Want to share this with all and understand more about my R171

http://www.badongo.com/vid.php?file=...KR171Noise.mpg

http://www.badongo.com/vid.php?file=...se.mpg&s=black

With this video to share, I hope some of you could shed some light on this. Anyone anywhere in the world had had this phenomenon?

Dealer and factory had spent 3 months on it to no avail. My car is in the shop. They called me in monday to explain this in addition to the first explanation of rusting due to car washing.

I just received my call today confirming my meeting and apparently they briefed me on the meeting's agenda.

I will see if other forum people have experienced this if at all. No TSB ever issued.

Apparently, I was INFORMED today that this problem (despite repeated fixing) was a state of art and they were able to REPLICATE this problem on a few other R171s. Monday's meeting is to demo to me this so called Phenomenon. I wait to hear.

Now I am even more apprehensive that my new R171 will also have this feature.

To be specific, this phenomenon stems from the brake system and it was absent in R170. It supposedly can be replicated (at least for my R171) under the following conditions:

1. When the car is cold started
2. When the wheels, rear ones, are wet
3. When you put the car in reverse gear
4. When the car's disc has a small amount of rust or unsmooth surface

I wait to hear and stay positive. At this point, I have nothing to lose and rather be informed. If anyone had ever had this problem and knew of this, please let me know. I suspect that I maybe the only one so far and find it a bit surprising that they will demo to me this problem on a few vehicles next week.

Apparently, they will tell me why. Also, they will also tell me what I am getting back for compromising by living with this noise. It sounds amazing. Nonetheless, I feel uncomfortable.

 

Interesting.

It actually sounds like what my car did when I changed the wheels. My clicking sound came from wrong size lug bolts. They were just a bit long and the clicking sound was caused by the bolt making continuous contact with the e-brake cable.

I would suggest checking the size of all your bolts on the rear wheels. If any on them are longer, that is your problem. If they all seem the same size, it still could be the bolt length. Maybe you should TEMPORARILY place a few washers onto the bolt (as to shorten their length) and remount the wheel. Do you same SLOW test and see if you get the same results. Note: I wouldnt drive at any speed above 2-5mph while the temp washers are being used.

This is a far fetched. But hey, why not give it a try.

 

Thanks. MB already tried everything. They replaced the full set of wheels and rims.

They replaced the whole rear rotational system from the rear axle to hub to brake discs... and they still couldn't get rid of it.

Strange isn't it? And I think they will now tell me that this is the DESIGN and that was what I was informed before the meeting.

What this means is that it is not something I could get rid of and only minimize by understanding what conditions would cause these noises. It seems like it is common to many R171s I heard. No idea and wait to see.

 

Why dont you check your lug bolt against one from the dealer stock. it's a possibility that they are the wrong size.

ps. you dont have wheel locks do you? are they longer?

 

deleted my original post couldnt find what i was talking about

well maybe these links will help you

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...heels+clicking
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...heels+clicking

good luck

 

it sounds very much like what I am experiencing... always when backing my car... under wet conditions... it would be more prominent... dry conditions will also have small clicking noises.

 

However, it doesn't sound like something that needs a rocket scientist to solve.

It sounds to me that it obviously has something to do with the rotational system. I suspect that the brake caliper/pads and discs should all be changed on both sides.

Afterall, they had replaced the whole axle and hub already so they should go the extra mile.

Plus I have 2 technical enginners and one head engineer from MBCL on this and it is just not possible for them to tell me that this is the STATUS QUO or "AS GOOD AS IT GETS".

This is truly what I suspect. Yes, there is a problem in the braking system of the R171s and a few of them have this problem. For those that have it, they probably have done the number crunching to find that it is not economical to to a massive recall. Again, I was told that I was the ONLY ONE. However, if I am the only one, it is definitely not worth the time to report this to DCAG in causing a mass hysteria. The case in point is, they do have the solution. However, it must be something that requires a change in design or setup (that would need approval from DCAG) so he has nothing better to tell me than the fact that this is a status quo or state of art or as good as it gets. However, it is not acceptable to me.

This is what my dealer has been conveying to me so far that the meeting will centre around this status quo and explaining this status quo.

It means that "sir, take it or leave it and if you don't like it, take your custom elsewhere and we won't do anything because it is just the way it is and it's right to have the noise"

 

Today, I had attended a meeting held by MBCL.

Apparently, the meeting wasn't very reassuring to me as a customer.

Mr Mueller today had demonstrated to me that the noises on my car
were still present under certain conditions:

1. Namely, when the discs are wet
2. When the car is put in reverse

The noises are still very prominent.

From the customer POV, this sort of noise is abnormal and unacceptable.

However, MBCL didn't say anything too helpful. They neither explained the reason behind this nor offered me any solution. He only said that when the wheels were wet, this would happen and he was sure that water was the main cause of this.

Well, at the present moment, I just don't know what to do. All I wanted was for them to offer me a solution to get rid of the noises but they said they needed to do more testing.

PKelvin, btw, you were right. I could tell you right away that when you back up, you might hear some clicking noises and if you would like to confirm for yourself, try using a hose to wet your wheels thoroughly and I assured you that you would be able to reproduce those noises to a certain degree.

To me, the R171 has a different brake system (confirmed by MBCL) and the design is flawed to me... although MBCL would not admit to that.

A responsible company I believe should retrofit my car but he apparently didn't give me a definite answer.

I left ZF and my car was left there.

It has been confirmed that it is present on another R171. To me, this is an imperfection. He said it was normal and my car happened to make louder clicking while others may make small noises.

Mr Mueller could not be 100% sure that the noise would not be present on
a newly traded in R171 and this is quite worrisome to me.

My videos clearly demonstrate that the noises can escalate to
unacceptable levels on certain days and this problem must be fixed
from a customer POV.

That pretty much concludes my case. I have to write a letter to MBCL tomorrow to ask them to issue me a letter/report in BLACK AND WHITE delineating this phenomenon of "normality" to me. I will also ask them to certify the safety of the vehicle.

In my mind, my suspicion (although I could be wrong) is that it is nonetheless a design flaw and it probably has been reported a few times. Apparently, not enough cases and complaints to issue a service bulletin and not enough cases to have a retrofit.

The bad news is that my R171 is still making those clicking noises. The good news is that maybe it is just really the STATUS QUO and this is as good as it gets.

 

How about you make your party political broadcast on behalf of the self interest party to mercedes direct ?.............