StephenK

Looking to pick the brains of knowledgeable people on this forum.

My 06 SL600 to me seems to be vibrating while driving.

When driving down the road it feels like the wheels are out of balance and the car is shaking. Earlier today I noticed around 60-65 the steering wheel was shaking as if you were pulling the wheel real quick one way then the other. Thru various speeds sometimes it feels good and sometimes it feels shaky. The dealer just balanced them and said there machine is "STATE OF THE ART". If the wheels are balanced properly what ELSE could it possibly be??? Anyone have any ideas??????

StephenK

Today I went to the office for about 3 hours, when i got back in the car and drove away, it felt like I had a flat tire. Very shaky, bumpy feeling? Tires look fine, pressure is the same. I am confused.

Dvinn

Not knowing what's causing the vibration so I am guessing on the possibilties....it's possible that one of the wheels are bent, have you hit a bump or run over railroad tracks at a hard speed? I agree with what dealer said about their balancing machines being state of the art, I bet they are using Hunter machines which is a high end balancer for them to make a "state of the art" statement.

JackStraw

Did you have the wheels balanced because the car was vibrating or did you notice the vibration after the wheels were balanced? If it was the former, the dealer should have taken the car for a test drive to see if they cured the problem and resolved your complaint. Bring it back.

Also, check the front wheels for damage. It is possible you hit a pothole and bent the rim. This would cause a vibration silmilar to that caused by a wheel that is out of balance. You might not see visible damage, so run your fingers around the edge of the rim (where it meets the rubber) to feel for imperfections.

StephenK

I noticed this on the Pirelli Tires and the AMG sport package rims, yesterday I had the rims changed to 4 new ones and 4 new michelin pilot sports. This is why I think it is something else other than tires and rims. Now I am trying to figure out what it could be???

JackStraw

Are your new rims the same design as the original or are they from a different manufacturer?

StephenK

Rims are a little different but are another rim offered by Mercedes for the SL.

The problem was there with the old rims and the new ones.

vraa

Is it hard to turn the steering wheel?
Could be a power steering failure?

JackStraw

Then you should take it back to the dealer and have them test drive it with you in the passenger seat. The car can't be more than a month old, they need to make it right.

StephenK

I am going to a local tire shop tomorrow to get someone to ride with me and get their opinion.

Then it's on to the dealer. I want to get some ideas what it could be, people are lazy and dealers like to say it is a "COMMON" or "Normal" thing we see all the time. I am not going to take that one on this.

tiggerfink

I had a bad vibration problem when I put my SL500 in sport mode driving past 60 MPHs during the first week of ownership. Dealer balanced all 4 wheels and told me not to put more than 2 PSI of air above recommended in the tires. If I put 4 or more PSI of air in my tires, my car vibrates real badly.

lorinserbenz

It is normal for certain brands of tires to have a vibration for the first few minutes of driving. I have had this happen with Toyo and Pirelli tires.
Michelins should be perfect...
How does the tire pressure sensor attach? Is it part of the valve stem? Maybe its loose...

SL%%

Tires shouldn't be a really big factor but somewhat it is still but for just 60-65 MPH and there's vib for merc sl600, that is something.

Try one of these: Just thinking it might be one of these.

1. Suspension (A defect probably or sensors)
2. Try to put the correct exact psi not over or even lesser but exact as what is recommended by the mfg.
3. True, it maybe you have a deformed rims.
4. Changing new rims even in the same size should at least be aligned and balanced. These are (2) two different actions. Just saying bec. some are confused that balance and alignment are just one.
5. If your problem still insist, try to go to a place where they specialized Mercedes.

Reno

Stephen, I think you have a good plan.

I have had quite an extensive experience with such vibrations with several sets of wheels and I have fixed every one of them after doing a proper amount of research and interviewing technical staff. There are usually 3 possible causes of such vibrations:
The most likely cause for your problem is 1) because you have a new vehicle and you have already replaced the tires and rims.

The best wheel balancer in the general market is the Hunter GSP 9700. You can get better ones but I believe they are not designed for garages; they are more scaled for factory work. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if the garage has a Hunter GSP 9700; you can still get improperly balanced wheels. The reason is the mechanic who does the balancing must also be skilled and experienced.

There are many ways to use the Hunter GSP 9700 and the most thorough balancing regime is to set it for "road-force balancing". Here is a link to the Hunter GSP 9700 website so you can learn about the various issues regarding wheel balancing and road vibrations. It can be quite complex because you have deifferent road conditions, 4 wheels and each wheel may have a different set of problems:


You should also understand that many performance-oriented tires with wide treads and shallow sidewalls suffer from manufacturing defects. I was informed by a technical rep of a large tire maker that such tires are a nightmare to make because the reject rate is much higher than for "pedestrian" tire size designs and sizes. The resulting "acceptible" tires are still not that great. Sometimes vibrations are caused by more than one problem: for instance, when you have bad tires AND bad rims plus the guy who balanced them didn't balance them properly. That actually happened to me one time and the tires and rims were new.

Make sure you understand what the Hunter website says about wheel balancing and you can pretty well figure out if your dealer can be trusted. You should be able to watch the mechanic do the balancing and ask him how he is sorting the wheels out. He can also produce a written report showing exactly where the problems on the tires and rims are and what he did to sort them out. Tires and rims are never perfect, that's why they need balancing.

Assuming alignment is already optimum, the other source of problem has to do with tire tread design and tire inflation. Some treads will cause vibrations on certain kinds of road surfaces but not on others. Usually, aggressive tread patterns with stiff sidewalls are the worst and they can also cause tram-lining, where the car will tend to follow ruts in the road surface. To get the best performance from a car you need to balance aggressive performance with the ability of the tire to mitigate bad road surfaces. IMO, aggressive tires are to be avoided for most cars because they are really meant for track racing. They are either wasted or very uncomfortable on our bad roads. Ask a knowledgeable tire dealer and they can find you a really nice tire that will perform well on the R230 and still give you an excellent comfortable ride.

As for shops, I have had very bad experiences with Belle Tire but good experiences with Discount Tire. Each shop is probably different - you must talk to the mechanic and shop manager to gauge how caring and skilled they are about their work. You must talk to the guy who will work on your wheels. I have had an experienced mechanic who did the wrong thing to my wheels because he misunderstood the notes in the work order. It doesn't matter if everything else is right - if the instructions are wrong, you are screwed. This kind of screw-up happens a lot in a busy shop.

By the way, most performance tires are prone to what I call cold-spotting (flat-spotting on a cold surface). This is the phenomenon where you have a set of tires warmed up from a long drive or a drive on hot pavement being put indoors in a cool garage with a very hard cement floor. What you are doing is taking a soft sticky racing rubber compound, warming and softening it up and then plastering it to a hard cold surface. Voila! You have just moulded a flat surface to the tire. Some cars get this problem every day regardless of the kind of tire they use because they have very hard suspensions. But cold-spotting happens to many people. The problem is usually resolved after 10 to 15 minutes of highway driving but if you store your car this way for many weeks the flat spots may not resolve themselves so easily.

The correct remedy is to over-inflate your tires by 2 or 3 PSI (but make sure you are not approaching the inflation limit of your tires). This is also what the dealers do to their own cars when they sit them in their garages for a long time. The manufacturer often has a prescribed procedure for long term storage and will include instructions on adding air to the tires. I have one set of such instructions. Once the tires are rounded again you should return tire pressures to normal or you'll cause uneven wear. My own tires actually resolve cold-spotting within 10 minutes so I don't add air unless I've sat the car for more than 2 or 3 weeks.

One way to avoid cold spotting is to use special mats to park your tires over. The special mat is relatively soft compared to your tire, allowing your tires to distribute the weight of the car over a bigger area before cooling off and setting. Remember, the softer surface is the one that yields. Here's their website - they're expensive:
BTW, the facts section at this website also has a blurb on vibrations. I have not actually tried their products myself so please check them out carefully before you decide to buy anything from them.

Anyway, just remember this, - there is no black magic to wheel vibration problems - all of them are explainable. If someone tells you to do something but can't explain the logic of it then you need to be careful.

Good Luck - your verry nice SL600 should not vibrate at all. The ride should be perfect. Don't settle for less!


Reno

tandan

steve, my sl is rolling smoothly an perfectly with 2600 mi. i did have a problem with my jeep. at about 10,000 mi., when we took it over 40mph it would vibrate so violently it was hard to keep control of the car. it didn't do this all the time though. i took it to the jeep dealer twice. they would balance, rotate etc. and then they would say everything was ok. sure enough the next time out, it would feel like the car was going to tear itself apart. i took it to the local big o tire shop, bought 4 "used" upgraded tires and have never had another problem. the tires themselves were bad, and the dealer didn't know crap.

Overclocked412

I had a similar problem on a previous car, when approaching 55, and to about 65, the wheel would shake just the way StephenK explained it. After trying everything, a new tire finally fixed the problem. The old one looked perfect, but I guess it just wasnt correctly made in some small aspect.

tiggerfink

My friend sued MBUSA for new tires. His car was about a week old and the local MB dealer made all type of excuses. The tire shop discovered that the inner threads were separating. For some reason he got Copper tires on his new E-class. MBUSA gave him new Michelins and he has no more vibrating problems.

RadSteve

Wow Nice answer man!

vkapoormd

Steve, echoing what the others have said, this is not acceptable for a brand new vehicle; i haven't had any such problems with my 2005, but did notice it on my prior car (it was a lexus LS 400) when driving at 60-70 mph; it was a simple issue of balancing and the tire pressure was not correct in the tires; it sounds like yours, however, maybe something more. Good luck and keep us posted.

Reno

Thanks. I forgot to include a couple of other suggestions though.

When you take your nice wheels (as opposed to ratty old wheels) for balancing, make sure you ask the shop if they have the proper equipment for mounting and dismounting tires from large rims. Some wheel mounters will leave a mark on any rim that is bigger than 16-inch as I recall (correct me if I am wrong but I am sure it is less than 17-inch).

Even if they tell you they have the best and latest equipment I would take digital photos of your nice wheels (and car) in front of the shop staff before you hand your stuff over for balancing. Include some part of the shop in your photos.

That way you have proof of any damage you find when your stuff come back to you. Just make sure you inspect everything thoroughly while you are still at the shop and point out any problems while you are still there. Make sure your comments are recorded in writing. It is preferable if you DO NOT pick up your car at the last minute on Friday. Try for Wednesday. That way, you have 2 days left in the week to give them hell or call your lawyer.


Reno

tiggerfink

Did you get the vibrations fix?

StephenK

I lowered the tire pressures and the vibration is gone. Running at 28-29 front and 30-31 rear. Seems the higher pressures caused a lot rougher ride. The vibration in the steering wheel is gone too.

tiggerfink

Did you have vibrations when you had the tire pressure listed on your gas cap? I would put 33 psi in the rear tires or what is listed for the rear tires. I have my rear tires at 32 psi and the front at 29 psi.

LovinMercedes

The recommended PSI's are 26 front and 29 rear.

tiggerfink

I thought Stephen told me that SLs with the sports package have 30 front and 33 rear on the inside gas door.