Car Crabbing / judder when in full lock

[C250BLUE]

Hi.

When I full lock the steering it seems like my front wheel is hitting or scrubbing against something. I've searched online and it seems this is a very common problem.

How can I resolve this issue and what is Mercedes doing about this.

My car is a C220D Amg line 2018 model (new face lift model)

Only had the car 8 months

Thanks

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

Search the member ‘driver200’ on here

Once you’ve finished reading, by around New Year’s Day, you’ll have the answers you seek

 

[C250BLUE]

Search the member ‘driver200’ on here

Once you’ve finished reading, by around New Year’s Day, you’ll have the answers you seek

LOL I know exactly what you mean - 42 pages

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Full lock, performance tyre compounds, low profile tyres, hard sidewalls, low temperatures and slippery surface combine to cause this, which is often exaggerated by four wheel drive.

My car did it this morning. I wonder whether Mercedes will give me some winter tyres? It would save me buying some...

 

[John N]

Hi.

When I full lock the steering it seems like my front wheel is hitting or scrubbing against something. I've searched online and it seems this is a very common problem.

How can I resolve this issue and what is Mercedes doing about this.

My car is a C220D Amg line 2018 model (new face lift model)

Only had the car 8 months

Thanks

My C250 17 Plate had this problem until I changed the Front Continentals that it came with, for Michelin!

 

[Germgh0st]

Mercedes are changing the Pirelli P Zeros on my C43 to Bridgestone or Continentals at their own cost. Not sure which I'm going to get yet.

 

[SarahAnn200]

I bought a 19 reg c43 last week and it did the judder thing on full lock. I need full lock in and out of my drive. I emailed Mercedes customer services and received a reply from an Amg specialist to say the dealer will look after me. I spoke to the supplying dealer. Took the car back on Monday and they fitted Bridgestone tyres free of charge. Judder has now gone. They call it a characteristic but the tyre change fixes it. The dealer was putting a claim into Mercedes for the cost of the tyres. I'm thrilled with the c43 now

 

[st13phil]

How can I resolve this issue and what is Mercedes doing about this.

Answering your questions in order:

1. In the current colder conditions, you can eliminate the jumping on full lock by fitting winter tyres
2. Nothing

OK, I'll expand on the second answer. The sensation you're experiencing is commonplace on all cars running wide, low-profile, summer tyres in cold conditions. It's a function of the outer edge of the tyre needing to rotate at a different speed to the inner edge when on lock, and that's something that clearly can't happen. At low temperatures, summer tyres lose compliance and therefore have a noticeable "wind up then slip" characteristic that is felt as the tyre skipping or jumping. This is more prevalent when tyres are worn as the tread blocks have less "give", so even replacing the part worn tyres with new examples may reduce or stop the sensation, while swapping to winter tyres which have higher compliance in cold weather will almost certainly likely eliminate it completely.

Note that while this issue on a RWD car is similar to that experienced by owners of the current 4WD Mercedes cars, the latter experience the effect in a more extreme fashion and as a result of a litany of customer complaints Mercedes have made engineering changes to some models to reduce (but not completely eliminate) the sensation, and have also offered some owners replacement tyres that are more compliant. For RWD cars it's just the way it is and you will either have to learn to live with it or swap to winter tyres at your own cost.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Both my C250 4matic and my wife's 2011 A class ( 16" Dunlops) crab on full lock out the garage. Both now on Michelin cross climates on the front , no crabbing.
The crabbing is not only on performance tyres or 4WD. Doesn't particularly bother me on either car.
When the A class's tyres were down to 3mm it felt as if the wheel bearings had gone.
As mentioned on a previous post , I have clay paviors on my drive which ,due to their slightly abrasive surface, are very unforgiving when rubber scrubs over them and probably why my front tyres never last more than 7 - 8000 miles.

 

[Germgh0st]

Had all four of my tyres replaced FOC by Mercedes with Continentals. No more skipping

 

[GLK]

My A200 - 2006 C169, FWD, Sport suspension, 18" AMG alloys - is certainly affected by crabbing, when it's cold, on its summer tyres 225/40 R18 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3.
Not a pip on winter tyres though - 205/55 R16 Michelin Alpin A4 MO.

Just to illustrate the perfect explanation given by Phil above

 

[kingkarl]

I bought a 19 reg c43 last week and it did the judder thing on full lock. I need full lock in and out of my drive. I emailed Mercedes customer services and received a reply from an Amg specialist to say the dealer will look after me. I spoke to the supplying dealer. Took the car back on Monday and they fitted Bridgestone tyres free of charge. Judder has now gone. They call it a characteristic but the tyre change fixes it. The dealer was putting a claim into Mercedes for the cost of the tyres. I'm thrilled with the c43 now

Hi
I have a new glc63 and the crabbing has scrubbed the fronts in 4000 miles and the tyres are bald

MB and my main dealership say it's a characteristic of the car and I must replace at my cost

How did you get an AMG specialist involved and did they argue or just replace

I cant dive my 5 month old car now dur to bald front tyres

 

[markjay]

It's a bit odd, the 'traditional' crabbing issue on 4WD MB cars with low-profile tyrea typically occurred in cold weather and when and on full lock at parking speeds.

This 'characteristic' behaviour (as MB call it) is hardly likely to cause a tyre to go bald across the thread in 4,000 miles.

You'd have to be parking the car non-stop all day long for the 'crabbing' in itself to erase 8mm of rubber....

I am not sure what is causing the accelerated wear of the front tyres, but I would hazard a guess that the issue is different to the 'traditional' crabbing issue.

But yes, bald front tyres after 4,000 miles is excessive, even on a high-power 4WD car fitted with soft-compound Pirellis. I wonder what mileage do other members with AMG cars manage to get out of their Pirellis fitted on driven wheels?

Also, what's the thread depth on the rear tyres?

 

[kianok]

Had all four of my tyres replaced FOC by Mercedes with Continentals. No more skipping

They won’t when new as there is plenty of tread depth and therefore movement in the tyre.

Wait until they are worn by a couple of mm.

 

[SarahAnn200]

Kingkarl I bought my 19 reg in November with 4,000 miles on, registered in March. The dealer said it was a management car but you never know who's been driving it.
It did the skippy thing on day 1 and I emailed the dealer when I got home. At this point, the dealer said it was a characteristic and I would need to buy all weather tyres to fix it. I emailed Mercedes customer services and told them that I'm not buying new tyres on day 1 and as I have rejected an Audi before, I know the process to reject a car. I didn't hear anything for a few days and then I had an email from an amg specialist in Germany. They were still calling it a characteristic but the amg chap said the dealer would be in touch and sort the issue. Then the dealer got in touch to say they would replace the tyres free of charge and put a claim into Mercedes. They seem to be covering themselves by calling it a characteristic but I ended up very happy. The issue is gone and now I love it. I've owned nearly 30 cars, all different, some performance, some 4 wheel drive. None have done the skippy thing and it was unacceptable to me at the level it was doing it. The car was skipping sideways in and out of my drive and I would have hit my wall. It's a tight drive anyway. I can't fault Mercedes customer services and the dealer was very helpful (once CS got involved).

 

[Germgh0st]

They won’t when new as there is plenty of tread depth and therefore movement in the tyre.

Wait until they are worn by a couple of mm.

The previous tyres only had 1400 miles on them.

 

[kingkarl]

It's a bit odd, the 'traditional' crabbing issue on 4WD MB cars with low-profile tyrea typically occurred in cold weather and when and on full lock at parking speeds.

This 'characteristic' behaviour (as MB call it) is hardly likely to cause a tyre to go bald across the thread in 4,000 miles.

You'd have to be parking the car non-stop all day long for the 'crabbing' in itself to erase 8mm of rubber....

I am not sure what is causing the accelerated wear of the front tyres, but I would hazard a guess that the issue is different to the 'traditional' crabbing issue.

But yes, bald front tyres after 4,000 miles is excessive, even on a high-power 4WD car fitted with soft-compound Pirellis. I wonder what mileage do other members with AMG cars manage to get out of their Pirellis fitted on driven wheels?

Also, what's the thread depth on the rear tyres?

The rear has 3.5mm tread left

Are any all season tyres available for 21" rims

What tyre wear miles would you expect from a front set

 

[kingkarl]

Kingkarl I bought my 19 reg in November with 4,000 miles on, registered in March. The dealer said it was a management car but you never know who's been driving it.
It did the skippy thing on day 1 and I emailed the dealer when I got home. At this point, the dealer said it was a characteristic and I would need to buy all weather tyres to fix it. I emailed Mercedes customer services and told them that I'm not buying new tyres on day 1 and as I have rejected an Audi before, I know the process to reject a car. I didn't hear anything for a few days and then I had an email from an amg specialist in Germany. They were still calling it a characteristic but the amg chap said the dealer would be in touch and sort the issue. Then the dealer got in touch to say they would replace the tyres free of charge and put a claim into Mercedes. They seem to be covering themselves by calling it a characteristic but I ended up very happy. The issue is gone and now I love it. I've owned nearly 30 cars, all different, some performance, some 4 wheel drive. None have done the skippy thing and it was unacceptable to me at the level it was doing it. The car was skipping sideways in and out of my drive and I would have hit my wall. It's a tight drive anyway. I can't fault Mercedes customer services and the dealer was very helpful (once CS got involved).

Is it possible to reject a new car after 5 months.. although we have complained throughout our ownership

The motoring ombudsman don't want to know as it's a characteristic... so I have contacted the financial ombudsman who say it could take 6 months to review my case

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Swopped my 19" wheels over to 18" for the winter last November. The original 19" Continental runflats had 3mm left on the front and 7mm on the rear , they've only covered approx 7000 miles so new fronts in the spring.

 

[SarahAnn200]

Sorry I don't know about rejecting after that long. The Audi s3 was a 19 reg that I had paint issues with and reported very early (1st week of ownership).
My tyres are only 18" on my c43