CLS tyre wear and vibration problems

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DW99

New Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
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14
Hi everyone,

Since I bought my 06 CLS about 9 months ago, I've had a recurring vibration throught he car. It's fairly subtle, so it's been difficult to convince the dealer there's a problem, and I've wondered at times if it's just combination of the low profile tyres and poor roads in the UK. It's certainly spoiled my enjoyment of the car though.

Anyway, recently I had a puncture on the rear offside, and when I removed the tyre to fit the spare, I was horrified to find some very dangerous wear on the tyre. It's so serious that I reckon I was lucky not to have had a blow-out. The problem is only on the inside edge. Also, whilst there's scuffing around the entire circumference, the most significant wear is concentrated on one section of the tyre. I've attached photos which show the damage. You can see the alarming "step" on the left hand side of the first picture.

I went back to the dealer and they're not sure what the cause is. They suggested checking alignment to see if that would highlight any chassis problems. The problem being that if it didn't, I'd have to pay for it!! Anyway, after a bit more discussion, they have suggested it might be a damper problem. To some degreee this might explain some of the symptoms. For example, I once had to do an emergency stop, and I noticed thevibration seemed to briefly get worse. However, the very focused nature of the tyre wear doesn't seem to tie-up with a damper issue. I've been thinking about it overnight, and I wonder if something more like a bent axle might be more likely to cause this type of wear.

The worrying thing is that now I've replaced the two rears, the dealer tells me that the new offside tyre is starting to show similar wear already, and it's only doen 800 miles.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

DW
 

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Oh, I forgot to mention that I was convinced at first that it was a buckled wheel, as I've already had a buckled wheel replaced on the front, but the engineer who checked it said he couldn't see any signs of the wheel being buckled.
 
Has the car had any knocks against a curb?
 
Looking at the tread it looks as though the Camber and the tracking are out, I am sure as the tread looks to be feathered, this is where a scrubbing action takes place.

Forget shock absorbers, no way those, its not an inflation problem either, as can be seen by the wear.

OK you cant go on the way you are,,I would find someone with good wheel setting alignment equipment, and get a report.

If it was a strut I wold have said bent strut
 
I agree with Malcolm, this is not uncommon and a good alignment check will highlight the fault.

Since you don't get that many CLS's running about I'd say the best place to get this done is the dealer and I'd have to check the prices but £250 ish springs to mind, I'm not trying to sound like a prat here but if you've just forked out for the car the alignment cost will be like a fly pissing in the ocean or look at it from another way and say the price of tyres will soon overtake the cost of the alignment if its not sorted.
 
Thanks chaps.

I accept the economic argument, which is why I'm keen to get it sorted out ASAP. I don't mind paying for the alignment if that's what the problem is, but I'm not convinced that the dealer has got to the root of the vibration problem. The general scrubbing would be explained by wheel alignment, but what about the big groove on one section of that edge? It's a good centimetre deeper than the rest of the scuffing. Wouldn't that suggest some kind of oscilation problem like a bent rim? I've had a vibraton pretty well since I bought the car.

Interestingly enough, just after I took delivery of the car, I drove it round to ATS to get it balanced. They discovered scrubbing on the inside of the front tyres, and refiused to balance it. After some argument I evenutally convinced the dealer to optiplex it for free, although they refused to fund new tyres and I had to replace them myself - they might be happy to send me out on compromised tyres, but I wasn't.

It was right after that first alignment that the vibration became really noticable. Could the alignment have been done incorrectly the first time? I thought vibrations weren't traditionally associated with tracking.

DW
 
The wear pattern looks concave from the photographs and seems to be over a very narrow area. It may seem unlikely but as well as getting the alignment checked it would be worth looking around the inner wall of the wheel arch to see if the tyre is catching on something.

If you do find an answer, please post it as I've never seen anything like that before.
 
Thanks Roger, I'll check out the links you posted. I'm not near one of the Micheldever sites, but I do travel around quite a bit with work, so I'm sure I'll end up somewhere in their area.
 
Do you know the full history of this vehicle?
I don't like the fact that ATS refused to balance the wheels. Were you happy with the reasons for the refusal? I am not criticising ATS and all credit to them for their action.

Hind sight is a useless talent but if you have had this problem ever since you purchased the car, then there is a lesson here? I thought dealers offered a 30 day return policy which sadly will no longer apply.

Good luck getting this issue resolved and I agree about the fact the replacement tyres will be very quickly worn through.

Thank goodness you replaced the tyres when you did.

Regards
John
 
Just out of curiosity here mate did you purchase this car from a dealer? I'm just wondering why you decided to take a freshly purchased car to ATS (not having a pop at you here at all, i really am just curious)?
 
Just out of curiosity here mate did you purchase this car from a dealer? I'm just wondering why you decided to take a freshly purchased car to ATS (not having a pop at you here at all, i really am just curious)?
:) Great minds (or your great mind, and my curious mind) think alike.

Regards
John
 
I remember Evo magazine had a vibration problem on their long termer CLS. It transpired that the AMG wheels had buckled, and replacing them cured it. Are you 100% sure your wheels aren't buckled?
 
It's a fair question. to be honest I can't quite remember whether I felt the vibration right off, but for the sake of £20 or so, it seemed worth getting the balancing done.
 
I remember Evo magazine had a vibration problem on their long termer CLS. It transpired that the AMG wheels had buckled, and replacing them cured it. Are you 100% sure your wheels aren't buckled?

I saw that article, and I had a CLK a few years ago that developed a buckled wheel, so I certainly haven't ruled it out. For me, it the most obvious explanation. I'm not a tyre expert but it would seem a reasonable explanation of the uneven wear.
 
It's a fair question. to be honest I can't quite remember whether I felt the vibration right off, but for the sake of £20 or so, it seemed worth getting the balancing done.
Thats a fair point.

Personally I'd start with the alignment and move on from that point if need be.
 
Many thanks for eveyone's thoughts so far. On refection it is worth getting the alignment done regardless. It was done last August, but the roads aren't great round here and it's probably been over the odd pothole. There is some minor wear round the whole edge of the tyre, so there could well be an alignment problem, regardless of the vibration.

This afternoon I also had a chat with the tyre place that fitted the new tyres on the back. They said that bucling is quite difficult to spot, and typically you need to remove the tyre and spin it, before you can see it properly. They've offered to do that for free! I'll get that checked first. I guess in an ideal world, I should replace the wheel (if required) before getting it tracked.

One important thing I forgot to mention. Just after the rear tyres were replaced, the vibration disappeared, but it seems to have started to creep back in the last few days. In fact, the more I think about it, that's much more likely to be an indication of a problem with the wheel than anything else. I would have expected new tyres to magnify something like a suspension vibration, but who knows.

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens. A least I finally have some physical, if rather scary evidence to work with. That puncture has to be the best example of serendipity I've had in a long time.

Thanks again!

DW
 
One important thing I forgot to mention. Just after the rear tyres were replaced, the vibration disappeared, but it seems to have started to creep back in the last few days. In fact, the more I think about it, that's much more likely to be an indication of a problem with the wheel than anything else. I would have expected new tyres to magnify something like a suspension vibration, but who knows.

Another thought. Bent hub?
 

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