Vabene7

I have been thinking about my car's vibration, over and over.

Could anyone weigh in on lowering our cars and if you need to adjust the camber because of that?..
I know the E55 guys need to. How about our 220's?
My car is lowered by STAR an inch in the back and and inch in the front...

ssonss1

After any height adjustment it is best to have an alignment. My w220 was lowered with links about 2" and needed an alignment. Also, there is no camber adjustment on these cars, but if the toe is not within specs your tires will wear a lot faster un-evenly.

Vabene7

I had the car aligned post lowering and the tech said that the camber wasstill out (in red) and there was nothing else he could do. It was as far as he could go with his adjustments.

My #1 concern is that the ride of the car has a vibration between 60 and 75 that I need to eliminate, not the tire wear.

Does the wrong camber or toe = vibration?

tusabes

Did you try swapping your old rims (or any old mercedes rims) back on? I am convinced it is your new rims/tires that are the problem.

I had the same problem and solved it by going back to the old rims/tires

Vabene7

Not yet, Tusabes. I will definitely do exactly that, if a front rotor swap tomorrow doesn't do the trick.
John (Broadway Performance) road force balanced the new tires with a Hunter GSP9700 balancer. It still could mean the wheel/s and or tire/s are out of round...

P.S. I had the Flex Disks checked today at Broadway Performance and John said they were good to go.


Tusabes, what actually happened in your case?

tusabes

Violent steering wheel shake above 60mph. The tires were new but defective. Put old tires back on and no problem.

I highly doubt it's your brakes unless you only notice the vibration while braking.

MRAMG1

In a word NO

I have had mine up to 164 in Mexico of course, and have hit 130+ several times on the track.

Now if they lowered it UNEVENLY, than HELL yes it could effect the ride and stability.

Vabene7

MRAMG,
When you said "In a word, no", what question were you referring?

And I know for sure the guy who lowered my car is spot on with those adjustments. He is an amazing mechanic with the 600, as well as many other top of the line super cars. I am feeling like we are narrowing it down, though.


Tusabes,
I have no steering wheel shake, just vibration in the floor, seats and center console.
I think you may be right with the wheels and/or tires being faulty....... The rotors were changed today, as well as the pads (switched to Akebonos) and still, the vibration exists. All flex disks are in very good condition.... Next is to find a set of stock wheels and tires and see how she drives with those.
I will keep you posted.

tower

From my experience, shaking of the steering wheel is generally tires. Shaking felt in your crotch is drive line. To check for wheels cheaply, switch the front and back tires and see if the vibration changes.

tusabes

he just had aftermarket rims installed, then the problem appeared....so Im betting thats what it is.

if the problem is in the new rims, switching front to back may not help. an OEM set of rims and tires, known to be vibration free, is the best way to test.

If its not the rims/tires, my next suggestion would be transmission mount old or loose.

tower

tusabes....move the offending tire(s) to a new location on the vehicle gives a different response to the vibration. I still stand by my words. Besides, costs nothing to try!

Vabene7

Tower - Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Tusabes,
I'm in agreement with you. Not that Tower's idea was a bad one....His idea may have helped change the vibration.
But stock wheels and tires will truely show if the issue is in the wheels and tires or not. No question will remain after that test.
And that test is being done right now....

Vabene7

John switched my wheels with stock S600's wheels and no vibration at 60 to 75.
That told us it's our wheels and/or tires that have the issue.
So, I thought we were going to have to send the wheels and tires back to Tire Rack (on my dime), have trouble getting replacement tires and wheels and that whole fiasco....
Well, crisis averted. John @ Broadway Performance discovered that Tire Rack sent us two passenger side wheels with hubcentric rings and two wheels on the driver's side WITHOUT them.
Thank God John is the Ace tuner and is so trained in finding even the little things, that he added 2 rings from my previous, exact model rims and Presto....No Vibration.

For good measure, we added BMC filters to help her breathe.

Thanks to John for another stellar fix!
He is professional, knowledgeable and service oriented.
Anyone that needs a tuner or just a mechanic to service you Benz, John is the guy to see. He does complete work on all model Mercedes. Even Service A and B. Why go to the stealer?
Well done, John. Thanks.

-Chris

tusabes

Glad to hear it got fixed...so many people gave issues After mounting new rims and tires- I always tell them to hang onto
Their oem setup for a while just to make sure there are no problems- I'd say more than half the time when there is a problem, swapping back to oem fixes the problem and is the best test

classyS

yeah i thought brabus wheels were nice until i had the exact same problem Vabene - except it was around 45-60mph, so i figured id install my original 18 monoblocks and its been silent eversince. glad the problems been isolated, i was hoping it wasnt anything driveline..

Vabene7

I am glad it got sorted out.
Thanks to everyone, as usual, for weighing in with information.


-Chris

bp95gsx

Chris is the man!