NikleinR6

Well, 11/11 was my birthday, and i had about the worst day ever..
I was looking my car over on 11/10 and noticed that the inside edges of both my rear tires are wearing out quickly. I looked around a bit under the car and noticed there is no adjustment for camber??? Weird??
I looked around on the forums and found some buy camber kits, etc. Others just have the tires rotated.
So on 11/11 i decided to head out in the morning and get my rear tires dismounted from the wheel and rotated.

I sat around in the lobby while they rotated my tires. They finished, gave me the keys, i paid, and left.
I made it 1/2 a mile down the road when the car started shaking VIOLENTLY, the right rear corner slammed down, and i shut the car down immediately (hit the brakes).
I knew exactly what had happened before i even stepped out of the car.
When i walked around the right rear corner of my SL, i wasn't surprised to see MY WHEEL HAD FALLEN OFF. I suppose the tire tech was rushing through completing the work and had forgotten to tighten the lug bolts. The lug bolts were missing, ripped out of the hub, and the brake rotor was sitting inside the wheel well. The inner hub was bent up, caliper banged up, and inner fender liner chewed up. The car was also leaking brake fluid.

I called the shop, they sent a tech to me, he pulled the spare out because the mounting surface of my wheel is chewed up, and went back to the shop to fill up the spare tire with air. While he was at the shop, i walked back down the road and found 4/5 of my lug bolts (All missing threads at the end from where they were ripped out from never being tightened). He came back and tried to mount the spare , but found the inner ring of the hub was chewed up. We had to use a hammer to beat the inner ring back into shape, and got the spare on right as the wrecker arrived. They towed the car back to their shop, and promised to get it fixed ASAP. They provided me with a rental car > A KIA SADONA mini-van.
I couldn't get much sleep that night so yesterday morning i went back to them, had another tow-truck come, and towed the car to the local dealer. Now we are waiting 2-4 days for parts to arrive.
The tire shop owner was very upset at the prospect of him not being able to repair the car, and the charges that the local dealer would incur, but has still promised to cover the bill, once Mercedes has finished with it.
There was no way i was going to trust them with the SBC brake system, or hub repair, etc...

Here are some pics of the tire wear...





AND HERE ARE SOME PICS OF THE CARNAGE...

NikleinR6

NikleinR6

To add more insult to injury, the dealer called me later yesterday after looking over the car thoroughly. They tell me my right front abc strut is slightly leaking, my ball joint is torn, and all my brakes will need replacement.

I took them my Chrysler service contract info, so it should cover the $1600 strut and ball joint. I told them to hold off on the rotors and brake pads because i want to go with Akebono ceramic pads next (OEM make too much dust).

This will be the 1st time i will have used my Extended warranty..
Hopefully all will go smoothly..
-Nick

DCMETRO22Z

I'm an artist, and on a strictly esthetic side, I find the pice of cutten metal absolutely beautiful. the violence of the shock is cristalized in the matter. Beautyful.

NikleinR6

lol

sprins

Aside from this story I've heard two other stories like this before from two friends. One went to get winter wheels and returned with a wobbling car due to untightened bolts (the same tyre shop I use, professional guys, yet this apparently slips through there also). And the other story from an official MB workplace (not mine) where they also failed to tighten one wheel after an inspection. None lost a wheel like you did, but it started to make me wonder if they forget to tighten other things as well from time to time...

On the upside, only material damage. And good luck with getting your money from the tyre shop.

DCMETRO22Z

Non-artists cannot understand artists.

cal1

Damn... too bad. would it be inappropriate to wish you a belated happy birthday?

I dismount and rotate my fronts because of camber. I smoke the rears so fast they don't get a chance to get a bad wear pattern.



I'm going to start checking the lugs after leaving the tire shop.

Tech-Tune

Wow, lucky you werent on the highway when that happen.

Speedriven1

Be careful going forward. I had something similar happen with my (first one I ever saw in person) 2006 Pontiac Solstice. The diff. went South on the road and I had it towed to the dealer, who tried to make the repairs under warranty.

There was slight subframe damage - which is never slight - and the whole driveline was tweaked a bit. It was never right, and I had to go through a long and awful Lemon Law process.

WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE (as pointed out by the Lemon Law people) was immediately file a claim with my insurance company as well, and give the company a chance to send out an adjustor to look at the damages and determine what damage (if any) was covered by the contact of vehicle components and the road.

If something like this ever happens to me again, I'm calling the insurance company - and I think you definitely should, as well. Just my $0.02.

Good luck, and happy (?) birthday. Next one will be better.

Maverick1975

Learn how to spell and write English and it might help others understand better

alx

i had bolts become lose on two occasions and both times i had plenty of wobbly warning so i could come to a stop before the wheel separates.

i am surprised you didnt have enough forewarning...

alex

blackmagic527

If you bought a contract from Michael at ziegler group you should be good.
I have used mine a few times and it has paid for itself. My car is actually in the shop now and it needs a new super charger clutch .

okbarnett

after you get it fixed, hopefully they will have to align it at mercedes after the repair. you will find out what the rear camber is. no there isnt a adjustment for rear. But maybe it is lowered and that is eating them more than usual. If not then the tires are old and they have worn to that point. just replace the rears more often.

Rook3300

My SL500 is stock and wore out the rear tires the exact same way. 285/30/R18's on rear wore down to the canvas on both sides before I noticed it. I rarely approach my vehicle from far enough rearward to see it so I didn't notice it until it wore so much. Asked the dealer about it and yes, we just have to buy rears more often than most.

Sorry to hear about your horrible experience. Sounds like it happens far more often than we'd like to think it does. Scary.

-ROOK

DCMETRO22Z

Dear mister, Mocking the level of language of a foreigner is absolutely inappropriate,even more since my english is understandable .

I learned English alone,I never lived in an English speaking country.

I also speak a broken german (I can survive in germany)

I already had hours long conversations with american people in Paris, they could understand me pretty well,despite the fact that I have almost no occasions to speak english here in France

Your post is full of arrogance and disrespect, I post often here, I'm perfectly able to have a technical discussion about Mercedes Engines.

It's the first time somebody makes such disrespectful comments.

I wonder How many foreign languages you speak.

Best regards.

LawRens

artists can't even understand other artists.



<3

DCMETRO22Z

I'm an artist ... Well it depends for what... mainly to seduce Hipster girls

indyjoe

How long did you drive with it shaking like this??????


As crazy as it sounds, I've had this happen twice! However, both times I immediately pulled over when the car started shaking. As you said, I "knew" what the problem was even the first time it happened. The 1st time I just tightened the bolts, and went on my way.

The 2nd time I actually lost 1 lug, and just tightened the others really tight. Went back to the tire shop, and was told that they didn't actually do any work on the car even though I saw them taking the tires off, and sat there for 45 minutes. It was one of the most ridiculous customer service arguments I've ever had.

NikleinR6

It was instantaneous guys.. There was no warning. The car made a couple of shudders and then dropped.. It's not like I felt anything and just kept on going, I literally made it 1/2 a mile from the shop....

sebster

How is your Akebono working out for you? It's time for me to replace mine...

NikleinR6

To be honest i absolutely love them. I now have them on the front and rear of my Sl55, the front and rear of my C230, and the front and rear of my CLS550. The amount of dust they produce is wonderful (very little). I used to clean my wheels every other day with stock pads, now i clean them once a week if i want to. I could go 2 weeks before i notice any measurable accumulation.
The braking is still the same, although they did take a week or so to break in properly.
I couldn't be happier. If you don't have these, its worth pulling good OEM pads out and replacing them with these.