GL550 road noise sounds like lifted 1 ton
#1
GL550 road noise sounds like lifted 1 ton
I'm hoping someone else has experienced this problem. I bought the GL for my wife a couple weeks ago and new that it needed tires. The Continentals on the 21" AMG wheels were worn and hard as a rock so I made the assumption that the road noise was due to their condition. I dropped close to $4k on new 22" Vossen wheels and Falken tires only to have the sound persist. The only way I can explain it is that is sounds like the lifted super duty I used to have with aggressive off road tires. The sound is almost non existent when cornering to the left and goes away after about 75 miles per hour. The truck has 56k miles and the airbags were replaced recently. Wondering if it's a bearing issue on the driver's side or....? TIA
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Foudie (10-01-2016)
#3
Left front bearing should be checked for play.
Airmatic level should be checked if shows higher - that increases camber resulting in tires running on outer edges and making said noise. Airmatic will lower car a bit around 70mph so the fact that noise changes makes me think about this.
And ofcourse the 22" wheels will have a really negative effect on ride quality and road noise. You will also notice faster rate of wear of shocks and bushings. Bad choice.
Airmatic level should be checked if shows higher - that increases camber resulting in tires running on outer edges and making said noise. Airmatic will lower car a bit around 70mph so the fact that noise changes makes me think about this.
And ofcourse the 22" wheels will have a really negative effect on ride quality and road noise. You will also notice faster rate of wear of shocks and bushings. Bad choice.
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Foudie (10-01-2016)
#4
I'll have the bearings checked as well as the airmatic. As far as the wheels and tires having a negative affect on ride quality and faster wear of shocks and bushings I would need to be convinced further. The original wheels were 21x10 with a 40 series tire. The new wheels are 22x10.5 with a 40 series tire and are lighter overall by nearly 10 lbs each. So I don't see how a lighter wheel and tire combo with the same sidewall, virtually the same width with a minor increase in overall height is, as you put it "a bad choice".