W211 E320 CDI Sport 2007 vibration above 50mph

[Welby]

Hi all

Looking for some advise on this one please? Had sticking calipers on the rear, sorted that, replaced the disks (Pagid), handbrake shoes, new pads. Also had new tyres on the rear, Accelera's, the choice of the garage as his view no tyre lasts longer than any other on Mercs.

When driving around town no problem, any speed over 50mph and I get vibration, the passenger seat headrest can be seen wobbling. I had the wheels balanced 3 times, twice by the same garage, a third by another, the vibration is still there. I've tried lifting the car and spinning the rear wheels to at least determine the side but the ECU won't allow the engine to rev and gear change with or without the skid control on or off. I can't put the rears to the front as the tyre size differs. One wheel I could see had a pot hole bend on the inner rim, but not severe and I haven't hit any pot holes.

I've read about the flex disks on the prop shaft, my question is - is this likely? I read many sources about them, they do claim to cause seat vibration but they seem to be 10 years+ older cars than mine at 80,000 miles. I don't drive it hard and a visual inspection of them shows them okay even though the posts say you can't visually inspect them, they must be removed to check them thoroughly.

I drove the car through France last year and what a gem to drive at a ton, absolutely gross now, a truly horrible drive, never been so relieved to be out of it.

So disks, tyres, wheels or flex disks and not many options to narrow it down with the technology in the ECU, any help would be most appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Gareth]

I don't know if it helps, but I had the same with mine after having a full set of tyres fitted, took it back to the same garage (BlackCircles) to 'fix' the balancing and it still came away exactly the same, in the end I took it to WheelsInMotion who are well known for being excellent and came away from there with the car silky smooth, apparently they are very easy cars to not balance correctly. It may be that you've been unfortunate with both garages?

 

[Welby]

Cheers Gareth, I'll take a look at WheelsInMotion then and see where they, etc.

Thanks!

 

[guydewdney]

My front discs were badly corroded behind them, onto the hub. Wheels and discs off, scraper on hub/disc faces, replace. Maybe?

 

[Major774]

Wheel balancing more likely, you have to try another garage.

 

[Welby]

Thanks guydewdney, the rears were corroded, not too bad, I did have to knock the old disks off then I did wire brush the hub and ensured the mating surfaces were clean. I copper slipped both surfaces before fitting the new disks to the hub. Both rear wheels spin by hand, not too freely as the diff and prop are permanently engaged but no scrapes, noises, rubbing, etc. The handbrake I setup to be around 5 clicks on the pedal to be sure the shoes aren't engaged. On a journey when I stop no heat at the rear disks.

 

[Oldchap]

Had a similar problem with my C Class AMG wheels, my vibration started at about 65 mph and and continued vibrating right past 90. Had all the wheels checked for true and restored and a Merc Indy check all the suspension and mountings etc. They couldn't find anything wrong. Read on here somewhere that to get the wheels balanced on the stud holes, most tyre balancers remove the small centre cap and attach the wheel to the balance machine with a cone through this small hole, trick is for the wheel to be centralised using all 5 stud holes on the machine, some call it using a finger plate, anyway my local Fi Auto-centre was aware of this 30 minutes later vibration gone, my wheels where a long way out. Hope this helps.

 

[Markssl]

I thought it was just me with this problem. Mine makes a horrible vibrating, buffeting noise similar to a window being left down. I now know there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks