I have a rattle right by the driver’s left ear where the seatbelt shoulder adjustment for the seatbelt is located. Tap your fingers on that panel and you hear it right away. Passenger side is totally fine in same location.

anyone else experience this? It’s bad enough that I will take to dealer just curious if others have experienced the same.

Yes. 2025 E53 and there is a rattle in the same place in my car but is prevalent on certain roads and only in S or S plus driving modes. I haven't bothered getting it fixed as I'm hoping the suspension softens up the more I drive it.

same. Only certain roads. It’s a resonance thing.

I've got the same thing happen to me today. Tap the adjustable shoulder panel and you could hear something loose in there.

yep. That’s it. Now one of us (or our dealers) needs to find the solution and share here

I have the same issue. It’s quite annoying. I press the entry point of the seatbelt and it stops but when I remove my hand it continues. I keep meaning to take a look at it, but will ask dealer if I can’t resolve.

You're getting the full Mercedes experience. Unlike the BMW X5 which just works from the day you take delivery, it's not unusual for a Mercedes to have some of these things that you take back to the dealer to fix. I'll give you a little preparation about what you may experience. First, the good news -- before you pass the warranty period, most of these bothersome issues get fixed. Definitely take it to the dealer and enjoy a snack and beverage in the comfortable waiting room.

In one Mercedes, the audio speaker would randomly crackle in the frequency range of the human voice. That was multiple trips to the dealer to fix. At one point, the service advisor told me, "To fix it, Mercedes would need to redesign the doors." A $25,000 Toyota never has that problem, but a Mercedes Burmester sound system doesn't work with Mercedes doors. When my service advisor is stumped by a problem and gives me nonsensical answer like that, I just look at them for a few seconds like they are speaking a foreign language that I don't comprehend. I don't acknowledge the attempt at giving up. I then chat more with them amicably on other things Mercedes. Topics like "I have to agree with that customer that the B service on an 8-cylinder AMG is crazy expensive. Do you have any discounts on the six-cylinder E53 service?" are good for small talk.

When it comes to software issues in the control modules and MBUX, the service advisors will have seen so many of those that they will instantly know what the problem is and if there is a fix. The car is so smart now, that it even tells the advisor what the problem is.

For things like the seatbelt rattle, it is possible that only 500 cars in the US have that problem and the advisor will not know what it is. In that case, confident persistence is required on the owner's part. Once it has gone back a few times and they haven't succeeded in making you give up, they will assign it to a technician who is great at diagnosing problems. They may have the technician come out and speak with you directly. When you get to this point, it seems like the problem will never go away. Thoughts like, "this is the last Mercedes I will ever buy," start to come into your head more frequently. You start fantasizing about selling the car at a steep loss just to be rid of the seatbelt resonance that grates the core of your being. This is the point to hang on. Your problem is almost solved. Between the dealership's top technician, engineers in Germany and owners posting on the forums someone eventually gets a solution.

In this generation of Mercedes E-Class we have the turn signal indicators in the driver display hidden by the steering wheel. While that would take a software engineer about 30 minutes to fix, I am expecting to never see the turn signal indicators for the ownership lifetime. Sometimes Mercedes makes design choices seemingly made by a sleep deprived high school student who spent two minutes on the homework assignment. But that's just part of the experience. There are of course, many points of technical excellence which is why we sometimes buy Mercedes.

Engineers have to design the cockpit to accommodate drivers of various sizes with a 3' height variance. That is why the seat and steering wheel are adjustable.
Adjust your driving position or wheel position to see the turn signal indicators or any other portion of the driver's display.

I've had much better service and quality experiences with each of my MB cars than any of the 4 BMWs I've owned. Still BMW is better than many of it's competitors.
BMW has excellent performance when it isn't broken. My 540ix (G30) was in the shop for repair every month for the year that I owned it. In other words BMW = bring mechanic with.

Now that BMW has gone vegan and only offers two tone leather seats with grey sections in the 5 series I won't be buying another one.

I have a similar rattle but I think it's coming from the head rest. If I make an adjustment using the button on the side of the headset, the noise goes away - for a while! I tried the top of the seat belt, and I can make a noise by tapping on it, but it doesn't seem to be making the noise while I'm driving. Try messing with the headrest and let us know if you can get a permanent fix.

Has anyone had this successfully repaired yet?

If I recline the driver seat, I can see the turn signal indicators. The automatic seat positioner in the E-class wants to put us in a reclined position. Strangely, the auto-positioner raises the seat so that the steering wheel blocks the turn signal indicators for me. In the 5 series I can sit upright and see all indicators in the driver display. It isn't rocket science. Mercedes just needs to move the turn signal indicators closer to the center of the display.

Whether or not to recline or sit upright is an ongoing debate with no right answer. I prefer the upright position. I am used to sitting upright. It feels weird to me to recline. It also gives more legroom for back seat passengers, and it positions the seat belt better for crash protection. I'll just leave the seat upright and not see the turn signal indicators. I was trained to sit upright to feel yaw better through the back, but I'm not sure I buy that we feel that much yaw through the back. I bet we sense yaw more through the inner ear. Even when reclined we tend to have our heads straight, so the inner ear should work just as well reclined or straight.

Good to hear your experience on Mercedes quality. Mercedes has some cars like the E-Class which are average reliability in Consumer Reports surveys. Mercedes also has some vehicles which are at the bottom of the Consumer Reports surveys. Mercedes reliability varies widely by model. These days "average" reliability is pretty good.

A G30 540ix being that bad is starting to scare me. Service at my local BMW and Mercedes dealers have both been good. It is much easier to get a loaner car at the Mercedes dealers than at the BMW dealer. I can also schedule service quicker at the Mercedes dealers.

I'm still waiting for a car with the reliability of a Lexus and the performance of a BMW.

I like Mercedes fake leather. It lasts really well and is easy to maintain. I have read of cracking on some of the prior BMW fake leathers. On my BMW X5, I have the extended Merino leather. It is a top-quality leather and is comfortable, but I don't expect it to last as well as MB-TEX.

I drive with the seat reclined enough to accommodate my arms out steering position. I can turn the wheel either way by using just my wrists & forearms, not my elbows & shoulders. A habit I picked up driving in SCCA events back in the day. Nobody has ever been in the back seat and only an occasional passenger in the front seat.

I won't have a car without Nappa or better leather. I hate the feel of plastic on my bare legs. (I wear shorts, tees & sandals year round.)

Repeating this since it is being buried under lengthy off-topic posts. If anyone has had this repaired and can provide details on what was done, or a TSB if it exists, it would be very helpful.

I did tell the dealer about it but the rep said that they'd have to take the door area apart to find it. So I declined. I tend to think that once they take something apart it will never be the same as the factory. It only rattles on certain roads and only in sport plus so I decided to live with it.

From the 2026 E53 Wagon Owner's Manual:
Also from the 2026 E53 Wagon Operator's Manual:
In a 2025/2026 E-Class, I can't adjust my seat to the vertical position and see all the notifications on the driver display. The steering wheel doesn't raise high enough to see the notifications at the top sides of the driver display. I'll reduce "Risk of injury or death" by keeping the seat in the "almost vertical" position. Either Mercedes skipped the three-foot height difference test when designing the latest E-class or they just ignored the steering wheel blocking the driver display indicators with the seat in their recommended position. There are 6 foot tall Germans who can put the seat in the vertical position and then tell the software developer where to move the driver display indicators so they are not be obstructed by the steering wheel.

I can imagine that there is some software challenge getting Atmos from CarPlay to work with the Mercedes system. There is no software challenge moving where the driver display indicators appear on an LCD screen.

I'm trying to picture how to sit so there is less motion in the elbows. It sounds useful. Can you explain that more?

Have your legs sampled the velvety softness of Mercedes ultrasuede?

Arms Out Driving Position

I typically sit a bit further back to have my legs and arms at 170°. Depending on the vehicle, I have to raise the rear portion of the seat that makes my body angle more than the 90° shown in the diagram.

AFAIK No such product is offered in the US market. The materials choices are MBTex, leather and Napa leather.

Facts:
the seatbelt adjuster rattles and it’s annoying
the dash turn signal indicators are in a dumb location that is hard to see unless you have xray vision and can see through the steering wheel

Adjust your steering wheel! It goes up, down, in and out. Adjust your seat! It goes up, down forward, backward and tilts.

Those adjustments work for the majority of cases. Some of us are not shaped in the majority use case. My wife is 5'6" and in our 2024 E she can adjust into a safe/comfortable position and see the turn indicators just fine. I'm 6'2" and to get the wheel where I can see the indicators where i can see them, the wheel is in an unnaturally high position that leave my arms fatigued after a very short period of time.

That said, I still bought another W214 because I know when I turn on my turn signals, and the car shuts them off automatically 99% of the time. I've decided I can live with the the 1%.

The steering wheel doesn’t go up high enough, or the seat low enough. Mercedes could leave the steering wheel as is and move the turn indicators to a visible location.

The turn indicators are in a bad position for tall people. They work for shorter people.

Have you lowered to steering wheel so the indicators are positioned above it?

I'm 6' tall and the turn signal indicators are right in the middle of the open space above the hub and top of the steering wheel on my W213. If I lower the steering wheel I can see the indicators above the top of the wheel. I did notice that if I moved my seat closer to the wheel it could hide the indicators. That being said, I drive with the seat as far back as possible. I sat on a 2" cushion and could still see the indicators.

FWIW my 6'4" neighbor has a W214 and he said that he can also see the indicators with the seat all the way back and all the way down.

Dealer fixed the issue by replacing part #214-690-69-04-9H93.

most excellent information. Must be nice to have it fixed. I shall follow your lead. Did it take 2 trips?