brownbomber

I heard a crackling noise under my front end and I brought it into the dealership. The ball joints are gone and it will only cost me $1300 to have them replaced. The only thing I can think of is that those 19inch AMG's really did me in!

Is this common on the s550 with less than 44K on the dash?

v10boost

I was reading on W221 TSB other day and one of the thing was ball joint going bad. I think there was fix to avoid this. you might want to check with dealer.

v10boost

my car has 24k miles and it is in dealer now getting new control arm bushings. probably going to replace whole control arm under warranty.

brownbomber

Are you saying that I can look forward to this problem after another 44K miles?

spadre59c3z

How did you know that the ball joints/control arm was bad. Did you only hear crackling on bumpy roads or low speeds or did it effect the ride on the car etc. Thanks.

v10boost

My mechanic found cracks on bushings. I took it over to dealer and had it replaced under warranty.

brownbomber

I was told that this is a problem for the W221, and that it can develop anywhere from 20K or 40K, 60K, etc. No real indicator of why, because this is a wear part. The vehicles are really heavy and driving conditions help to determine if this will be your problem or not.

I had the crackling sounds at 5-10mph and during the turns. When I described the problem over the phone, it was automatically associated with this common issue. I just hope that I don't have this problem 30k miles later. It cost me $1330.00 to have this s550 recurring issue.

RXBENZ

Sorry to hear... car wasn't under warranty or not covered?

brownbomber

My extended warranty called it a wear part, like pads and tires.

okc329

a 2007 car with only 44k should be covered by the original manufacturer's warranty. Ball joints are not wear and tear items. Raise heck with that dealer and if you can't get any satisfaction locally insist on talking to the region service manager.

brownbomber

My 2007 reached the manufactures time limitation last month. So while I'm under on miles, I'm over on time.

okc329

with the dealer that sold you the car, you should be due some consideration with the warranty just having expired. I would press them to talk with a the district/region service guy and get you relief from some of the expense. A car with that number of miles should not need ball joints because of "wear and tear".

Em Bee Lover

"Consideration" from MB/warranty expired. Mine has six months calendar left, but 55000 miles. Asked dealer for help on $1200 full bladder/bag replacement on one seat of dynamic seats they diagnosed as leaking. Gave me MB 800 number and said plead directly. Was told by MB corp. in NJ to pack sand where the sun doesn't shine. No consideration available. Been in MB's since 1988; lease and buy. Ain't like it usta was..... Off topic, but wanted to vent. Thanks.

okc329

policies like this will hurt your reputation a lot more than they will help your bottom line. Lexus does not treat their customers like this!

rmajor

Recently purchased a CPO S550 2007 w/45950 on the odometer, (1st MB product). I drove the car off the lot and immediately became aware of a problem with the suspension with a low speed knocking sound coming from the front left wheel.

Returned the car a few days later, service tech changed mounts on front sway bar, needless to say this did not work. Returned the vehicle 2 weeks later due to out of town trip, vehicle sat in airport lot, reported problem was not resolved, a service tech came along for the ride and decided the problem was either ball joints or control arms (tie rods) eventually replaced and issued is closed.

However, if this is going to be a recurring issue every 45k, I will not purchase another S class in the future. This forum is extremely helpful, although I have concerns about MB quality and reliability with the aide of this forum I have managed to successfully get all my issues resolved based on very useful information posted by other owners.

brownbomber

Think about it, the number of people with 2007 s550's that will miss their manufactures warranties by 30 days or more like I did probably are very high. After suffering thru my high cost of personal replacement, I am sure that they know this and have not done anything to support a recall effort. Instead, they've just passed the cost of replacement on to the owners and hope that we just pay the tax.

FYI, when I described this sound to my mechanic, he knew exactly what the problem was because a customer was their paying for the same service out of warranty.

This is horrible and more owners need to unite because if I suffer this problem again in another 40-50K miles, then this car is not worth it.

okc329

are experiencing problems with ball joints on this car, there must be 1) a design/engineering problem or 2) a batch of bad joints was made for M-B. I'd keep pushing on M-B. Get your "bad" parts returned to you and let an independent expert examine them.

rmajor

The SA mentioned this was covered under a TSB, but I am not sure of the ID for this problem, but it is a known issue by MB.

I will try to locate the information on the service order and share it with the forum, but I don't know how accurate the information was regarding this problem.

However, since I purchased under CPO and it was less than 30 days when I discovered the problem the dealer was obligated to repair, or replace the vehicle.

v10boost

To get access to TSB. if you know local shop or gas station where they have online estimator. you can pull up the info there.

cablvr

Found out on Monday that the ball joints had to be replaced - 72K miles. I am told my MB extended limited warranty will cover the repair. However, parts are on backorder from Germany.

For those of you who have had this repair performed, was an alignment necessary as well? Covered by warranty?

v10boost

My MB dealer did the alignment under warranty. I hope this help.

eugene22n

i just had sway bar bushings replaced. 07 @ 47k.

Had them lube and felt everything that squeaked, creaked and rattled. Also on my third time replacing parts on the drivers side multicontour seat it finally loos resolved. Not just parts though also felt there lol.

I told the tech MB should just felt everything to begin with.

WEBSRFR

I am just curious, if this issue came up on a CPO vehicle 6 months later, would the dealer still cover it? I am considering purchasing a 2007 S550 with the MB warranty extended to 100K miles + 7 years from initial service date and I was going to pay for the extra warranty extension but if they would not cover a repair like this as a part of the MB warranty, that's very bad (to put it very politely!). Can someone clarify if repairs like this are covered by the MB warranty in effect for a CPO vehicle?

rmajor

I found this posted in a different thead seems to reference a bulletin related to the suspension problem for the W221 and describes the problem and solution as it was explained to me when I had my car serviced.

P-B-46.20/52 Muffled knocking noises when driving slowly on uneven road surfaces. When driving between 3 – 13 mph these noises may be caused by excessively high breakaway torque of the outer tie rod or the inner tie rod joints due to unfavorable tolerance or friction conditions. In isolated cases, a reduction in the preload of the mounting bolts of the steering gear can also occur as the cause. The mounting bolts of the steering gear, outer tie rods, and/or inner tie rods will be replaced and front axle toe will be adjusted.

Here is a link to the thread...

https://mbworld.org/forums/new-s-cla...tins-date.html