are you getting it replaced?

Mbracer26

My car used to have a small jitter while braking, but now the whole car vibrates and shakes while braking any where from 60 to 100+ mph. Been complaining about it since the car had 1k miles, they changed the pads at 3k and now the rotors have failed at 18k. Will be taking it in. The car has amg line brakes

haibieb

Ask the dealer to check lower ball joints and associated systems as well. I had a similar issue with one of my earlier MB's. The previous visits had addressed: tires, rims, brakes etc. Only when the ball joints were inspected and replaced did the vibrations were corrected. Sometimes, this issue is overlooked. Good luck..

jhpmbusa

just dropped off my e300 last night and i got a 2019 c300 coupe sport as a loaner. so i am starting to notice that this vibration might be added intentionally now to the design to add sportiness?? this 2019 c300 sport vibrates a lot more and drives very similar to a 2018 c43 i drove last year. i accepted the fact that the c43 would drive like this due to the fact that it is was a c43... but it seems like they brought it over now to the c300 sport coupe as well. I drove a c300 coupe cab non-sport a month or two ago and i didnt notice it. So it might be something that are fitting into the sport models....

JK2

Their vibration analyzer pointed them away from looking at the wheels, and towards something rotating at the same speed as the drive shaft. That led them to replace the rear diff (not sure why that over drive shaft itself). Issue is still present, maybe slightly diminished vibration, but basically still there.

Next step is the servicing dealership to escalate to MB USA. Apparently they have regional tech teams who swoop in for tough cases. Specifically there's like one guy nationally who specializes in vibrations, so hoping he'll engage. They have a particular tool to detect drive shaft imbalance, which is the shop foreman's next guess at root cause. He said it could also be the two rear axels. To a layperson like me, also seems like it could be something at the output side of the transmission.

I'm close to requesting MB USA to repurchase, but going to give it one more try.

Aside, since I find the vibration analysis fascinating, here's an iPhone app that for $400 attempts to do vibration analysis -

jhpmbusa

awesome find and great report! yea for a non technical guy like me it seems to be engine/tranmission related as well. i really think 9 gears paired up with a 4cyl will give quite a bog down / buzz.

JK2

Update - Dealer had my car for two more weeks while we were away on vacation. Had a tech from MB USA come and balance the prop shaft (drive shaft). After doing that, he also found it slightly "out of alignment", which I'm led to believe is something about the angles between it and the components on either end. He mentioned he's seen this sort of thing before. Their "pico scope" readings improved a lot after this. Shop foreman test-drove, wasn't sure if he could still feel the vibration or not. I took it out my long highway commute and can still feel it, though it's less consistent than before; you really have to be paying attention, and need to be on super smooth/quiet roads. I'm planning to request a repurchase from MBUSA at this point. I'm in love w/ everything else about the car, but can't NOT hear/feel this vibration. Also worried that w/ the root cause unresolved, it will grow more severe overtime.

jhpmbusa

Great to hear, maybe i can relay this message over to my dealership. But for you, i recommend you test drive another e class of any sort and see if you notice it or not before you have mbusa repurchase the vehicle and you go through the same nightmare again... keep us posted and good luck!!!

jhpmbusa

Also, you mentioned a tech came out from MBUSA, what is his name? considering he mentioned he has seen this before, i would like to see how he can assist my case. I cant even get a pico device.... Thanks in advance!!!

stephos

Sorry to hear this but appreciate you taking the time to provide an update.

jhpmbusa

How is the repurchase process going? I finally got my dealership to try out the pico device. Guess after several attempts they agree the car is acting funny.

JK2

Good for you! Do you mean that even with the device they had to try it a bunch of times to pick it up?

Random observation about my symptoms - I *think* they were less prominent when it was 10-20 degrees out, in the dead of winter, when they had to shaft balancing specialist working on it. When he gave it back, I really had to pay attention to feel it, but now as warmer days arrive, the vibration feels more obvious to me. Could also be that whatever adjustments they made have reverted somehow.

On repurchase, not going particularly smoothly. MBUSA states 2-4 weeks for the process. It was radio silence for 3 weeks. Then the dealer called to take the vehicle back in "because MBUSA asked us to". This is after the dealer told me there was nothing else they could do since the scope read clean after the shaft adjustments. I called back in to the MBUSA rep to try to get more color, asking things like "Why is the car going back to the dealer if the dealer says there's nothing else they can do; what changed? What makes us think this time will be different? Is the specialist coming back?". The guy couldn't answer any of this; gave a lot of nonsense answers, felt like a very low-level call center rep instead of good service. Anyway, it went back to them this morning, and I have no idea what they're trying/thinking.

jhpmbusa

So the last time i got them to take a ride with me, i took them to the long stretch of highway (my daily commute) where I feel it the most and after this they have finally started to believe what I have been talking about for 1 year.

The funny thing is I told them the same symptom about the temperature as well. My thought is as the weather warms up, the tires become softer, possibly hugging the road better thus equating to more feedback coming into the cabin. Just multiplying the sensation.

Good luck! Makes sense that they would do anything to not buy-back the car haha

Egonvdv

I too have an overall vibration at speeds over 130m/h
best to describe it is that it FEELS like it's the road that causes it, though this i definitely not the case as the vibration is constant on old & new (smooth) asfalt.
it's the car as a whole that vibrates. steering wheel, does not...
dealer could not find anything wrong, but i doubt they really tested it...
it's very subtle
i know all the above remains vague, but if anyone has any suggestions?

konigstiger

Start with basics request tire/wheel “road force balance” i.e.: https://www.hunter.com/wheel-balancers

Egonvdv

they said they've done that, but i just realise they didn't have the key for wheel locks, so impossible!

jhpmbusa

That is hilarious, did you have the lock at home? Also, how long did you have the car for and we did you start noticing it?

2012 merc amg

I have a slight vibration in my Wagon at speeds over 70 or so, feels like it's coming from the rear. Very slight. When I change out the tires for the Primacy 3's I'l see if it goes away. I have a feeling it's gonna ride smooth as silk with the Michelin Primacy 3's. I really think it's something to do with the hard sidewall Goodyear Eagle Sport tires on the car now. It's a shame though I do like the way these Goodyear Sport tires feel in Corners, they are very firm. Hate to chuck out tires with only 10K miles on them. I just know when I get up north to the bumpy roads I'm gonna really hate these tires.

Egonvdv

1.5 years / 70.000km

lock was in car, but hidden

I usually drive not faster than 110km (the limit) between home & work and only on some weekends will I use roads where limit is 130,

my guess is that one or 2 wheels are badly balanced after I had 2 tires replaced, though that's done "automatically" so don't se how they could have F'ed it up..?

2012 merc amg

Or a rear rim is slightly bent, happens all the time, does not take much with these rims.

jhpmbusa

update: dealership has been driving it around with a pico device, will now bring a mb hq tech to further analyse and test.

JK2

Nice.

On my end MBUSA gave me the big middle finger on my repurchase request. I guess since the shop foreman can't currently feel the vibration himself, under whatever conditions he drove it, I'm out of luck at the moment.

Frustrating that there's been no real person to talk to beyond call center reps. Can't get answers to sensible questions like "so if I can demonstrate the issue to the foreman in warmer weather, will you repurchase it instead of making me bring it in for a sixth time?". Or "the foreman has a history of giving the car back w/ vibration intact (as verified by MB tech), so can we get a different opinion on this?". Or "hey, there's some sketchy stuff going on at the dealer, like:
- Only having 3 work orders on record even though the car's been in 5 times
- They picked the car up from my house, but told me if MB roadside assistance called, to say I had needed a jump
- Paired a phone named "337 hates benz" with my car

Anyway, hope you have better luck, I'm still following your saga as well.

stephos

that's just shocking