New GL450 Owner with Road Noise?
 

Good afternoon from San Diego!!!

I purchased a 2011 GL450 last night and there is some road noise. I initially thought that it was the tire but I am not sure. When the GL is driving straight down the road you hear the noise but if I bank into a left turn the noise disappears? I initially thought I might have been rolling the tires onto the side of the treads but maybe that isn't the case? My only other thoughts on the noise would be a wheel hub or some sort of transfer case problem/AWD issue.

I feel a little vibration in my steering wheel and also in the gas/brake pedals. Maybe this is more serious than I thought.

Does anyone recommend a good starting point? The GL has 110k on it and was mainly used for highway driving. It was very well taken care of and maintained by the previous owner.

Shock absorbers. You end up with a roaring noise. And it varies with turning angle, which freaks you out, cause maybe it's wheel bearings. Dr Mel had a similar issue.

Oh yeah, hello from SD too. I can give you the info of a good indy. Up in Escondido, but I've found no better. Hit me up on DM if you want to get together and compare vehicles..

Thanks Eric, I might be up in that area this weekend for a graduation. We can link up and you can hear it in person... Lol. I will DM you. I will shoot Dr Mel a DM too to see if I can get his take.

The angle thing is what makes me think wheel bearing but maybe it is a shock. I'm going to activate the air shock lift and see if the noise changes at all.

I bet the Indy you know in Escondido is the same guy that the owner that sold this to me takes this vehicle to.

Escondido German Auto? They're great. Say hi to Derek for me.

There's another guy who occasionally posts here who's in SD also. We should do a meetup.


On your suspension, here's a little edumacashun on the terminology. The shock absorber is a piston-like thing you cannot see in the front suspension; it's inside the strut.

In the rear suspension, it is separate from the air spring. It's a cylinder about 3" across, attaches to the body at one end and the suspension arm at the other.

In the front, the strut is the long assembly that mounts to the suspension arm at the bottom and to the body at the top. You can see three nuts inside the engine compartment that hold the top in place.

The front shock absorbers are usually replaced as part of the front struts. If you buy a strut from Arnott (get to know them) it will have a rebuilt shock inside it. Dr Mel tried to replace only the air spring, and then suffered road noise. When he changed the whole strut, he was good. He probably could have rebuilt the shock inside, but I'm not even sure I'd take that on.

When the shock wears out, it stops controlling the vertical movement of the tire and wheel. Thus you end up with the tire, which is a spring in its own right, hopping along the road. Cars with bad shock absorbers display a "cupping" on the tread from where the tire bounces down. It's pretty high frequency, so you hear it as road noise. Or bearing noise. I never heard someone worrying about their transfer case, but anything is possible.

Bearings are a durable item on the GL.

If the rear shocks haven't been changed, they're due. At 110k miles, the front springs have to have gone out already, so check the paperwork to see whether the complete strut was changed (usually it is) and so your front shock absorbers are probably not the culprit.

Also, lifting the air suspension won't change how the shock is behaving. It might, a little, and the increased camber might change things, too - but it's definitely not a diagnostic on your shock absorbers.

Welcome to the forums, and congrats on the truck. If you find one that has been well maintained, shoot, you'll be able to drive it forever. As forum guru alx said, that truck ages well. Mine's at 160k and now it's like an old friend.

Yea man, definitely down to do a meet. I see I have lots to learn about this bad boy:bow:. The suspension sounds complicated. :smash:

To my understanding, the entire air suspension system was replaced less than 10k miles ago and the previous owner dropped about 4k on the whole thing. I would assume they didn't skimp on the internal piston system on the fronts but you never know. I think I may be able to gather the receipts from their Indy. They did just place new tires on the GL so maybe there was some cupping that caused the owner to go for the replacement.

Ah, it ain't so bad. You seem like a bright guy, you'll get the hang of it pretty quick. It's daunting at first but the main thing is to learn to not panic.

The roar leads to the cupping, and anyway the cupping may not have been visible.

$4k sounds right for front struts and rear springs, especially if they used OEM parts. Derek probably would have put OEM in as a default.

I'm sure Derek has all the service records available. That is, if it was EGA; if not, I can't talk one way or the other. The other indies I've been to have ranged from horrible to well-meaning if not entirely competent.

They probably did not change the rear shocks, as that is a completely separate procedure from the springs.

That clears things up considerably!

I always thought you were Eric in south dakota.

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lol that's nothing compared to the time I made plans to get a steak with a guy, and it turned out he lived in Fargo.