New to the W221 S450 - Is a light swaying/rocking/lateral-oscillation normal?
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New to the W221 S450 - Is a light swaying/rocking/lateral-oscillation normal?
Hello W221 owners. I recently purchased a pristine S450 and am super happy with it. I do have one question. When driving between city or modest highway speeds, over uneven surfaces (Canadian winter roads with frozen patches, or on roads which developed light track trenches due to heavy truck and insufficient road foundations), the car gives a bit of a swaying sensation. It will rock/sway/oscillate as if e.g. you would be driving in a car with completely worn rear suspension. My air suspension seems to work 100%. Car raises to driving height properly; it raises itself to Vehicle Raised position perfectly.
Is it normal Air Suspension sensation? My MB R500 with rear air suspension never gives this sensation.
Any ideas? or Experiences? Could it be the AIRMATIC, or ESP? There are no MB fault codes at all.
Looking forward to your input, with gratitude,
Hans
Is it normal Air Suspension sensation? My MB R500 with rear air suspension never gives this sensation.
Any ideas? or Experiences? Could it be the AIRMATIC, or ESP? There are no MB fault codes at all.
Looking forward to your input, with gratitude,
Hans
Last edited by Dutch Dekkers; Jan 11, 2020 at 09:33 PM.
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Just at the top of my head. Tire and pressures good, how much tread? How many miles do you have on your S450? When was the last time the tires were balance and rotated? Have you hit anything hard to cause the rims to bend? Do you have ice accumulating in the rims maybe causing an imbalance? Is there enough distance even surfaces between the uneven to let the car settle. I've gone over a bridge with many road expansion joints that cause the car to softly bounce and only settle when I get back on better road surfaces. Do you have the Sport airmatic setting, the button to the left of the navigation screen and right to the cluster to "stiffen" the ride?
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W220
My answers...
Thanks for the input. Tire pressure was a good input, as they were actually all a bit off. It was the first thing I checked and after correcting the pressures, the sensation was indeed 40% less. Tires are Pirelli P ZERO nero's with still 75% or more life left. Balancing feels perfect. Tested it on Interstate at 80 mph.
The car sits rock solid on dry, level, smooth asphalt: Absolutely perfect, even at 80 mph Interstate speed limit. Setting it to C or S does not make a significant difference. There are no MB Error Codes on the car, otherwise I would suspect that the suspension is not 'hard' enough due to a worn pressure pump. The car sits perfectly level (it's my second airmatic car: the other was a R500).
Any thoughts on this are much appreciated. It just feels a bit odd for a German Autobahn Kreuzer like the S Class. It feels more like an old full size US Made car from the 70's with blown shocks. AGAIN: Only when hitting uneven surfaces. When on proper smooth asphalt, the car handles like a sportscar: You can throw zigzag to imitate an obstacle avoidance, and it sits and handles rock-steady: No swaying whatsoever.
It puzzles me...
The car sits rock solid on dry, level, smooth asphalt: Absolutely perfect, even at 80 mph Interstate speed limit. Setting it to C or S does not make a significant difference. There are no MB Error Codes on the car, otherwise I would suspect that the suspension is not 'hard' enough due to a worn pressure pump. The car sits perfectly level (it's my second airmatic car: the other was a R500).
Any thoughts on this are much appreciated. It just feels a bit odd for a German Autobahn Kreuzer like the S Class. It feels more like an old full size US Made car from the 70's with blown shocks. AGAIN: Only when hitting uneven surfaces. When on proper smooth asphalt, the car handles like a sportscar: You can throw zigzag to imitate an obstacle avoidance, and it sits and handles rock-steady: No swaying whatsoever.
It puzzles me...
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From: Aridzona
'15 S550, '10 E350 P1/P2, '02 ML320
I wonder how many miles on the suspension control arms? I recently replaced my uppers and noticed the 'sway' you mentioned is now gone. My car has 160k+ miles on it though.
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S Mode and Raised Vehicle solved it
UPDATE: Three things have been done, in this sequence over the course of a few days...
We can consider this item closed. Thanks so much for thinking along!
- Equaled the tire pressure to 33 PSI all round ( = listed values). They were all a few PSI different.
- Selected S-mode, instead of C. In the S (not AMG), the C is listed as Comfort, and the S is listed for Standard Driving in the User Manual.
- Switched ON the Vehicle Level Control to RAISED mode, raising the car .
We can consider this item closed. Thanks so much for thinking along!
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S500
mine wobbles about....
I guess how offensive you find it depends upon what you're used to and expect it to do,
you can put it in sport to stop it wallowing about at the back, but this tends to increase the diagonal roll and pitch issues the car has
the whole set up is remarkably average. It needs one non-adjustable setting between comfort and sport and probably someone who knows what they are doing to give it anti roll bars that suite the car
I did 600 miles in a super stiff hybrid Mitsubishi thing, when I got back in mine, even in sport it felt like someone had stolen the springs... but now used to it again and sport seem over the top... and what it does to the gear change is a mess so I just drive slower and suffer an incompetent mix of ride and handling my mother could have set up better....
I guess how offensive you find it depends upon what you're used to and expect it to do,
you can put it in sport to stop it wallowing about at the back, but this tends to increase the diagonal roll and pitch issues the car has
the whole set up is remarkably average. It needs one non-adjustable setting between comfort and sport and probably someone who knows what they are doing to give it anti roll bars that suite the car
I did 600 miles in a super stiff hybrid Mitsubishi thing, when I got back in mine, even in sport it felt like someone had stolen the springs... but now used to it again and sport seem over the top... and what it does to the gear change is a mess so I just drive slower and suffer an incompetent mix of ride and handling my mother could have set up better....
Last edited by BOTUS; Jan 15, 2020 at 01:34 PM.
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Well, Botus, your experience sounds more serious than mine. As shared: I feel 100% content with what it is right now. I use S in the bad winter road conditions, with the Vehicle Raised in ON. And when the roads are clear again, we go back to C.
I've owned a Lotus Europa in the long past, and my friend drove new Porsche Turbo: I know how stiff cars feel :-) I prefer to glide... But cannot stand swaying. As shared, I'm 100% good now.
As for the WHY on the system: I suspect that MB choose a "real comfy ride on excellent roads" as their starting point. Fair enough.
Thank you all for sharing!
I've owned a Lotus Europa in the long past, and my friend drove new Porsche Turbo: I know how stiff cars feel :-) I prefer to glide... But cannot stand swaying. As shared, I'm 100% good now.
As for the WHY on the system: I suspect that MB choose a "real comfy ride on excellent roads" as their starting point. Fair enough.
Thank you all for sharing!
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UPDATE - THE VILLAIN WERE THE PIRELLI P ZERO NERO
IMPORTANT UPDATE - Despite my earlier positive message, it turned out to be more like wishful thinking, because the swaying continued. Thorough deduction let me to only one remaining possible solution: The tires. I ordered my all time favorite tires for the last 5 years or so: Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06. Which come, by the bye, with 50,000 miles thread warranty, free replacements in the first year if they fail, free flat repair and towing, and 60 day trial period (go to Continental's website: the tire shop doesn't always tell you).
The difference???? WOW.... unbelievable! On the ExtremeContacts, the S sits in train rails and has zero swaying. On the Pirelli's the car (especially the tail) feels as if the rear sways left and right. The difference must be the tire wall strength or so. HUGE difference. Though still 60% thread left, those Pirelli's will never come back on mine :-)
Hope this helps,
Dutch
The difference???? WOW.... unbelievable! On the ExtremeContacts, the S sits in train rails and has zero swaying. On the Pirelli's the car (especially the tail) feels as if the rear sways left and right. The difference must be the tire wall strength or so. HUGE difference. Though still 60% thread left, those Pirelli's will never come back on mine :-)
Hope this helps,
Dutch
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S500
99 rating on these....
15 years back got my second European GM rear drive thing 1900kg with a bit of power. The last one had handled brilliantly, but this one was horrible... it was a facelift one that went form 15" 205's to 16" 225's and they'd tweaked suspension too... the car was awful. The tyres were a muddled mismatch so I bought a set of 4 decent Michelin tyres.... and it was not much better. I don't do much mileage in cars so they were on the car quite some time.
Then one day they wore out.... and didn't have the tyres I'd wanted. Looking in to what was going on, it turns out the load rating (that at the time I'd never heard of) was supposed to be 95. The idiots had put the Michelin's on with 93 !!! and now only had 99 but was a good price, so gave it a go, steering was a little nicer and the car handled a bit better, but ride comfort was a bit crashy over bad bumps...
When these wore out..... I got a set of goodyear 95 load rated tyres.... and suddenly the car was transformed... from lumbering mess to a little go cart with fun handly and great ride.... It was a far better car than the S class
15 years back got my second European GM rear drive thing 1900kg with a bit of power. The last one had handled brilliantly, but this one was horrible... it was a facelift one that went form 15" 205's to 16" 225's and they'd tweaked suspension too... the car was awful. The tyres were a muddled mismatch so I bought a set of 4 decent Michelin tyres.... and it was not much better. I don't do much mileage in cars so they were on the car quite some time.
Then one day they wore out.... and didn't have the tyres I'd wanted. Looking in to what was going on, it turns out the load rating (that at the time I'd never heard of) was supposed to be 95. The idiots had put the Michelin's on with 93 !!! and now only had 99 but was a good price, so gave it a go, steering was a little nicer and the car handled a bit better, but ride comfort was a bit crashy over bad bumps...
When these wore out..... I got a set of goodyear 95 load rated tyres.... and suddenly the car was transformed... from lumbering mess to a little go cart with fun handly and great ride.... It was a far better car than the S class
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Hi Botus, it's indeed incredible that the behavior can be THAT different. You did give me a great idea: Check the load rating on the Pirelli's. Who knows: May those ratings are too low for the S 
Would explain a lot.
Anyways, my S is now behaving stellar in road handling. Couldn't be happier
Would explain a lot.Anyways, my S is now behaving stellar in road handling. Couldn't be happier
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ANOTHER UPDATE: The Tire Load Rating of the Pirelli P ZERO Nero's was 99, where the ExtremeContact has 103. That makes a full 200 pounds different per wheel. The Pirellis only sat marginally above the S's gross weight. The Conti's are well above it. Very likely a significant factor in the experience as well. Thanks again, Botus, for mentioning tire load rating.
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S500
Had a chat with a guy at work about an issue he's been having on his BM. Car wobbles' about and feels unstable particularly under acceleration. He's an ex vehicle tech so not totally numpty.
Took a look at rear wheels and found tiny amount of wobble (from rubbish wheels and bad roads), so went to a specailist to fix. Garage said although a bit of radial wobble its nothing and not worth doing. Swapped out for a set of winter tyres and the cars transformed back to a normal car. Different tyre brands seem to make more of a difference than the size or load ratings
Took a look at rear wheels and found tiny amount of wobble (from rubbish wheels and bad roads), so went to a specailist to fix. Garage said although a bit of radial wobble its nothing and not worth doing. Swapped out for a set of winter tyres and the cars transformed back to a normal car. Different tyre brands seem to make more of a difference than the size or load ratings
