Yup497

Hey All,

I've had my 2010 GL55O for almost a year now. Great vehicle. Starting to run into some issues. Some of them I've found on mbworld, others I may have missed. If anyone could input some knowledge that would be a life saver as the GL550 is my daily driver and it 98% highway here in St Louis. The following are my issues:

1) A couple months ago when I would run over a speed bump under 10mpd I would get a sound from the front end that almost sounded and felt like the front end was (bottoming out) or hitting the front bump stops. I replaced all the sway bar links however it's gotten extremely worst. Any ideas?

2) This is hopefully an easy solution. Sometimes after my GL has been sitting over night, the rear end will be on the ground. When I start it up, normal ride height. Air bags, right?

3) The wheel alignment keeps getting knocked out of wack. Every other week. I'e also noticed my power steering is extremely stiffer as time goes on and I almost have a feeling of losing control on the highway. If I look down for 3 seconds I'm in the other lane.

4) The most recent incident. I had a rear seat passenger and were driving down the highway and out of nowhere I hear a loud POP! As if someone fired a pistol under my car. I went out to my vehicle this morning and almost everytime I accelerate, the traction control light flashes at me and my ABS kicks in. I can feel my front tire spin a little.
** All tires air pressure are to spec, the rear tires are 70% while the fronts are 55% **

I'd appreciate ANY and ALL help as to where to start putting money into first. I' extremely puzzled to the front end noises.

From what I've read here it appears I may need to replace the front speed senser to correct the traction control light.

Off topic, but while I'm here, has anyone removed the small LED strips in the front bumper to replace the the LED fog lights with actually LED housing projectors? I want a good clean fog cutoff that will put some more light on the road. Thanks again all.

-Chris from St Louis MO


2010 GL550

kombifan

mefferso

I agree with all the above with an addition for #3. Stiff steering possibly from power steering pump. Either low on fluid, air in your line or pump itself is going out. If its stiff at idle but gets easier by just touching the throttle, I'd change the pump.

kombifan

drpai

Hi guys,
Hope you have an answer to this...
My 2004 merc E320 has similar problem. The steering makes noise at idle and while turning at very slow speed, but driving ok, at usual speed. The mechanic (not a merc dealer) gave an estimate of 1500$. I don't want to shell out that much.
Any idea, how can I fix it? I checked on ebay, the after-market steering pumps are around 69-110 bucks.
Any tip/suggestions/advice will be appreciated.
God bless you all.

mefferso

Check through the E-class forum for more info as they have the same car as you vs this GL sub-forum: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w210-2/
Your stiff steering problem has the exact same symptoms as mine. Replacing the power steering pump fixed it for me. You can try the cheap aftermarket one but I went with the LUK brand (same one used by Mercedes). A quick google search showed decent brand ones for your E320 to be $200-$300. It took me 2 hours to replace mine in my driveway. Unless the E320 has the pump in a hard to get to place, thats all it should take a mechanic. That $1500 estimate is ridiculous. $500-$750 including the part is more reasonable.

mefferso

I agree, you have 2 separate issues...stiff steering (from power steering pump) and wandering (from alignment or ball joints). The steering racks and power steering pump reservoirs on our GL's are both notorious for developing leaks and need to be replaced. I think in many cases people don't catch it soon enough and the power steering level drops to the point that premature wear occurs on the power steering pumps.

drpai

Thank you very much, mefferso for taking time to reply.
Regards and God bless.
C Pai

Yup497

Hey kombifan,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

All I did was replace my OEM Xenon bulbs with the Phillips Xterme bulbs.

-Opened the hood
-In the rear of the head light housing I unscrewed the big black circle piece which gave me access to the headlight bulb (DS1).
-Half a turn on the the bulb itself and pulled it straight out.
-Unhooked the bulb from the connecting with by pressing the clip.
-Plugged in the new light bulb and screwed it in to the housing.
-Put on the large black plastic circle cover.

*WARNING*
If you happen to arc yourself and the wire connected to the bulb it has enough electricity to fatally put you down.

Yup497

Hey all just giving an update.

The right rear air bag is damn near sitting on the ground. I'm not driving the vehicle until I can get these things fixed.

I ordered two new rear bladders (air bags) from Arnott.

I also ordered two new front speed sensors because I can't hardly go up any hills without the traction control light blinking and the ABS kicking in.

My buddy is a Mercedes Mechanic and will be installing next week when parts arrive.

After those are installed, the front struts I'll have to do OR the ball joints.

Again it seems as though the vehicles front struts operate smooth until I hit a rough bump in the road and it sounds as if the SUV is bottoming out and/or hitting the bump stops.

The SUV sways a lot on the highway. The tires are decent. They're the Conti Extreme or something like that.

The tires are 295/40/21.

After the new rear air bags and new front speed sensors are installed I'll get an alignment again and update.

I'd love to hear feedback from anyone who has had something similar to my problem.

-Chris from St Louis.

BlownV8

If it sways, it is most likely the rear shocks and or the front struts are bad. Order rear shocks along with the airbags. Your front struts may be bad too.

tusabes

Yup497

Replaced both rear air bags and both front bags and struts. All from Arnott.

Had a 4 wheel alignment at my local Mercedes dealership (Plaza Mercedes) and problem fixed.