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Whenever I turn the wheel to either the hard left or right stop, I hear a bumping sound from the suspension. It's actually more prevalent when I'm on a slight incline. I have the 22" factory wheels on it and have had the dealer look at every inch of the suspension along with a front end alignment and found no problems, nothing bent, etc. I think I MAY have experienced this behavior on a few other cars. Car rides and drives fine so maybe it's normal? Any ideas as to what this noise might be?
Whenever I turn the wheel to either the hard left or right stop, I hear a bumping sound from the suspension. It's actually more prevalent when I'm on a slight incline. I have the 22" factory wheels on it and have had the dealer look at every inch of the suspension along with a front end alignment and found no problems, nothing bent, etc. I think I MAY have experienced this behavior on a few other cars. Car rides and drives fine so maybe it's normal? Any ideas as to what this noise might be?
Thanks in advance.
I have the same issue. I also have the 22" wheels. The problem is sporadic. Therefore, the dealer was not able to replicate it. Further testing on my part revealed the best way to replicate it. Find a large, unoccupied parking lot. Turn the steering wheel clockwise and/or counterclockwise to the maximum degree. Then, drive in a complete circle, forward and backward. The problem will eventually appear. The next time I take the car in for service, I plan to do this with a service tech in the passenger seat.
I'll post the results. If you find out before me, please do the same.
I took my car to two different MB dealers (different owners). The first dealer found no abnormalities. They told me, "That's normal. All the AMGs do it." They gave me no further explanation, so naturally I was suspicious. I took it to a second dealer, without mentioning the first dealer's diagnosis. It's like when you get a second opinion from a doctor. You don't tell the second doctor what the first one said. That defeats the whole purpose of getting a second opinion. The second dealer also said it was normal. In fact, the service advisor said he'd remembered encountering this same issue with other AMG owners. He had a service tech examine my car just to be sure. They also found no problems. Afterwards, he gave me a detailed explanation of precisely what's going on when you experience this phenomenon. The reason it happens with AMGs has nothing to do with anything mechanical. It has to do with the AMGs coming with "summer" tires. The Pirelli P Zero tires aren't designed to be driven in temps below 45 degrees. In fact, doing so can void the warranty. The rubber compound can become hard and brittle, therefore losing traction. On top of that, as tires age, the rubber becomes harder as well. I still have the original tires on the front, so they're almost 4 years old. What you're hearing/feeling is actually the front tires losing traction and "skipping" across the asphalt. That's why you only feel this when the wheels are turned to the maximum position. E.g. backing onto the street from your driveway. The tires are more prone to doing this when "cold". That doesn't necessarily mean cold temperatures. It means whenever the tires haven't been driven on enough to sufficiently warm them up. That's why it's more common when you first pull out.
The first dealer I went to has 4.8 out of 5 stars, with over 400 reviews. The second dealer has 4.9 out of 5 stars, with almost 800 reviews. They're "Dealer of the Year" in my state. This is from dealerrater.com. Their reviews are from actual customers. You don't get that many excellent reviews from habitually deceiving people. That, combined with the logical physics involved, is why I accepted their explanations. It just makes sense. I might add that I knew it had nothing to do with the alignment, because I'd recently had a 4-wheel alignment. I always ask for a report afterwards. Even prior to getting that done, the alignment was near perfect. I only got it because I was getting new tires on the rear.
Now that I know this is normal, I can live with the few times it happens. I just needed to know there wasn't some repair needed, especially since my warranty will be expiring soon.
Thank you very much for this follow up! I almost feel like an *** for putting my dealer through all these checks because they really are a quality dealership. I no longer own the GLE but will probably be going back to one in a year or two, so this is very helpful.
02-11-2020, 05:13 PM
