LOL - now we're on the same page after all. On both counts.

- Mark

 

Just finding some time to sit down and open this laptop... Wanted to wish everyone who has been so kind to help me in this GL mess a wonderful holiday season.

I was doing a little searching today and I found a thread that made me laugh about my discovery of the weird electronic frog sound from my car. Luckily, you all told me it was normal, but had I done a little searching, I would have found this old thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/gl-class-...ml#post2502042

I also noticed that STP posted in there about "a good sound system being the best mechanic" and that had me literally laughing out loud. I am still waiting to hear back from 1) Mercedes and 2) all the parts that are on order for my GL

Merry Christmas everyone!
Tam

 

Hand-to-heart, the first MB I owned I had an amazing mechanic (not the dealership but this was a used one to start with). On more than one occassion I would ask him how we could fix this noise or that and he would honestly say, "turn the radio up!"

Merry Christmas to you, too! Here's a little Christmas fun a friend of mine and I produced for the season. It's slightly off-color, but it has a happy ending! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFrEQ-6nNEE

STP

 

Just caught up with this thread and can say that when I first got my 2010 GL350 last December I noticed a wind noise that I hadn't had with my ML500 and complained. At the suggestion of the SA I took off the optional cross bars I had purchased and it subsided quite a bit but didn't disappear. No frog noise though. After a year I no longer even notice the wind noise and have had good luck with it in general. My dealer Ray Catena is excellent in every way even coming to get my car with any repeat problem and dropping a loaner. Been down the road with BMW's and would never buy a new one. I have been in the BMWCCA for over 30 years and loved them but have been queered on them by my sons CPO 2001 330ci. Engine replacement, ditto transmission, 4 sets of front control arm bushings, cracked rear subframe, mouse fur headliner coming off the windshield posts and B-pillars, you name it, this car suffered from it. The dealer couldn't make up for this car, even though they tried. I would have to say MB is the most bulletproof of the lot and the dealer will stand behind any problem. Have no experience with Audi. The only BMW cars I would own are old ones or BMW motorcycles! At least I can fix anything going wrong on those myself and there not as likely to break to begin with.

 

I thought your name sounded familiar. Small world.

- Mark
GGC Chapter ex-board member/DEC

 

I still notice the wind noise but honestly with the other issues I've had, it has taken a back burner in a sense. Every once in awhile, if the radio is down and I hear what I think is a "vent" open, I realize it's the wind noise from the windshield. The odd compressor whining is louder than the wind noise.

Amazingly, through it all, I still find ways to love my GL in other ways. I can't imagine wanting a different kind of car (BMW, Audi, et. al) but I sure do dream of having a different GL than the one I got. LOL!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

Thought I'd share a picture of the SNOW we got here in sunny SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA today. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd see snow in the GL. (unless I actually drove somewhere to get to it.) The last time it snowed here where we live was 1989! We don't live anywhere near the high mountains..this was just a bit up from Valencia, CA in Castaic off the I-5 (which is now closed.)

 

Yay snow!

 

Did parts come in? Any news from MBUSA???

 

Ugh. Haven't heard a word about the parts, but they told me they wouldn't be expected to be in until mid-January. I know my SA Angel will call me the minute they come in. As for MBUSA, I haven't heard back from my adjuster person, but he said he wouldn't be back in until Jan 6th (yesterday.) So I will be calling him back next week to see what the status is.

In the meantime, the compressor noise is grinding away at nearly each stop now. I honestly feel like anyday, this airmatic is going to fail and leave me stranded. At least I will hopefully be somewhere close to town. It sounds REALLY bad at stop signs (with a loud release of air now at EVERY stop, which makes me feel like an 18-wheeler LOL!) The motor/compressor grinding noise now continues on through regular driving, so it must be staying "on" more than normal. I imagine this will wear it out (burn it up?) shortly.

It's all so ridiculous, with all these issues, I can't even believe what I'm owning is a Mercedes...until I look around and realize how beautiful the car is...however, my GL is just a major piece of crap. UGH!!!

I will definitely be back to update whenever I hear anything new. I just don't want to bombard the thread with TOO much useless information. Nothing "new" has gone wrong as of yet, although I am still in awe at how loud that weird grinding/chirp/frog noise is when you shift from drive to park. It's REALLY loud. I'm amazed! But since I've read on here that is normal, I haven't given it much thought. You don't hear it much from inside unless my kids are really quiet (rarely ever!) but when you are outside or have the windows down, man that noise when you shift into D or R or back into Park, is amazingly annoying LOL! I keep forgetting to go sit in my father in law's S550 and see if HIS noise is the same. Even if it IS normal, I find it strange on such a high end car, you'd have this noise. It makes people look, if that is what they were after!

Thanks for thinkin' of me!

Tam

 

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!! I will have to see if I hear the "frog" noise on mine. I do remember hearing something on my other ones when you switch from drive to park and vice versa. The airmatic is a huge bummer. Are you getting any type of notifications on your dash? When the airmatic went out on my '08, it said service airmatic. When I called road side they said do not drive it. Just wondering. Definitely call your rep and see what's going on. Be the squeaky wheel!!

 

I would suggest not contacting Mbusa until after 30 days. If they don't respond within 30 days, it will just help you a bit more when you file a lemon law claim.

 

MomsBenz-- That is what is weird, it doesn't show any error messages at all on my dash. It's gotten to the point, when it does it's think and "sputters" for a bit longer than it normally "sputters" at each stop sign, I keep thinking anyday I will see some type of error message about the airmatic but nothing has happened yet. I have no idea if it is throwing any type of codes when they looked at it at the dealer. He can't figure it out either. What they are ordering is some type of valve and then the inner bushings or whatever for the shock part.

I need to learn how to do Multiple quotes.. Sracer mentioned not calling them until after their 30 days are up. I wonder if I should just lay low.

My in laws brought their S550 to the dealership I am currently working with and once they saw their last name, they asked about us. Apparently, the service department went on and on about how bad they felt for us with this GL! They are totally taking care of my inlaws and a couple things that Keyes (where we both purchased our cars, the GL and the S550 within two weeks) said warranty wouldn't cover (the leather on his center console is bubbling, etc) and the dealership we are dealing with, with our GL, is totally taking care of them on this. I think that says a lot about their service. As irritated as I am with MBUSA and this particular product (my GL, not all GL's..) I can't say enough about this new MB dealer!

Tam

 

Tam I feel the same way about my dealer. Some are just priceless!!! You could lay low and not contact MBUSA, it very well could strengthen your case (or prolong it). But it would look bad on their behalf if they don't contact you and it goes the Lemon Law route with and attorney. Me, I am way to inpatient to not call, LOL!

 

The more noise you make, the better. The corporate office needs to know who you are and that their product has serious issues. I would contact them at least twice a week.
1. You paid good money for something that is not to your satisifaction.
2. You've been more than patient with the dealer and their actions.
3. Your not able to enjoy your vehicle the way your suppose to.

Contact MBUSA and start the discussion that you want out of this vehicle.

 

by sending in the demand letter, an unhappy owner has already started the discussion for a buy back, or replacement.

once mbusa receives the certified demand letter, they have 30 days to respond.

contacting them within this 30 days won't do much good imho. if i were in mbusa's situation and someone constantly called me every 2 weeks or sooner, i'd be less inclined to be willing to help.

in my conversation with the rep who handled my buy back, he said they have to pull all the service history on the car and review it. they also contact the dealer, and speak to the tech who worked on the car. in my case, i had gone to three different dealerships in norcal which was why it took longer than usual to get a response.

i sent in my demand letter back in 2009 and can say waiting the 30 days was excruciating. when i never got a response, i called them about a week after and was told mbusa would do a goodwill gesture and buy back my 07 ml500.

 

^^This is exactly what I'm hoping for.

I KNOW I have been extremely patient in all of this. So much so, that..honestly, I feel like an idiot sometimes. I've just tried to tell myself that the more level-headed I stay with the dealer and MBUSA through all of this, the more they will see I am not just blowing off steam nor do I have buyers remorse. I just want the $70,000 car I paid for. Right now I have a brand new car, with a bunch of new parts already being replaced. Not the same as a "brand new car" to me.

thanks guys!

 

Another thing to add to this discussion - Consider insisting on a 100,000 mi bumper-to-bumper extended warranty on you 'new' new GL when you agree to sign. A friend of mine got just that on his wife's Tahoe when GM had to replace the engine. Seems little enough for Mercedes to do to fix the bad PR they have brought on themselves. What are they going to say "We can't give a 100K warranty because we don't think it will last that long??" OR You don't need a warranty because it WILL last! [RIGHT, just like the lemon you now have!]
If it DOES last that long then they aren't out any money, if not then you are 'made whole'.

 

I think it might take that to get my husband to agree to letting me get another GL. He's the hard sell on this thing, he wants to wash his hands of this whole mess. It's *I* who is in love with the GL.

This has been truly, one of the most frustrating things! Yesterday I had to drive to Anaheim, the whole way thinking, "Please don't let this be the day this Airmatic fails..." He didn't even want me to drive it that far away from home. THAT is what is so frustrating--this is a new car!!! Ugh.

I made it home- compressor grinding away and air releasing at every stop (and sometimes just when driving) but at least I made it home! The dealer said it was safe to drive. But sometimes I do wonder, gotta tell ya! I really need to record the compressor noise and the following air release that happens at every single stop. The air release isn't as puzzling as the sputtering compressor noise.

Tam

 

I still have not heard back from them. It's hard for me to not call and at least check.

On a different note (but a problem I've already reported before)..

I simply cannot believe more people are not complaining about the extremely noisy clunking/sloshing of the ad blue in the back of this vehicle. My Ad blue is back to being clunking and sloshing at the stop signs. If I roll to a verrrrrry slow stop, it won't clunk as loud but if you stop normal, I hear the clunk..and then another clunk as it sloshes back. Super annoying! Backing out of parking spaces, where you tap your breaks a few times, as you back out, making sure cars aren't coming, its a noisy endeavor indeed!

I find this a serious flaw in design on this, as I cannot imagine people being okay with hearing this clunking when they stop and or go over speed bumps (rolling ones). I've driven approximately 3,000 miles since they added those 7 BOTTLES of adblue to the tank already. It seems that my car must go through an awful lot of ad blue if it's already low enough again to be clunking like this. They never did figure out why they had to add 7 bottles of ad blue at 3,000 miles.

Ugh!!!!

 

Hi Mark,

Yeah, the CCA is great and aside from the cars I have developed many friendships with both local and national members I have met at Octoberfest's. My NJ chapter was one of the first to start doing DE events at Limerock. I still have those friends like Klaus Schnitzer and Brian Morgan who have been in the NJ chapter with me for all those years. These people are what keep me in the club. I still do events with them even though I sold my daily driver '95 M3 last december. I will get another toy soon. Maybe a Boxster Spider this time.

 

Today I finally had some time to do some HD recordings with my regular video camera instead of my cell phone to show the adjuster just the sheer amount of wind noise I'm dealing with. Because even if they want to try and tell me that they can fix the airmatic issues, shocks, etc. I am still EXTREMELY unhappy with the wind noise on this car. It is NOT normal and NONE of te other GL's I have ridden in, have this amount of wind noise. So I am going to be emailing the links to all the videos of my cars problems to the adjuster. (grinding noise, compressor noise, clunking noise from back, etc.)

Before I do so, I will post this here...and ask that those of you, who have been following along to please listen to this recording that I took this morning on about a 3 mile stretch of smooth freeway today. I never drove over 65 mph (and show several times the speedometer to showcase that). I even show the speedometer at 45 when you can first hear the wind noise start. All windows are up, vents are all closed, no heat or AC vents on at all.

I'd like your opinions once again on this wind noise before I go absolutely crazy on my adjuster about it. Do ANY of your guys' GL's have this amount of wind noise. Am I wrong to think this seems out of line with what to expect, even from a large vehicle. Before I send it in again, I'd like everyone to listen once more. It's pretty bad throughout the entire 3 minutes but especially so in the beginning and towards the last minute. Sigh.... Honestly, it's one of those things that's just sort of tiring, even listening to. It's constantly there, there is no "quiet" in this car!

Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYc1d6BQUyU
First one-Freeway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBymmtzkwo
Second one- going around the block by my house.

 

No, that doesn't sound normal unless you were driving above 80 mph or through moderate to strong wind.

 

I tried to keep it at 65 mph the whole time (except for a bit slower on the back roads) My husband said there was what he would consider a light wind...not up to moderate and certainly not strong. I notice just about as much wind noise even on days where I would classify it as NO wind.

I'm just so disappointed, and today it was really aggravating me (the wind noise) so I grabbed my video camera. I want to bombard MBUSA everyday and ask them how they would like their drive in to work everyday listening to this!

The nice lady in me doesn't do that, of course.

Tam

 

It DOES sound normal, if you were driving in a tornado. MB really dropped the ball on this one! Good luck on getting this whole thing resolved.