CLS tyre wear and vibration problems

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i have seen this on bmw 3 series but on the front and it is the camber that they are set up with .i would get dealer to check track and giometery . as someone pointed out has it had a prang against a kerb (rear drive v snow) just a thought
 
It would be nice to see if there was a resolution to this.

However, and it's a big however, the tyre shown is too small for the rear wheels on the CLS which is shown on the CLS in DW99s avatar.
 
I've had this problem on the fronts of my 2009 CLS350 CDI Grand Edition. Ate its first set of fronts after 16k miles (picked up coincidentally when I went to get a puncture fixed), inner corners down to the canvas. Dealer did a realignment, almost no adjustment needed. 12k miles later it has eaten a second set of fronts, same problem, inner corners down to the canvas. Kicked up a stink with the dealer, insisted camber must be wrong - but it is in spec (spec is about one and a half degrees negative camber on the fronts, at least with the AMG wheels - seems barmy to me). Anyhow, dealer turned up a service advisory from MB for exactly this problem, excessive wear on inner front shoulders if car does a lot of high speed straight line driving (e.g. motorways). The cure is a whole raft of alignment and ride height changes which is currently being done free of charge.
 
I had mine re aligned at Elite in rainham. No issues now at all, but make sure they use the right settings. Airmatic settings are different.
 
cls front tire excessive wear

Hi. I have being reading all your comments as i have an 2009 cls 350 that has eaten the corners off 3 sets of front tires, vibrations, the lot. Mentioned it to the main dealer and they didn't seam to have any answers for me. The vibration came back again after the third set of tires (front tire problem). I went to local tire guy with alingment kit. I asked him to check all rims and tires and do thre alingment. He told me my camber was way out in the front and i need to get this special cam bolt and would have to go to the dealer to get it, which off course they will screw me again on. I bought this car brand new, hit the odd pot hole but as there is no camber adjustment other than changing this bolt ( Mercedes-Benz Parts - KIT- A2103300018) is it a fault with mercedes and set wrong from day one or have i bent something. the dealer didn't want to know about it really and from reading the post this seams to be a common problem. When new tires are balanced and installed the the vibration problem is gone. Less than 1000km its back because of the hugh tire wear and the wear is not even in the circumference. its kind of hit and miss not even around which is big vibration at hig speed. My local man charged me €25 euro to alinge the back which was way out. Once I get this cam bolt that can adjust the camber to a max of 3 degrees at a cost of €16 for the bolt it should sore the problem. Its very annoying to pay €85k for a car and have the steering vibrating in your hand and the MB dealer doesn't know or doesn't want to admit it a MB problem. I'll keep you posted but if anyone has sorted this problem for definate could they let me know if this special bolt will work and how hany do I need to change. Both my front wheels are wearing bad. thanks
 
Hi. I have being reading all your comments as i have an 2009 cls 350 that has eaten the corners off 3 sets of front tires, vibrations, the lot. Mentioned it to the main dealer and they didn't seam to have any answers for me. The vibration came back again after the third set of tires (front tire problem). I went to local tire guy with alingment kit. I asked him to check all rims and tires and do thre alingment. He told me my camber was way out in the front and i need to get this special cam bolt and would have to go to the dealer to get it, which off course they will screw me again on. I bought this car brand new, hit the odd pot hole but as there is no camber adjustment other than changing this bolt ( Mercedes-Benz Parts - KIT- A2103300018) is it a fault with mercedes and set wrong from day one or have i bent something. the dealer didn't want to know about it really and from reading the post this seams to be a common problem. When new tires are balanced and installed the the vibration problem is gone. Less than 1000km its back because of the hugh tire wear and the wear is not even in the circumference. its kind of hit and miss not even around which is big vibration at hig speed. My local man charged me €25 euro to alinge the back which was way out. Once I get this cam bolt that can adjust the camber to a max of 3 degrees at a cost of €16 for the bolt it should sore the problem. Its very annoying to pay €85k for a car and have the steering vibrating in your hand and the MB dealer doesn't know or doesn't want to admit it a MB problem. I'll keep you posted but if anyone has sorted this problem for definate could they let me know if this special bolt will work and how hany do I need to change. Both my front wheels are wearing bad. thanks

I've got a 2008 CLS 320CDI & have vibration at lower speeds. Went into Mercedes & they could not find any faults. They told me its very common & nothing to worry about, not very satsified with that, its a premium car!! I've had a proper tracking & geometry check done & its still the same. A friends CLS 2009 car has the same vibration but not as noticeble, he has Michelins where mine are Pirellis on the front & Continentals on the rear.
 
The bolts you require are "caster bolts" and retail for approximately £35 each. When I first bought my CLS, I had a massive vibration from the front, this transpired to be two buckled wheels which were replaced under warranty by the supplying dealer. However, the dealer never spotted this first time. They also didn't spot a buckled rear wheel either!

I took my car to Wheels-In-Motion on recommendation from this forum, they had me diagnosed within minutes, and when 3 wheels were replaced, had me aligned with the addition of 3 caster bolts. My car has been perfect since although I now need new rear tyres 15k miles later.

Buckled wheels is not uncommon on a CLS, I believe the supplier to MB had an issue with their manufacture process perhaps, and some were unlucky with pretty soft wheels. The new ones fitted to my car last year have been perfect since and have seen no issues.

There was a review on AutoExpress or AutoCar i believe in which their CLS with 19in AMGs had a buckled wheel.
 
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my new toy

hi there, after 3mths looking for good cls I finaly found what I was looking for. cls320 cdi 2008 facelift with bi-xenons, silver, 50k miles, FSH, car is immaculate, only issue i realised is that my new love is puling slightly left....so I took it for wheel alignment to northway tyres colindale...result- left front camber in red and I need to buy adjustment bolt package in MB dealer, they cant adjust it without this 2bolts. Tyres looks with no abnormal wear, rear brand new... Do I need to buy this 2expensive bolts or some garage have it to adjust? I'm in North London.
When Im driving slow smooth corners i feel like the steering is mooving slightly, folloving uneven road, I had this on my skoda with wide tyres but not so much notable....its normal for cls?...:dk:
thanks
 
Definitely seems like the CLS has a problem in this area. I bought my Grand edition new in Feb 2010 and hit a pothole about a week later :mad: I had to have a front wheel replaced (£450) I was surprised at the ease of which the wheel was damaged, but I also can identify just about every "fault" mentioned in this thread, from vibrating drivers door (amongst other cabin vibrations) to the aforementioned tracking of road surfaces at slow speeds (sometimes feels like the power steering is packing in)
 
I always thought genuine wheels are the strongest...:confused:
'tracking' is then normal for cls...:wallbash:
no cabin vibration at all on mine :rock:
 
Not sure, never had a car with after market wheels. I had a vibration after I hit the pot hole (about a week after getting the car) but left it until the 1st service. The wheels were all balanced at the dealers and it turned out that the cause of the vibration was a flat spot on the near side front wheel (i.e the one that had gone down the pot hole). New wheel fitted, vibration gone.
The cabin noises are mainly from drivers door, centre console spring loaded door, front passenger seat (when nobody sat in it).
By "tracking" I mean a heaviness and tendency to follow undulations inthe road at slow speed (below 15 - 20mph). I assume the 245 front tyre width is to blame here.
The car has now done just over 15000 miles and to be fair seems to be starting to improve, engine starting to loosen and gearbox appears to be finally learning to be in the right gear at the right time. Strangely this seems to have improved almost overnight.
Journeys are starting to become less of a chore.
 
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Not sure, never had a car with after market wheels. I had a vibration after I hit the pot hole (about a week after getting the car) but left it until the 1st service. The wheels were all balanced at the dealers and it turned out that the cause of the vibration was a flat spot on the near side front wheel (i.e the one that had gone down the pot hole). New wheel fitted, vibration gone.
The cabin noises are mainly from drivers door, centre console spring loaded door, front passenger seat (when nobody sat in it).
By "tracking" I mean a heaviness and tendency to follow undulations inthe road at slow speed (below 15 - 20mph). I assume the 245 front tyre width is to blame here.
The car has now done just over 15000 miles and to be fair seems to be starting to improve, engine starting to loosen and gearbox appears to be finally learning to be in the right gear at the right time. Strangely this seems to have improved almost overnight.
Journeys are starting to become less of a chore.
Had my cls 500 for about 16 months now & haven't had any of the issues you mention,mine has staggered 19"amg's & the only niggle i have is that the pirelli p zeros do give a fair bit of road noise,as far as the gearbox goes have you done a reset so it learns your driving style?(did this on mine & noticed a difference after).
 
LudoCLS said:
hi there, after 3mths looking for good cls I finaly found what I was looking for. cls320 cdi 2008 facelift with bi-xenons, silver, 50k miles, FSH, car is immaculate, only issue i realised is that my new love is puling slightly left....so I took it for wheel alignment to northway tyres colindale...result- left front camber in red and I need to buy adjustment bolt package in MB dealer, they cant adjust it without this 2bolts. Tyres looks with no abnormal wear, rear brand new... Do I need to buy this 2expensive bolts or some garage have it to adjust? I'm in North London.
When Im driving slow smooth corners i feel like the steering is mooving slightly, folloving uneven road, I had this on my skoda with wide tyres but not so much notable....its normal for cls?...:dk:
thanks

To all of you having these wear amd pulling issues, it isn't isolated to the CLS, really do recommend you take trip to Wheels In Motion. Tony will have the required adjustment bolts in stock, original MB parts, and will resolve your issues for a very reasonable cost. I can't recommend is services enough, done a brilliant job on my C63, and I'm not sure I would trust anyone else with it for alignment.
Kamal
 
Hi folks,

I haven't been back here for a while and I'm amazed how this thread keeps reviving. I still have the CLS (115000 miles!). I also still have odd vibration issue but not as bad as when I first got the car Oiginally it used to happen at all speeds, now it seems to be periodic and only speed related which could just be uneven wear or losing a weight.

I've also not had a reoccurence of that weird groove thing in the tyre. Animal Mother, that was the standard 245x40x18 tyre for the car BTW. The 06 diesel has the same width rims all round (but front and rear alloys can't be switched). I never did find out what caused the problem, but it's not happened since.

I've had a lot less trouble with vibrations since I stopped using the local dealer to get it tracked and balanced. I go to a local tyre shop now who seem to get it right. I also switched to Contis and that's improved things (although the rears wear fairly quickly).

One other thing I've noticed over the life of the car is that the tyres tend to lose air, particularly on the front. Not significant amounts (only a couple of pounds) but I do need to top them up more than previous cars. I have wondered if some of my problems were related to that. Perhaps a combination of the slight under-inflation and slightly off tracking exacerbated the uneven wear and then led to the vibration etc. Who knows, but it seems to have settled down.

I've also recently discovered the issue with needing caster bolts and I'm thinking about getting some. Typical of bl**dy Mercedes that you have to pay extra!

Cheers,

Dave
 
I had caster bolts fitted after my first set of tyres were changed at a cost of £740 for 4 conties and £166 for sorting out the Geometry. Car drives like a dream now. Still having ware on front edges of front tyres. Will speak to tyre shop in few weeks. How do you reset the gearbox, and the gear changes? Rear tyres always ware quicker then fronts due to torks on rear wheels.


Thanks all.
 
166 for geometry? where?
 

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