TheRazor

I just purchased my 04 CLK500 last week. It's a completely stock car with 23k miles. My first time driving at 60+mph was yesterday and I noticed what seemed to be a possible major problem. When driving at this speed and going over what I consider normal bumps on the road, the cars suspension seems to get upset and the rear will jump either to left or right. It feels very unstable almost as if it were trying to fishtail at a high rate of speed.

I'd love to hear what a MB tech thinks about this. I'm aware that attempting to diagnose a problem via the internet may be a bit silly, but maybe this problem has occured before. My wife is now scared to drive the car and I bought it for her. I do have an appointment at the dealer to look at this but it won't be until next Tuesday. Any advice on whether it's safe to even drive it would be helpful. I did check the tires and rear suspension and all looks to be fine in that area. The car is not displaying any warning lights to this effect either.

Thanks,
George.

Benz-E-r

Check your tire pressures first. I just took my wife's '04 E500 4matic out and on the bypass I was thinking the same thing, it felt loose. Luckily it has TPS so I looked at it and the fronts appear to be set 4lbs high and the rears might be 6lbs high or more! I need to check that the TPS is reading right of course.

I got my E500 back from the dealer after having tires mounted on different rims and the tire pressures were all off.

The stock continental tires are marginal in my opinion at the best of times and do NOT like high pressures, at least on my E500s.

TheRazor

I took it to the dealer and they didn't find anything wrong with the car. They did set the tire pressures and I paid for a 4 wheel alignment. My wife picked up the car and didnt notice the problem happen on the highway whne she drove it back home. I still need to get it out on the highway to check for myself.