Paulie Junior

Need some help or advice on direction to take here.

Vehicle: 2011 E63 AMG
Mileage: 36,000

Suspension Mods: None

Issues: When driving, the constantly need to correct/ keep the steering wheel centered on all surfaces. At first if seemed to me that the vehicle was 80% pulling to the right however over the past few weeks it seems the change still loaning towards the right, just overall just not driving straight. Even on a brand new flat surface road, while driving straight, the vehicle just wants to go wherever it wants. I can not drive the vehicle at al without my hands on the wheel. as far as handling goes, the car seems to handle fine in a turn ( ie a highway ramp)

On the highway I am getting a vibration starting around 50-60 and get noticeably worse at 70ish. this issue if present with both my 18" and 19" wheel sets ( winter and summer)

I Just got an oil change yesterday and asked my mechanic to check out the front end. His comments were the front end looks tight. (very slight play in passenger hub) but he said that should not cause the issues i am seeing as the issues i am feeling are pretty aggressive.


I notice since this past winter my rear bellows do drop when the car is sitting overnight. it is more extreme in the cold, and the longer i dont touch the car. in the hot weather now, the rears either one or both definitely still "air out" during the day while the vehicle is sitting however not as drastic as in the cold. I do not have any warning lights for the suspension, however is it possible these could be the cause or partial cause even they they are filling up?

I have NOT gotten the car aligned since this issue, i wanted to avoid doing so if i had to replace components. is it possible the car loosing alignment could be the source of all the troubles? are there any components or thing i can diagnose to help determine what may be the issue?

Paulie Junior

Another note, if I cut the wheel all the way hard to the left or right ( and i mean all the way hard over) i do get a little squeal. i will be checking and topping of fluid. Possibly unrelated just giving as much info as possible.

Rockster

To me it is a bit disconcerting with a hub/wheel with some play compared to the other hubs/wheels. But if you trust your mechanic...

Probably best to start with the easiest things first.

Tire pressures ok?

What about wear? No M-B experience but with my Porsche cars as the tires wear down they get real squirrely. The wider the tires the worse they are. More than once I have pulled over to check tire pressure thinking a tire was low -- this was before TMPS -- only to find the tires fine.

As for the vibration, what can happen is as the tires wear they go out of balance. The tread can contain heavy and light areas. As the tread wears down the heavy areas wear down and this can affect balance. It was my experience to when replacing the rear tires to have the fronts balanced. Before I did this I would get the car back with new rear tires and feel like there was a tire balance problem. There was. But with the worn front tires. Might add the wider the tires the more likely the balance will be affected as the tire wears.

I mentioned tire pressures above. There's more: Tire pressures want to be set correctly. Not too low, but not too high either. Experimenting with front tires pressures with one car. Cold front tire pressure was spec'd to be 29psi. I tried increasing the pressure -- I forget now why -- and found at around 32psi a vague kind of tire imbalance vibration. Adjusted tire pressures down to 29psi and vibration gone.

If there is any air suspension that helps with ride height and if one of the air bags or bellows is not maintaining pressure this can affect the car's alignment. If the rear end drops this increases caster at the front. Unequal rear ride height -- differences between the left and right rear wheels -- can result in even goofier misalignment. Even if there is no error code there should be a documented procedure for ensuring these are at the proper height.

Whether this is something you could do on your driveway I don't know.

Or it could be just alignment. My experience over the years is once the alignment is correct it stays correct for thousands of miles. I mean thousands. Every tire replacement is an opportunity to note tire wear and look for any signs of misalignment. And sets of tires after tires no signs of any alignment issues. But I'm careful to avoid bumping curbs with the tires or cutting a turn too sharp and running a front or rear wheel over a curb. But not every one will experience good alignment for as long as I have. Feel the tread surfaces of the tires. Check for feathering or roughness. Check for uneven wear, concentrated on either edge or even in the middle of the tread. Wear should be equal across the face and from side to side. IOWs the front tire wear should be the same as should the rear tires. Front and rear tires can wear at different rates, though. Rear tires on my Porsche cars lasted about 20K miles while the fronts lasted twice that many miles.

Paulie Junior

Tire pressure is currently set at around 34 on all 4 corners. maybe i should drop this down a bit and see if i have an change at all.

In reference to tire wear, i purchased the vehicle with tires that had about 1 year left on them. I had gotten new tires all around about a month after ownership. this was on the factory 18" wheels. ( only put about 5K miles on these) i have since changed over to 19" amg wheels which do not have brand new tires but have good life on them. I believe i have experienced the issue on both sets.

when did this problem start and progress i am not 100% sure. it is possible it started after i changed the tires from the original owner. i have only put 7k miles on this vehicle in the last year owning it so it hard for me to say WHEN it started. i ran the previous wheels and tires at the same 34-36 psi aswell.

and as far as the rear bags go, i will have to see if it is "sitting uneven" my assumption would be i can not get a proper alignment if this is the case?

PeterUbers

Happened to me with air-tragic

https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...-replaced.html

Paulie Junior

Did you just replace the sensor? I am not showing and malfunction on the dash. Also does this have anything to do with the vehicle airing out when sitting?

if I am not getting a malfunction light is it possible the sensor is still bad giving and issue?

I really want to avoid bringing the car to the deal or the shop 5-6 times for this. I am mechanical so I can self diagnose/ fox just not 100% familiar with these suspension setups.

PeterUbers

dealer did all the work and I had no malfunction warnings