RedwinGV

Surely not a good thing, but no way should it escalate to a buy back. Vehicles of all type have squeaky brakes. And IIRC, it only occurs when backing.. at least most of the cases.

DBV

Jetfuture

With all due respect, you sound like you work for Mercedes or are simply uninformed, or both. Many, like me, have been dealing with this issue ever since the car had approximately 5,000 miles, which for some of us has been for more than a year now. We have had our car back to Mercedes over this issue so many times, we cannot even count (8 times? 9 times?). Our model squeals going forwards and backwards (it starts off only with reversing and when it gets REALLY bad, it will do it on cold brakes going forward as well). And this is our 6th new car, first Mercedes, and never had brakes squeal like this. The dealer even has their service loaner GLC's do it, and people are surprised by it when they borrow them! They are even puzzled themselves that not any of the other models of Mercedes they sell have this problem.

1. There are YouTube videos with the squeal to help educate you
2. There have been countless lawsuits on this issue, and Mercedes has settled them (I am one of them)
3. There are two LI's on this issue, so Mercedes has admitted there is a problem
4. This thread is one of the longest threads on this forum (not so with other models)
5. Dealer has stated that Mercedes thought the LI's from last winter would fix it...they didn't...and they are currently working on another "permanent" fix, which they don't expect to be available until the Spring timeframe
6. The good news is that I can always hear my spouse leaving for work

I agree DBV, nobody in a cold climate should purchase this car. We are kicking ourselves that we didn't buy the Q5, but we really wanted the forward collision assist feature, and the Q5 didn't offer it at the time we purchased this. I will say that this is a great summer car! The brakes rarely squeal, and the wheels don't shudder during sharp turns.

RedwinGV

Relax, relax. First, I have no connection to MB and I admit, I don't know everything. I do think MB should fix this issue, but I don't think it's an issue that should result in MB buying back the vehicle. That's my opinion. I liken the noise to a nuisance...not a safety or performance issue. It would be like having a car that has a rough shift between 2 gears.. not acceptable, but honestly, not something that a manufacturer would buy a vehicle back for. UNLESS, they just do it for some goodwill.

So, rant all you want (for the record, my vehicle also squeaked, was repaired, and now we have an occasional minor sqeak.) But, one is entitled to their opinion, and mine is such that this issue doesn't warrant the severe reaction some are suggesting. Others will disagree and that is their prerogative. Attack the issue, not the person please.

Jetfuture

I am sorry if you feel that me stating that you appeared to be uninformed is a form of attacking. Your follow-on post above shows that you know more about the issue than you first let on. Your first post appeared to minimize the issue in my opinion. It irritates me when dealers appear to minimize this issue. It also irritates me when dealers state they aren't even aware of this issue! In any event, I agree with you that Mercedes buying back the car is a bit extreme. However, the court system agreed that Mercedes should compensate me, and they did (not able to disclose details). There HAVE been some people who had the dealer take the car back, but I'm not sure if that was the dealer taking the hit or Mercedes. In our case, the dealers involved have been wonderful.

Relax? I am fully relaxed. We have already settled with Mercedes with our attorney. We are going to sell our car soon. But, the time to sell it is not when your brakes squeal as loud as ours. It's a pity, because when the car operates as intended, it is a pleasure to drive, the tire skipping issue notwithstanding (see other thread).

PickyBoy

my new 2018 with less them then 500km is making that noise

Jetfuture

Yeah, both my dealer's 2018 loaners squeal...and they are low mileage. I'm shocked they are still selling 3,000 to 5,000 per month of these in the US. Although, their sales total for 2017 will be a slight bit lower than 2016 I believe. A new model like this should see sales jump a LOT in the 2nd year, not be flat or down. The initial Consumer Reports write-up was pretty good, until people started getting in the 5,000 to 7,000 mile range. The sweet spot for starting to get the brake squeal.

Tylbran

I have had my 2018 GLC43 for 2 weeks and there is no noise from the brakes at all (1500 km). Recently it has been very cold -15oC and no noise.

George in KG

Your experience is typical. Squeal on our car didn't appear until about 8k miles and it was pretty minor at first. Brake pad change was done at about 14k miles and that fixed the problem. Currenly No squeal even in freezing temps.

ble2716

ajmtbm

Dropped mine off a couple weeks ago for the brake issue. they said they couldn't replicate so i went to get the vehicle with a plan to leave it overnight at some point. when i went there i said i could show them a video i had made with the noise, and they said after we spoke they moved the vehicle and heard it and they think it is rear brakes.

dropping it off this week to stay overnight so they can assess it. now that the weather has been in low 20's it has gotten a lot louder. of course it is supposed to be warmer this week...

shadownddust

Had mine replaced back in the spring when it was just a mild squeak, and my service advisor was very aware of the issue. That worked for a while, which led me to think all was well. Fast forward to now with the freezing temps in the northeast and it's come back with a vengeance. Now it's very loud screech pretty much every morning, and most times when leaving work in the evening. Dropped it off again at the dealer today and he said that since they already replaced the pads once, the next step was to keep it overnight and take video of the sound in the morning and send it over to Germany where they would analyze and come up with a (potentially custom) solution.

The customer side of me says that this can't be that hard to fix, since brakes are a fairly standard part of any vehicle. The engineering side of me says that every once in a while you come across a design problem that is completely unexpected and therefore requires some real digging to figure out what's wrong and this process is the best way to get as many data points as possible. The business side of me says...it all depends on how much money a solution is going to cost vs the cost of weathering a relatively small issue. I know as a car owner that's not the answer I want to hear, but as a business owner, it's hard to justify spending a lot of money in time and resources if the business analysis shows that sales won't drop significantly (I do these types of analyses for a living and that's the unfortunate truth for large companies).

We'll see if they really are working on a custom solution or if they come back with another temporary fix.

Jetfuture

Excellent post, Shadow. If one looks at GLC sales, they are flat from 2016 to 2017. Considering this is an all-new design/model, that is a large fail to me. It's apparent to me that most people are not very familiar with this brake problem before purchasing this car. The salespeople won't certainly utter a peep! And even Consumer Reports doesn't go into detail. They just rate the brakes as "poor". When someone test drives at the dealer after reading the CR results they will obviously come back with "well, these brakes seem VERY good to me - no issues". Little do they know what they are facing after 3,000 to 7,000 miles of brake use! Would I have purchased this car if I knew the brakes had a chronic squeal? Of course not. None of us would have. I would have gone with the Q5, our other choice, or the Acura RDX (a less comfortable option). Every car has problems, will have problems, will require unscheduled maintenance. I get that. What I don't get is how Mercedes can put a car out without properly testing it through an entire winter. What I don't get is how the engineers couldn't get the brakes properly designed (design of caliper? brake pad compound? angles? whatever it is, they didn't get it right and cannot figure it out in a week or month).

Mercedes is spending millions on this issue in lawsuits, fixes, etc. That I am sure of. What I don't know is what percentage of cars are experiencing it. What I can say is that every single one of my dealer's GLC loaners have made this squealing noise in the past year (they've had about 4).

Mercedes has now sold approximately 100,000 of these cars in the United States alone. Even with only 50% of cars having this problem (and I think it's higher), that's a LOT of cars with a recurring squeal (after approximately 3,000 to 7,000 miles of wear).

And this doesn't even touch the "tire skipping" issue, which has been a MAJOR issue in the UK through a lawsuit. Ours does it, but we just live with it.

guido3

I don’t get it. As mentioned above by others, most recently by Shadownddust, I got the “we have to record the noise and send it to Mercedes for diagnosis” treatment as well when all they have to do is listen to their fleet of GLC loaners every morning. This has to be a stall tactic. Now I’m told to continue waiting – been waiting since April – until the parts come in.

This wouldn’t be such a big deal for me if the high-pitched SQUEAL weren’t so terribly annoying and waking my neighbors in the wee hours of the morning. And, by the way, I live in the middle of 5 acres of land, so you can imagine how far away my neighbors are.

Losing patience.

Jetfuture

Exactly what my dealer told me last week - "keep overnight, duplicate problem, then wait for direction from Mercedes". At least they are now mostly all on the same page. So, I went off to the dealer for the umpteenth time to drop car off and get one of the GLC loaners with screeching brakes. When I arrived they stated that they called Mercedes and they told them to just wait until after there was a permanent fix, which should be sometime by April 2018. So, I turn around and drive home with tail between my legs. Later that day they call back and state that Mercedes reversed their decision and decided to offer a new set of pads and grease per the most recent LI (which was months ago).

Here's the deal: When they replace the pads they generally work as expected for thousands of miles. So, it takes months for the screeching to show back up again. My guess is that they have developed a 3rd fix (they've already tried 2 which haven't worked long-term), and they want to test them through the German Winter and put 3,000 to 7,000 miles on their test vehicles before they call them "gut".

"The best or nothing"

shadownddust

Just got off the phone with my service advisor, and he said that they've taken some video of the car and sent it over to MB. They've also been instructed to keep the car and follow a series of procedures such as leave it parked for a couple of hours, drive it a mile, and then brake lightly and record what goes on then. So it sounds like they're working on understanding the exact cause of the issue, which is encouraging. Would still prefer for there not to be an issue, but no car is perfect. Also, the loaner I got (a GLC SUV) also has the screech, which he said they actually can't fix since it's a dealer car. I would think that as a warranty issue...they'd be able to have that covered since they're going to need to sell it at some point...but I guess not.

shadownddust

Quick update, my service advisor called a few hours after they did some testing (kept the Valet Protect and Driving Journal on to confirm they actually tested), and he said that the recordings were sent to Germany and they confirmed that the newer front brake pads would address the problem.

Here's what the work order says: "Verified and isolated noise from the front brake linings. Removed front wheels, removed brake pads, found little to no paste on the sliding edge of the brake pads and calipers. Replaced the brake pads and lubricated with molykote as outlined in attached documents. See straight time punch (time, date, and mileage of testing) to perform brake bed-in procedure as outlined in LI document. Let sit and tested cold, verified noise condition is no longer present at this time."

From what I could gather, since I had my brakes checked over the summer, they had received a newer version that had been developed and they wanted to make sure that my car was having the problems that would be fixed by these. This makes sense to test first rather than just replacing them again, since if I had a different problem than what we thought, it would have led to another trip to the dealer and more headaches all around.

The dealer had the newer brakes in stock and I picked up my car a few hours later. Service advisor said when the GLC first came out and this issue was discovered, he had been replacing brakes left and right and the noise would return shortly after. Now with the fixes, he at least has a potential solution, though he's still got GLCs coming in all the time to fix with the latest update.

This morning I did not hear any sounds coming from the brakes, though the weather in the northeast is a bit warmer now than it has been. I'll keep my fingers crossed and post updates if things change.

ajmtbm

Dropped mine off yesterday as they said they wanted to assess it in the am when it happened so I should leave it overnight. They called me later in the day and said the parts for the permanent fix were not available so that changed the pads for how saying that should help for now. Not sure if they replaced front or rear or both

My vehicle has 7k miles. When backing up in the loaner last night when it was cold the brakes squealed. The loaner had 3k miles. So even if it does help probably won't help for long.

​​​​​​Be interesting to see if when a permanent fix arrives

ajmtbm

Picked up my vehicle and no squeal.

They said they replaced the front brakes. They did not indicate doing anything else. They didn't indicate if the pads were a new part number or not

They said they would let me know when the permanent fix is available.

bwebmaj

Looks like several others have the same issue. The noise is awfully loud and typically happens when reversing from the driveway at a slow speed. Also experienced it when moving forward but somewhat less. Appears to go away after a while of driving. This is a 2017 GLC300 with about 14K miles on it. We are absolutely disappointed in this Benz purchase. This is our first Benz and I will never buy another or recommend it to any body else. Sounds like a horrible cheap car with worn out brake pads. From reading the experiences of others it sounds like a widespread problem. I am getting ready to take it to the dealer and see how it goes.

DBV

We just had our brakes replaced for the fifth time. This is supposed to be the new fix, so we shall see if it works. Don't have much faith though and neither did our local service advisors.

ajmtbm

i have had it happen both ways as well. i had my front brakes replaced and sound is gone, for now, with a promise when the real fix is in place i will again get new pads likely
the one advantage is that i have new brake pads at 7k miles, and posisbly new ones at later mileage as well.
while i agree its annoying and disappointing after a few seconds it does disappear.
i am surprised thius was never caught in the vehicle design and test phase. seems like a pretty big miss

PickyBoy

even if it wasn't caught in development, it doesn't take years to find a solution... unless you have a contract with a supplier/brand then you cry if they respect the requirements

ajmtbm

agreed, im sure the fix is known. they are probably just trying to find a lower cost solution

greenbe

I have the same issue on my GLC however; since I live in Northern CA the screeching brakes only happen in the winter when I back out of the garage. The car is at the mechanic today and he suggested to switch to a type of rotor that doesn't attract rust. Has anyone done this switch and did it work? Thanks