E63ory

My e63 (6500 miles and tires are in very decent shape still), has been handling more like a truck on ice lately. Slight steering vibrations are felt between 70 to 80 mph. Grip is pathetic. Dealer doesn't think it is an alignment issue but suspects something else. Car will be test driven tomorrow by a mechanic. Any educated thoughts on what could be the problem?

Thanks in advance!

Ory

AMGfan

I had similar problems (vibration at around 70-74mph) on my Cadillac and found one of my tires needed balancing...I don't seem to have that vibration anymore.

I hope it lasts...

Rocketman

First thing - check the tire pressures! Second thing, have you hit a curb or pothole recently - would cause damage to the rim that will impact the alignment/wheel balance and may not be visible from the outside. Last thing is it might be the suspension piece(s) have loosened up (this is unlikely, but a possibility). Let us know what yoiu find.

AMGfan

Yup...tire pressures are the first thing to check off...

steadi

Tire Pressure
Curb Strike
Thrown Wheel Weight
Tire Defect (De-lamination, or Bubble)
Or you corded the tires doing burnouts
Bad Airmatic

It's one of those

E63ory

Thanks, I bet it's bad airmatic....

jrcart

Don't forget to throw bad wheel bearing or warped or bent rotor into the mix. Do you track the car often? Do you do a lot of burn outs? If so maybe you have put too many heat cycles into them. Rubber, even on hard street compound tires, changes molecularly every time you heat or over heat them. Each time you do so the rubber loses some of it's characteristics. Are you running the original equipment tires? Is wear close to equal at all 4 corners? If not this could be a sign of some of the above mentioned problems. Suspension failure, a slightly bent control arm, bad Airmatic or bad wheel bearing, any one of these could result in improper wear on a single tire.

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

+1

Curb strike could lead to a littany of issues including bad wheel bearings and bent control arms.

MB_Forever

Are you sure the tires are still in a good shape? At 7,000 miles, my tires were almost down to the wear bar

E63ory

Dealer took a 20 mile ride in car... found nothing wrong with airmatic, nothing damaged, etc. Alignment was performed, but the car still handles poorly. The dealer was trying to sell me PS 2 tires for $1500 out the door, claiming that the rear has 2000 miles left and front 4000. A local tire dealer said that the tires look fine to him. The car only has 6700 miles at this point... Maybe I should post pics of tires.

I am frustrated and am not sure if to just throw now tires on car, at the risk that the problem won't be solved. The car is sliding all over the road, no grip, at least not anywhere close to how it used to be. Came back from SD today - scary.

I may try another dealer. Any additional thoughts would be very appreciated.

Ory

jangy

The tires turn hard and also get flat spots if parked.

steadi

STOP.

Really, Just stop

AMGfan

I know you guys don't like each other, but can you just disagree without getting so antagonistic. I'd like to not have another thread hijacked. Let's focus and try to help the OP out. Nothing good will come if this goes the way of the other thread...just my .02.

jangy

Now why would I stop when I'm on such a roll?

jangy

Newbs come and newbs go. They come from all walks of life, but they still simply come and go. This one will be gone soon enough. We may as well enjoy his company while he is here.

p.s. did you tell him hi for me?

AMGfan

I knew you couldn't resist !

E63ory

Thanks.... Went with tech today for a test drive. He drove the sh*t out of it and claims car felt fine. I thought he is either full of it or on crack, or both. The car does NOT grip well at all. Tires were looked at by the local tire place - They still have about 50% life left. So, what to do now? Just live with the crappy handling? I must confess, I am starting to get used to sliding all over the place, I feel like I am in one of those Tokyo car movies.

MB_Forever

Are you certain your car did not do that when you first got it? Maybe they flashed the software and your car is a lot stronger now

The only way to resolve this is to request a test-drive in another E63 and prove to the technician that the other E63 does not slide as much as yours, and that it has much better grip. I would go test drive 2 different E63s and see how they handle just to make sure

AMGfan

Ory...What kind of OEM tires do you have?

E63ory

Yes, of course, they installed the new tt engine in my car, just to 'test' it out....

I would love to try and drive two back to back. I doubt that my dealer here would go for that. I would have to take it to Simonson for that, where I bought the car.

E63ory

I have the contis. But, here's a question, at what point during the tire's life span, do you start noticing a decline in grip?

MB_Forever

With Conti's, I started noticing after the first few hundred miles

My rear Conti's lasted between 7k to 8k miles, but they were almost all track miles

MB_Forever

Forget the service department..... Just walk into sales and request to drive a brand new E63 they have and try the same moves you do in your own E63 to make it slip. If it doesn't slip, go back to service department and tell them you drove other E63s and they do not do that.