Name is Brian... just purchased a black/tan CPO 2011 for my wife. Car is pretty well equipped with the only options lacking being Keyless GO, HIDs, AMG sport appearance package. She loves it.

I'm a pretty technical car guy, do most all of my own work, have restored cars and built a few race cars. Have some questions:

1. Are there any common rear body/chassis/exhaust rattles? The car has a dull rattle when a bump is hit at a moderate compression speed. By speed I don't mean vehicle speed, I mean the speed at which the suspension compresses. Not soft, but not pothole jarring... in the middle. It's not a sharp/metallic noise; it's dull. Makes me thing it's exhaust heat shield, rear hatch related, or possibly rear spoiler related? I did notice that the driver side of the spoiler has double sided tape that has come loose, but I don't know if it's loose enough to vibrate and cause the noise. My next steps are to drive the car with the spoiler end taped down and then to get the car up in the air and poke around the rear for any exhaust contact... doesn't present as as suspension noise. So are there any common things I can check first?

2. Are the OEM HIDs something that can be added to the existing projectors? I was surprised the car had halogen lights given the nice looking projectors. Are the bulbs/ballast plug and play?

3. What's the point of putting a voice tag on a contact in the COMMAND system? I did a few of them, but I can't get it to call that contact by saying, "CALL [Tagged name]" or "DIAL [Tagged name]". You say DIAL and it asks you to choose the line item of the contact you want to call. If you pick that line item it asks you to confirm the selection and then dials, just before it dials it plays the voice tag saved for that contact. I figure the point of the voice tag would be to make the voice command more streamlined no?

Some pictures of the car and my happy wife






Thanks,

Brian

 

Brian, welcome to the forum! Nice combination with the black exterior & beige interior. My wife chose our 2010 GLK350 in Mars Red, CPO, with the same interior. Just cannot do black interior, just one of my quirks. The GLK has made her very happy. Thinking ahead & looking at diesel options, we have concluded our next car will be a GLK250.
Your rattle sounds like maybe the spare tyre is loose or perhaps something in the tool box has gone adrift. Also check inside the stow area behind the left RR tail lamp. Exhaust hangers are very robust & hold the mufflers securely in place. If one was loose or broken, which would make me wonder how it got that way, it might cause the noise you hear. I have dropped our exhaust twice for a couple of projects & so far have reinstalled it without any hiccups. Someone here has posted about the HID conversion. Possibly available in other markets but not here so much. You can upgrade the standard bulbs which helps. Best rule of thumb on a MB is to buy one with the bells & whistles you want & not try to add them in later. Cost will drive you crazy!

 

If you find your rattle, please do report back. We have what sounds like the same dull rattle in the back of our 2011 4Matic, and I looked everywhere with no luck. Had two different techs look at it, no luck. It's not anything simple like the spare tire, a loose tool, a loose tray, etc - I checked all those, and nothing doing. I basically gave up, though it drives me crazy. Good news is that my wife does not seem to notice, and it's her car .

 

When all else fails, turn up the radio volume or open the sun roof!

 

Have what I think is a similar issue. Minor annoyance but I'd also be interested if you find out something.

 

I had a "creak" type sound on mine that was improved by putting lithium grease on the rear seat latches where the seats latch to the body (fold the seats down to apply to the latches). I also had some noises coming from the back lift gate interior panel which were fixed by pressing on the panel and massaging the clips that hold the panel onto the lift gate. I sprayed some Tri-Flo between the lift gate interior panel and the base, some noises went away. I am pretty OCD about noises so I spent some time figuring them out, was worth it in my opinion. I still have various knocks here and there when the suspension flexes, but it's infrequent and probably harder to fix those. One of the main annoying sources of noise are the top door seals. If those get dry or dirty they start making a ticking type noise inside. Clean inside the U shaped rubber/felt channel along the top of the door and that should eliminate any noise from the door seals.

 

I used a CanBus H7 HID kit which was plug and play on mine. Installation is difficult because you need to remove the wheel well liners on both the front wheels to get good access to the inside of the headlights. Pay close attention to mounting the ballasts somewhere secure. I used plastic zip ties to hold the ballasts in place because I did not want to drill into the body. You will have to drill a 1" hole into the back cap of the low-beam light in order to pass the HID cabling to the ballast. It's a pretty simple job but takes approx 2-3 hours when you factor in removing the wheel well liners. It's important that you use a CanBus system or else you will get warnings that your headlights are out.

This is one kit: http://amzn.com/B00DP68ENQ

You probably want 6000k which is the "color temperature" most HID systems run on. Anything else will have strange color light. You get what you pay for with these kits so if you want the best quality look for a Phillips kit.

Btw - the 2013's and up don't have projectors anymore if you don't have the lighting package, so consider yourself lucky in that regard I cannot stand it when someone uses HID on non-projector setups, it blinds everyone on the road.

 

As you can see below 6000 Kelvin is already into the blue part of the spectrum and not very desirable for projecting light. If you do some research you will see that 5000 K or below will project light light further to enhance visibility.

 

Yup, I also prefer the "daylight" temp range, right around 4300K. 6000K is going to have a bit of a bluish tint. 4300K also gives you the best brightness.

 

Ok good to know. When I switch to a phillips kit I will go with 4300k then.

Thanks!

 

I've bought a 2011 new and have loved it ever since.

Can't help you with any of your questions since the only noise I notice is a slight rattle when the cargo shade is retracted so I just keep it engaged.


Mine is black/black because we have a boxer who loves to go for rides.

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks for the replies.... small update, but I think I figured out the rattle! I was putting the hard plates on and started checking it over. I crawled up under the car and checked the exhaust and heat shields.... nothing out of line. Then I started banging on the hatch trim panel with the hatch up. First I made sure all the attachment clips were fully seated. When I started banging on the driver side I was able to replicate the noise... dull rattle. Noise was coming near the attachment hinge which was the right area in my head... more driving had made me think it wasn't under the car, but near ear level in the back left... well what do I find? The source of the loose spoiler and the rattle... simple missing nut.



vs. the passenger side



Now to figure out the odd gusty wind noise over 75... worried it's the airbox/heater core to firewall seal I'd read about. Also, it has more wind noise over 65 than I'd expected... front upper windshield molding is a little looser than expected, but the same as the other GLKs I've checked on... compiling my list for when I take it in in a few weeks.

~Brian

 

Go to: candlepower.com They are very knowledgeable and have all types of bulbs. Previously bought 65watt bulbs which were 50% brighter than oem bulbs.Simple swap out.

 

Good work diagnosing it and finding the cause! Won't help me unfortunately, mine is more of a thumping type noise, seems to be coming from rear suspension area.

Again, I would be curious to hear back on this. I had no luck with mine, and basically gave up.

 

UPDATE - The missing spoiler nut wasn't the source of the noise. It was coincidence that I heard the noise less on my test drive after taping down the spoiler and trim panel, it ended up coming back to the same as before. Ended up being a faulty right rear shock. Got the car back from service yesterday and it's 100% fixed.

 

That's very interesting - I always suspected that my noise is coming from the rear suspension too. How did they diagnose that it was the rear shock?

 

Grab the shock and try to shake it; it shouldn't move...

 

I road tested it with the shop foreman and he heard it instantly and said he thought it was a shock. The service order states they inspected the interior trim for loose objects and then removed the right side trim and re-tested the car and verified it was the shock. Swapped the shock and re-tested with the trim out, then put trim back in. I didn't get into enough detail to determine if it was an internal valving failure, or a mount/bushing failure. My guess is that it was probably a bushing/mount failure as internal shock failure usually results in leaks vs. clunking/rattling noises.