Takehold

Same here. By the way, yesterday it was cold out and my pressure was at 29 in the morning before I started out. I have to say the drive was very smooth and the vibrations were much less. Not that I think that is the permanent solution, because I still think something is wrong. However it did help the overall ride of the car in every way. Also note that after driving for 20 or more minutes, the pressure goes up by 3 PSI and 32 is the recommended pressure anyway. But I think starting at 29 cold could help many of us until they find a solution. Please try it and let me know your thoughts. PS - It is even colder this AM so I bet mine are at 27-28 now. I will drive around and report back.

ajmtbm

recommended tire pressures are always quoted as cold, so if you are starting at 29 you are still technically underinflated - a 32 cold means you should be at 35 or so when driving.
you may experience additional tire wear if you stay at the lower pressure.
not sure what cold exactly is - 10 degrees outside or in a 50F garage will have different cold pressure.
agreed lower pressure does help the vibration, as well as the overall ride.

meljayger

Hi all, I just registered to share my experience. I have a RHD GLC purchased in Aug 2016. I went back to the dealer after 1,000km to complain about the vibration in my steering after hitting small bumps on the road. They claim this is how GLC was designed and all other GLC they tried are the same as mine, so there is nothing wrong.

Last Monday after 20,000km on the clock, I went back to them again to ask them to solve three issues I had reported since I had the car :-
1. a thump sound 2-3 seconds from cold start
2. Harsh down shift when breaking
3. Steering Vibration, the car does not feel "solid", some play in the steering when hitting bumps
They had my car for almost 5 days to troubleshoot the above issues.

After 2 days of driving it, I feel that I am driving a new car! The vibration has gone! I do not feel the vibrations anymore when I hit bumps on the daily travel roads!
I will have to find out exactly what Mercedes service centre had done and share it here. A quick call to the service manager and he told me what he did was loosen some mountings and retighten them again. He said the same problem was reported for GLE and he was trying the troubleshoot steps of GLE to see if it will solve my GLC problem.

I believe he has solved it. My GLC now drives "tighter" and more solid, gone was the vibration and the "tie-rods-need-replacement" feel. It is only two days and I will report back once i reconfirm with the service manager exactly what he had done. Hopefully this will solve all of yours misery.

I will leave issues 1 and 2 out of this discussion.
They used to tell me that the vibration is normal and now I feel that I had proved them wrong!

Takehold

The day they were at 29 it was 35F outside. Yes, I should have mentioned the temp. The day after I got the car I checked and they were at 42 all around. I had a lot of vibration during first night of driving. I suspect most owners don't check pressures often and will assume the dealer set them correctly. Could be one reason for so many complaints. I guess they did not adjust during PDI. Also door jam states 35/42 which in my opinion is way high and is only for Full loads. 32 is normal cold pressure. I lowered to 32 on a 65F day and the ride was a lot better. When temp dropped to 35F they were at 29( 3 degree drop for 30 degree less temp) and car drove much better than at 32. Last couple of days have been 30-40F and I am really happy with the drive. Almost no noticeable vibration. The overall ride is really incredible now. I don't even think I will bring it back to be looked at since there may not be a definite known fix. For me, I will keep to 29 cold and change with temp conditions as I always do. At least twice a month. I am not worried about the wear as 32 is only a recommended number by MB and there are many pressures that can be run. 35/42 is the fully loaded pressure according to the door jam. 32 can only be found on gas door sticker and is considered normal pressure. Also, from what I have been seeing, the Pirelli Verde OEM tires are horrible and wear out in as little as 10K miles and some get maybe 19K and they have no tread wear warranty. Some of those problems could be from people having Overinflated tires due to dealers leaving them at 42 from factory. Over can be worse than under for many reasons. I'll take my chances for the much better ride. Bottom line is 29 cold works for me and people should really pay more attention to their tire pressures for many reasons and not just trust the dealer. Today is the 1 month anniversary and I have just over 1K miles on it and it finally feels like a MB should.

I am glad it worked out for you. Please update with the exact fix if you can and maybe a copy of the invoice so other people can bring it to their dealer. Thanks and keep us updated on how it drives in the future.

mtberman

+1 please share if anyone knows more about this and how to fix it. My new GLC has had this vibration thing since I picked it up about 4 months ago and it is really ruining my ownership experience. I have my tires down to about 31 cold and that has helped, but the handling suffers and they drop to about 28-29 when it's below freezing. Not ideal.

ChinaBob

I had/have this problem and took it to my dealer. The service manager and I took it out with him driving so he could feel the full effect. Fortunately the best bumps are in the highway right in front of the dealership so he didn't have to be convinced. They kept my car for a few days while they played with the front suspension. I don't know exactly what they did but the improvement was quite noticeable, not 100% but enough so that I can live with it until there's a complete fix. The SA told me there are some redesigned suspension parts coming from Germany that should fix the problem completely but they aren't even in the pipeline yet.

josh-80

I have recently fixed a wheel vibration problem due to road surface impact. When I visited MB Service Center for the third time, it was solved by the latest MDPS soft upgrade. After that, I drove over 1000km and the same problem did not occur.-from South Korea, GLC 220d 4matic, tire pressure 220kPa

Jblue

After experiencing this problem for the first year of ownership, lowering the tire pressures, and getting no solutions from the dealer, the crap Pirellis run flats that came standard wore out in less than 20,000 miles. Decide to refit with standard Michelins (not run flats).
PROBLEM SOLVED!
What happens when we get a flat, you may ask. That's what road service insurance is for. At least I (hopefully) won't be having to replace a very expensive run flat tire (as you will with the Pirellis which are "not repairable").

jeffzou

Experienced the same thing. As soon as I took those damned run flats off the vibration issue all but disappeared.

Jeff

dgkli

IMHO runflats are a terrible, cynical idea. I don’t understand why brands like BMW and Mercedes persist with them. They are only helpful at all in the event of a puncture causing rapid air loss, are frequently not repairable, drastically increase unsprung weight, hurt ride and handling, are very expensive to replace. This is especially true for low profile tires, by the way, where you are most likely to lose the tire due to hitting a pothole, in which cas the tire is most certainly not “runflat.”

When I get winter tires for a car with OEM runflats, I get non-runflats, and the improvement in ride is very noticeable.

That said, my GLC is a lease, I have not chosen to get winter tires for it, and the OEM Goodyear’s are not showing noticeable wear after 16,000 miles. I should not have to choose to go to the expense and effort of trying non-runflats, which would not be accepted on lease turn-in anyway.

This is is my first MB, and based on MB’s apparent willingness to sell a car with such a blatant (if in my case more annoying than serious) fault, I am that much less likely to choose to replace it with an MB when the lease is up. In my opinion, it’s bad enough to persist in selling a car without fixing a fault like this, but adding insult to injury that dealers tend to act as if the problem is in the driver’s imagination. I’ve owned over 40 cars in my lifetime, and this is the only one that has had this particular problem.

Takehold

That is good news. I hope that is really all it takes. My car has 1200 miles on it, and now that you have found the solution, I was thinking of replacing mine now with non run flat and then at 30K when I return the lease, I will have these tires put back on to satisfy the lease return. Does that sound like a good idea? These Pirellis supposedly wear out in 15-20K so if I keep them until then and then replace them, I will only be getting around 10K or probably less on them when I give the car back. So giving another person my new tires. I am thinking it sounds better to do it now and drive on good tires for 25+K and then give the car back with the originals. Thoughts?

mtberman

This may be a good strategy. If you're going to do it, do it now.

mtberman

Took mine to the dealer finally. They replicated the problem and said "believe it or not there is a recommended fix", which the service guy said changes parameters of the power steering. This of course we've all heard before. FWIW the work order reads as follows: "Test drove and verified vibration. Referred to LI46.35-P-062791. Updated software in power steering control module. Test drove vehicle (XX771-XX798 miles) and steering feels normal after update"

I drove about 25-30 miles today and noticed a difference. It's still not ideal as far as impact harshness, definitely not what I was expecting in buying this brand. However, it seems to have lost the shudder and lingering vibration after hitting certain bumps. It still hits them a bit hard but no more aftershocks. I'll wait until I've driven more to say it's definitely better, but so far so good.

ajmtbm

so you get a flat tire with non - RFT and the roadside service does what - i assume they have to tow you somewhere? but where at 11:00 pm at night when everything is closed?

i would love to go non - RFT but i don't have a clear picture of what to do if in fact i got a flat.

dgkli

Well, let’s suppose you do get a flat. What caused it?

* Nail or screw in tread. Most often this causes a slow leak, which the tpms system will detect ahead of time. Carrying a small compressor with you will address this. if it’s a fast leak, add a tire plug kit to your trunk. A tire plugged in the tread will last you many miles. Now, if you are depending on a rft, remember you can only drive about 50 miles on it with no pressure, and then it’s destroyed.

* Nail or screw on shoulder or sidewall. Here you are probably best served by the runflat, but remember the 50 mile limitation

* Pothole or road debris. The runflat will probably do you no good at all.

So, the question is, how often would a runflat really benefit you, and is it worth the downsides.

Jblue

So just days after writing my post about converting to non run flats as "luck" would have it, we picked up a sizable screw in the tread. The TPMS came up with an alarm and "22 psi" message. As it turns out we were just a few miles from a tire store. Made it there no problem, pulled in and 30 minutes and $15.00 later we were on our way.
(BTW had a can of tire fix in the well that was not needed in this case but would have been deployed if needed.)

I asked ouir friendly tire mechanic what the situation would have been if it were a run flat with the screw in it.
"Oh, we don't fix those...not allowed....safety issue"

So ..... would have been up to several days without a car (not a size they have in immediate stock) AND several hundred dollars poorer.

CASE CLOSED on run flats vs. "real" tires!!

Takehold

I just got new Conti True Contact non run flats with 2400 miles on my car. Size 235/60/18 103H - The ride and handling are now Amazing!! Complete transformation - I can't believe the difference in the ride, especially over all the small bumps and potholes. Car just seems to glide along and is so smooth and quiet and best of all is that there is absolutely NO more steering vibration. The ride is now what I envisioned when getting my first MB. In my last update I mentioned that the dealer did a software update for the steering that did seem to help a bit, but I knew from what some others had said, that new non RFT would not only vastly improve the ride but also help eliminate the vibration issue. I highly recommend doing this for anyone looking for a night and day ride plus no vibration. This could be the best $800 I have spent. I am going to store my old tires with 2400 on them and have them reinstalled at lease return. My other reason for doing this is because of the poor milage people are reporting on the Pirellis. I did not want to have to replace them at 15K-20K and then maybe again before my lease is up. They are also much more expensive than non RFT. So 800 now instead of maybe 2500 down the road. This way I get a huge ride improvement and get to enjoy the car for another 30K instead of suffering on the poor ride and terrible tread ware of the Pirellis. Total win win for the money. Now, I know I have to deal with no jack or spare but I have that covered and don't need to discuss that further here as its been beaten to death. There are pros and cons to both types of tires and we all have to make a choice that works for us. For me, the hugely improved ride, better tread ware, lower projected cost and no more steering vibration is a total no-brainer. I hope this helps others who are contemplating this same decision.

catsailr

I got the very same tires on mine and love them so far Vibration is gone.

Takehold

^ Glad to hear it! I hope other people consider making the switch.

Jetfuture

The way I look at it is the non-RFT Continental's will easily double the life of the Pirelli Scorpions. The Continentals are roughly the same price as the Pirellis, so that's a savings of about $900 every 2 years in our case. I can pay for a LOT of towing for $450/year average. And considering I've had 2 flat tires in the past 25 years on 2 cars, going to a non-RFT is a "no-brainer".

hapar

Experienced the steering wheel shudder/vibration when going over bumps/dips/seams/patched road surfaces. Brought it up when the car went in for the panoramic roof recall work. They said they found one out of round tire and also a need for alignment (said the car was pulling to the right) . Replaced the one tire under the 1 year tire warranty period program. I had some concerns about getting just one tire replaced but was told it should not be a concern as the car had just a little less than 1500 miles. So did a new tire and alignment fix the issue? Nope. I can still feel it consistently…There were no other software or hardware updates as others have stated.

They also did some work on the front and rear brakes for the squealing issue. The noise on reversing seems to be gone but there is a groan now when I lift the foot off the brake.

Looks like my basic expectations of quality from Mercedes is misplaced.

mtberman

hapar

Update: I asked for the fix LI46.35-P-062791 recommended above (thanks to member mtberman) and it does seem to have addressed the issue considerably. Got it done when the car was in for the 17V627 Inadvertent Driver Air Bag deployment recall.

mtberman

I finally purchased a set of non run-flat tires a few days ago. Problem solved.

I chose Goodyear WeatherReadys, 235-55-19. Handling remains tight but the ride is now properly Mercedes-like, with all of the annoying impact harshness and body vibration gone. I picked up a compact air pump and Slime for $22 at Pep Boys, and of course I have 3+ years of roadside assistance remaining. I'll buy a spare and a jack if I decide to keep the car past the 4 year mark, .

petercory

Took my car in to Mercedes of New Rochelle NY for the 10,000 mile service; explained the problem to the SA, gave him a copy of LI46.35-P-062791, the problem has been resolved. Next Monday it goes in for the hum in the diff when making either a right or left turn from a dead stop.