wmc021

Hi All,

Well My GLC 43 was dropped off this afternoon at MB Adelaide for the tire swap and wheel alignment. Loan car is a new A class 250, nice little car.
Pick back up Saturday morning.

The service manager has been great in fact all the staff have been great.

Apparantly we are one of the first few in Oz to get the new tire compound change and wheel alignment.
We have been asked to record the tire performance at all air temps when the tire is cold and once the tires have warmed up and give feed back in about a week. I'm happy with that.

I've been told there are about 500 GLC owners that have reported and documented the issue around Oz. There are not many sets of the new Tire compound here yet.
I believe now this is my dealer's doing the works not MB Australia..... I will confirm this once I pick it up on Saturday.

So stay turned GLC owners down under lets see if Saturday brings us good news.

Teckno

From bips in an earlier post -

Thanks. I went looking for the second memo and found it on the dedicated crabbing site. I forwarded it the the salesman I deal with at my dealer.

" This is a MBUK memo, and it's not at all obvious that it applies to Australia. The MBUK memos date from February, don't they? If so, why did MBA issue the first one - requiring a waver to be signed - only in the last week or two, and not move straight to the second one?

My guess is that the issue is less prevalent here than in the UK. From what I've read, it is worse in cold & wet conditions, and we get less of that kind of weather here. So I think MBA is hoping to avoid the cost of the tyre swap solution. This reflects very poorly on them.

Does anyone have a scanned copy of the memo"

I too would appreciate a copy of this so I can discuss my options with my Dealer.
Thanks

dazzler4mb

Hi wmc021,
Good to see some action.
I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of your post to my dealer.
Let's hope it is a fix as it is just BAD that this is happening.
I have neighbours nearby and they recently purchased one FPace for him and one GLC AMG 43 for her. All he can say to me is "see you should have purchased the FPace" She is also very frustrated/disappointed/aghast in the front end behaviour. Great vehicles but this problem is really one that should not exist.
I am looking forward to hearing from MB Australia and getting this thing sorted.
Thanks for your post.

wmc021

Hi All Oz GLC owners

With Reference to my previous post.

I've picked up my GLC 43 after the works MB Adelaide have performed" Front end alignment and new Continental Tires". I must thank MB Adelaide for there Customer Service and communication with me on this issue.

The tires they have fitted are the same that UK owners are having fitted Continental Contisport Contact 5 Star with Conti Seal, mine are 255/40 R21 Y XL.

So far I'm impressed, crabbing gone. Still waiting for rain so I can tick off the wet road test and very cold morning test.

More to follow shortly.

Teckno

To all Aussie and UK (read RHD vehs) readers, some interesting findings.
Those or us with 17', 18', 19' and 20' rims - no joy at this stage re Continental tyres in our rim sizes, mine is 255/45 R20.
There is joy for owners with 21' rims it appears.
Continental only import an Audi style Conti Sport Contact 5 in our 20' size, optimised for Audi with AO stamping.
There are no M&S tyres in Oz either for our casing, but there is a Conti/mercedes liaison person within Conti Oz HQ.
I had thought of down sizing my rims from 20' to as low as 17' if there were suitable tyres, but at this stage no Conti options, unless there are in Europe or UK and then maybe...... MB Oz might see fit to have Conti import them.
As to availiability the 20' AO style, well non in Oz till ship arrives around 7 July. In regards the 21" that our good friend in Adelaide has, new supplies of that style will hit our shores around 21 Jul.
Conti were very helpful and I am expecting a call back from their tech people to discuss options further, but without the 255/24R20" tyres I am not sure what can be suggested.
Hopefully MB UK and MB Oz are talking re owners with sizes other than the 21" solution.
Time will tell. Maybe I have to go non runflat and choose another brand, style. Still not sure if having a firm sidewall helps issue or better with a softer, more flexible sidewall to alleviate juddering ? Decisions, decisions !!!
Hope this helps with you looking at options as well.
Please share your thoughts and findings.

wmc021

Hi Teckno,

Great post mate..
Sorry to hear that MB have no fix yet for smaller rims. I'll PM you on another thought.

wmc021

Hi All,

Cold weather test this morning pasted , no crabbing at all.

Only wet weather test to go....

Looks good for GLC owners with 21' Rims, think you should all go speak nicely to your Services Managers. With no real help coming from MB Australia I think the outcome is with the customer care of individual dealers on whether they are going to help you out at their expense.

WMC021

Teckno

Here is a recent post from UK site - Honest John re GLC tyre issues. Lots of comments, but this is Oz related.

MBGLC43 Owner 4 days ago
Hi, I'm from Australia too, Melbourne.

I bought my GLC AMG43 back in November 2016 and when it's wet I have the same crabbing issues reported here. It's getting particularly bad as we're just entering the winter months - but it's not that cold, we're talking about 12 degrees and when the car is loaded with 5 people its damn right unsafe - got 2 km down the road last week and had to do a u-turn and road was slightly wet, 5 people on board, at low speed, about 15 km an hour and the car continued in a straight line, making a huge racket and everyone in the car asking 'what the hell is wrong with your car'? And the car has only done 3400 km.

I've just got it back from the Mercedes Benz dealership who know is a known problem and expressed that Mercedes Benz Australia know it's a known problem. The official term from the dealer is 'it's not a fault, it's a know characteristic of GLC's'. Apparently the dealership is full of very unahppy GLC owners with the same problem and it's a headache MB Australia are very nervous about (given Australian's are the largest purchasers of AMG vehicles per captia in the world and MB cars are No 1 in the luxury category here you can see why).

The dealer completed a full wheel alignment on all four wheels free of charge. I'll update this forum over the next few days as to whether this helps or not. But given the team at the dealership didn't look too convinced this was going to really help I suspect not. More to come.

Hopefully we will get more feedback.
Unfortunately I ended up paying for 2 x wheel align's.... Must speak with my Dealer !!

wmc021

From my first early post on this subject I knew this problem would come to the fore front as winter set in here in OZ.

I've experienced something similar with me and my wife as winter set in, slight high speed bend about 80km still accelerating the front end skipped towards the guard rail not a great deal but enough to make my **** twitch. That's when I said enough is enough.

tiger_x

Is anyone in Aus being asked to sign waivers? Im due to take delivery of a GLC43 in July and wondering what i should do/say if i get asked to sign a waiver.

Philamg

Just say NO.

wmc021

I was told a couple of weeks ago that the direction from MB Australia is that all new prospective buyers are to experience the crabbing issue before purchase and yes will be required to sign a waiver.

Tiger X if you were not made aware of the issue before placing the order, I would be putting it on hold until MB can guarantee they will delivery it with the updated wheel alignment and new tires fitted before you take delivery.

Philamg is correct do not sign anything.

tiger_x

Thanks guys.. I wasnt made aware of the problem when i placed my order back in March.. Taking your advice and not signing any waiver.

Looking at the data card for my vehicle, it says ' summer tyres' But it doesnt specify brand. They will probably be Conti's, im guessing..

wmc021

Tiger X

They need to be Continental Contisport Contact 5 Star with Conti Seal make sure they check alignment, still not sure if the alignment settings are different from the factory set.

Maybe thread starter dejongj can shed some light if they are different.

If your GLC comes with Continental tires with MO marking..... welcome to the crabbing issue family.

Philamg

Not certain but believe the continental contisport tyres are only for 21 inch wheels, different all weather tyres being fitted to smaller wheels, dejongj hasn't posted for weeks for some reason!.

Teckno

Chat with Continental in Oz this aftrnoon, Yes only 21" have seal variety.
Told MB Aust are trying to work out a solution and have been in discussions with them, Nothing in Continental as yet, maybe other makers ? Even in runflat or conventional ones.
Still waiting for MB Oz to discuss options, or see what their attitude is through Dealership.
In Uk ? what is Command reporting portal to register complaint ? Unaware of any direct portal in Oz direct to Mauf, seems all filtered via Dealer Network ?

Philamg

I just phoned LR UK to register the fault and they couldn't have been more helpful, same day had phone call from dealer to say that they would change the tyres when I wanted (also when available). I went to dealer first but was told I had to complain to MB myself which worked out to be the case.

wmc021

Looks Like the UK is starting to get its act together finally on this issue......

Come on MB Australia catch up......

Rob32R

Hello all,

Sydney based.

Currently looking to move on from my BMW X5 to a GLC43 AMG. I'm very close to ordering one and was wondering if Mercedes have come up with a solution to this scrubbing/crabbing issue? I have read numerous forums of at least 500 people noting this issue with the car.

Would I be better off waiting until 2018? Is a recall going to be made? My heart doesn't think I can wait that long for something to be addressed. I'm not really going to look for an alternative at this stage as the new BMW X5 is surplus to my needs. What are my chances with me convincing MB Australia to do something about it? Could this be the reason there are a few "private seller" cars on Carsales? Surely they are responsible for something which I deem a safety concern. This is a defect and Mercedes should pull their fingers out of their behind and do something about it. Are there any other known issues with these cars that I should be made aware of? I don't want to have to change the 21" wheels because I do really like them. How can a high end European marque like Mercedes be allowed to do this to their customers? This tastes like ****, if you ask me I am reluctant in following through with the purchase of a GLC at this stage. Very disappointed for a top of the range model. How could you not use this issue in Consumer Law as not being "fit for purpose"? Is it steering geometry/engineering issue or failing tyres? What's stopping you from rejecting the car and asking them to take it back?

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/co...mer-guarantees

I don't want to have to go through the same saga I went through with Volkswagen Australia and the DSG gearbox in my R32.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

URBassman

Have MB come up with a solution yet? I don't think so. They are playing with tyres which is not a solution. I think they are hiding in the hope that people will stop complaining but this winter will be a very interesting time.

Philamg

Beg to differ, everyone who has had all weather tyres fitted has said that the issue disappears or at least is vastly better. If you have seen the videos of dejongj car, it disappeared on that and I would think that was the worst scenerio.
Land rover fit all weathers as standard on their cars, would be interested to know if they would have the issue if they didn't.

URBassman

........or at least is vastly better. Let's just wait until winter when the temps come down.

Teckno

Update from Melbourne.
Conti discussions were good, but no joy for rims that are not 21". need to log onto Conti in USA and Europe to see if sold there.
Michelin have not called back, yet ! I'll try the teck guy again tomorrow.
Pirelli have been good and listened to my concerns, will discuss further within their tech cell, chap was unaware GLC issue ?? Referred him to UK/Oz and USA sites. I'm hopeful, but secretly do not think they have anything in the wings.
Tried to track down Vredestein tyre seller. Importer stopped 3 years ago. Have emailed Coy in Holland with request for info on Quatrac 5 model tyre. It seems it is a 'holy grail' solution for some UK owners. Product detail is good with some awards. This is a 100 year company, taken over by large Indian corporate that is expanding through Europe and USA. Hopefully they might have an importer or affiliated seller in Oz, more to follow.
My follow up with MB Dealer in Melb looks like happening tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a positive discussion with support of MB Aust.
Any other ideas or options greatly appreciated. I'm running 255/45 R20 101W.

Philamg

I had Michelin latitude sport on my Land rover discovery sport and they do your tyre size in the UK.

wmc021

Hi All down under.

Update since the tire change and wheel alignment by MB on GLC 43 21" Rims.
Crabbing has gone, all temps. Looking forward to the rain tomorrow in Adelaide to tick off the wet test.....

The car handles so much better with the works that have been performed.


Final update after rain tomorrow.