W213 E63s 4Matic clunking... Anyone else?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Using the moon trip as an example is not the best choice. You would be surprised at how many people do not believe man stood on the surface of the moon.

Now where did I leave my tin foil hat ?
Yep and these are the same people who subscribe to the 'flat earth society'. But I have yet to get a straight answer when you ask someone who thinks this way why other planets are round so why should earth be flat... Silence is golden.
 
:rolleyes: Another E63 with a 'clunking' noise while turning to add to the list.
It was suggested winter tyres to help avoid the issue, I never discussed at who's cost that would be, but I guess I already knew the answer.

Yep, it's official Sytner Teesside are having none of it and told me I could buy some winters tyres myself if I like.
When I mentioned:

"I find it highly disappointing that Sytner could sell a £110,000 car and then ask the customer to buy their own tyres to make it run as it should".

The reply was:

Hello Again
The response from our technical department is that your concerns can be raised directly with the customer services team on 01908 245 000.
We, as a dealership alone, cannot do anything that Mercedes-Benz UK will not authorise.
Please raise your concerns with them and they may be able to help further.

I thought I read in various threads on here that Mercedes-Benz UK ARE authorising this. I believe it's mostly GLC owners, but various other 4matic models are also getting tyres FOC aren't they ?

:wallbash:
 
I used to pass MSG regularly on the way to Yarm. I don’t get over that way much now as my Daughter has moved schools closer to where we moved to. You might still see me around as I’m intending on driving this one (Selenite grey Edition 1). I sold my 2 year old C63s edition 1 saloon with 9,700 miles on the clock for no more money than if it had 20,000 miles on.

I found this forum while researching the issue, like you say there is lots to read about it. I understand why sales reps don’t bring this known issue to our attention when we are test driving 4matics, but it doesn’t stop me from being very disappointed.

Yes, I bought all but 1 of my Mercs from Teesside.


I had a test drive in a C43 at MB Hull a few weeks ago and the first thing the salesman did was to mention the "4Matic noise" and demonstrate the knocking/crabbing before we drove off the forecourt. He said it was due to the position of the steering rack on the 4Matic rhd versions. He said it would disappear once the tyres were warm. After half an hours drive I tried to replicate it on full lock whilst parking and failed.
 
I had a test drive in a C43 at MB Hull a few weeks ago and the first thing the salesman did was to mention the "4Matic noise" and demonstrate the knocking/crabbing before we drove off the forecourt. He said it was due to the position of the steering rack on the 4Matic rhd versions. He said it would disappear once the tyres were warm. After half an hours drive I tried to replicate it on full lock whilst parking and failed.

This is old news now and as you are no doubt aware MB are fitting a different tyre to the C Class and retro fitting tyres on older cars to mask this problem. To my amazement not every dealer appears to be aware of this. As for the original OP (E63s) I would contact a number of MB dealers and see what their response is to changing your tyres FOC as Sytner tend to treat customers with a level of contempt once Your money is in Their bank account... Good luck. I say this because some years ago when I had the misfortune of owning a BMW which had many problems I had to eventually speak with the Dealer Principle who eventually sorted things out. I suggest you do the same or as mentioned above try other dealerships.
 
Last edited:
Yep, it's official Sytner Teesside are having none of it and told me I could buy some winters tyres myself if I like.
When I mentioned:

"I find it highly disappointing that Sytner could sell a £110,000 car and then ask the customer to buy their own tyres to make it run as it should".

The reply was:

Hello Again
The response from our technical department is that your concerns can be raised directly with the customer services team on 01908 245 000.
We, as a dealership alone, cannot do anything that Mercedes-Benz UK will not authorise.
Please raise your concerns with them and they may be able to help further.

I thought I read in various threads on here that Mercedes-Benz UK ARE authorising this. I believe it's mostly GLC owners, but various other 4matic models are also getting tyres FOC aren't they ?

:wallbash:

Any gnews since your last post?
 
To be honest I haven't chased it up much. I'm working out of the country atm and decided to leave it until I got home.
I did email the dealer principle and he basically told me the same thing. Hand over 1200 of your hard earned GBP's and I will supply you with some great winter tyres.

He even rubbed it in a little by telling me his E63 is running perfect on winter tyres and he highly recommends them. Let's take a guess at how much he paid for them. :rolleyes:
 
To be honest I haven't chased it up much. I'm working out of the country atm and decided to leave it until I got home.
I did email the dealer principle and he basically told me the same thing. Hand over 1200 of your hard earned GBP's and I will supply you with some great winter tyres.

He even rubbed it in a little by telling me his E63 is running perfect on winter tyres and he highly recommends them. Let's take a guess at how much he paid for them. :rolleyes:
I find this overall situation almost unbelievable as my new tyre's on a lowly C Class will be fitted foc next week!! Time permitting I really would check out a number of MB dealerships to see what their position is on this and if you strike lucky even if it means driving a few hundred miles it will be worth it to save yourself many £00's and then tell your dealership that you will not be using them for your next purchase!!!
 
Last edited:
Last week I messaged another MB franchise asking their protocols on this and they refused to discuss it.

I asked if it was their policy to bring the issue to any protential buyers attention, again they told me they were unable to discuss it with me.

:wallbash: Maybe if I had a chair in a dark room, a spotlight and roll of gaffer tape .....................
 
Last week I messaged another MB franchise asking their protocols on this and they refused to discuss it.

I asked if it was their policy to bring the issue to any protential buyers attention, again they told me they were unable to discuss it with me.

:wallbash: Maybe if I had a chair in a dark room, a spotlight and roll of gaffer tape .....................
Hey man I really do sympathise with you as MB are not dealing well with this overall situation and it's a pity that any dealer who is watching this thread hasn't commented in order to try help people like yourself. Maybe when you get a minute check out the dealers on this site, I think JBD is one that springs to mind he does a What do you want to know? base and ask him directly what you should do.
 
I'm not stressing over it anymore. I guess any dealers on here haven't commented because they don't want to 'take the stand'.
I'll get home and call MBUK, if I still don't get any joy then I'll try to talk to the dealer principle again to see if I can at least get some cash off. I may have some extra leverage as my car has been in for over 3 weeks due to an inoperative hands free excess boot sensor, but that's a whole new story.

The way this is going the weather will have warmed up, the noise will disappear and it will all be forgotten about until November. :dk:
 
I'm not stressing over it anymore. I guess any dealers on here haven't commented because they don't want to 'take the stand'.
I'll get home and call MBUK, if I still don't get any joy then I'll try to talk to the dealer principle again to see if I can at least get some cash off. I may have some extra leverage as my car has been in for over 3 weeks due to an inoperative hands free excess boot sensor, but that's a whole new story.

The way this is going the weather will have warmed up, the noise will disappear and it will all be forgotten about until November. :dk:
What I don't understand about this whole situation is that a number of C Class owners' on this site -soon I will be one of them- have reported that MB have replaced their original tyre's in order to address the crabbing issue FOC. This whole debacle kicked off last year mainly around the GLC but gradually C owners also started to experience the problem and so the snowball grew in size. In order to address the issue MB decided that GLC owners ONLY would be offered replacement tyres, which as I understand did the trick. Unfortunately for MB the problem didn't go away because C owners were still banging on so at the backend of last year MB decided to offer C owners new tyres. But -and this is where it goes off the rails- not all MB dealerships are singing from the same hymn sheet and they are getting away with it... Can you imagine what would have happened if they applied this stance towards GLC owners!! This should not be dealer specific as MB have issued a code which dealerships use to charge back MB HO for the work so the £'s aren't coming out of their fat bank accounts. Now if you are able to get hold of that code -I don't have it but will try and get it- perhaps you can present this to MB and ask them politely ''What's going on!!'' Just a final thought why oh why would MB leave a top end model like the E class out of this it just doesn't make sense. It would actually make more sense if dealerships openly said that MB have given the go ahead for certain C Class models to have their tyres exchanged but MB HO have not given the go ahead for any other models. But they haven't said that they are just ignoring the question which makes matters even worse for owners' like yourself.
 
Last edited:
I read in last week’s Aurocar that the Giulia has an even worse skipping issue than the E63. This isn’t just an MB issue, quite a few 4WD cars do it.
 
I read in last week’s Aurocar that the Giulia has an even worse skipping issue than the E63. This isn’t just an MB issue, quite a few 4WD cars do it.

Porsche, Audi, Lexus, BMW, they all do it on large diameter wheels on low profile tyres. Not just all-wheel- drive either
 
Wow, so much anger on this subject.

My wife has an AMG GLE 63 and this skips / judders very noticeably at low speeds.

I had until recently an AMG GT, obviously a rear wheel drive car, and this skipped at low speeds.

Before that I had a Porsche 911 GTS, a four wheel drive one, and that skipped at low speeds.

I now have an Audi R8 and this skips at low speeds. The R8 is probably worst of the lot.

I've had many many other cars that do this too, all of them high performance cars on big wheels and sports-orientated tyres.

Likewise, I've also had other cars which don't do this.


In my personal experience it's nothing to do with being 4WD (the Alfa Giulia mentioned above is a 2WD car) and it certainly doesn't just happen to Mercedes cars. It is more typical in high performance cars with a combination of aggressive geometry, big wheels and high performance tyres. It's just one of those things and it is a characteristic of such cars.

I'm not suggesting that how Mercedes have handled this is particularly good. Indeed, I've been on the receiving end of some particularly cr@p service from them, however, Mercedes are no better or worse than other manufacturers and it's nothing to do with the cost of the product (Mercedes service is definitely no worse than I get on a £150k+ Audi for example!). However, they do appear to be bombarded by customers with unreasonable expectations on an technical 'situation' that is neither unusual nor exclusive to Mercedes.

I suspect there will be more people NOT bothered by this people who are bothered by it. I'm one who is not bothered, mainly because my experience of (far too many) other cars and configurations confirms it's not unusual. If you are bothered by it there's two choices really....get over it or buy something else.

Fitting softer and less performance orientated tyres is the other option, but they'll be inferior performing tyres because....they're softer and less performance orientated. So you'll get rid of the skipping in cold / damp / full lock conditions....yet have less performance (from your performance car) in other driving situations. There's no right or wrong but it just highlights how most things are a compromise one way or another.

A great motto to keep in mind in these situations (it works for me when getting wound up about things that really aren't that important in the grand scheme of things).....trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world changes in an instant.
 
^^^^^

This.

It is not a mechanical problem.

It is not damaging your car.

It is not a 4wd issue.

It’s not unique to Mercedes.

It’s an issue of suspension geometry which becomes exacerbated by cold, hard tyres at low speed. Google “Ackerman effect”for further understanding an peace of mind.

I owned an Alfa Quadrifoglio and the effect was just as noticeable as on the E63 I picked up Friday. That car ran on PZero Corsas which need heat to perform and soften. Previously I had an Aston on Corsas which did the same thing, similarly my Mac is on Corsas and again does the same thing.

As Palmball says it really isn’t worth getting het up about.
 
[Q
Wow, so much anger on this subject.

My wife has an AMG GLE 63 and this skips / judders very noticeably at low speeds.

I had until recently an AMG GT, obviously a rear wheel drive car, and this skipped at low speeds.

Before that I had a Porsche 911 GTS, a four wheel drive one, and that skipped at low speeds.

I now have an Audi R8 and this skips at low speeds. The R8 is probably worst of the lot.

I've had many many other cars that do this too, all of them high performance cars on big wheels and sports-orientated tyres.

Likewise, I've also had other cars which don't do this.


In my personal experience it's nothing to do with being 4WD (the Alfa Giulia mentioned above is a 2WD car) and it certainly doesn't just happen to Mercedes cars. It is more typical in high performance cars with a combination of aggressive geometry, big wheels and high performance tyres. It's just one of those things and it is a characteristic of such cars.

I'm not suggesting that how Mercedes have handled this is particularly good. Indeed, I've been on the receiving end of some particularly cr@p service from them, however, Mercedes are no better or worse than other manufacturers and it's nothing to do with the cost of the product (Mercedes service is definitely no worse than I get on a £150k+ Audi for example!). However, they do appear to be bombarded by customers with unreasonable expectations on an technical 'situation' that is neither unusual nor exclusive to Mercedes.

I suspect there will be more people NOT bothered by this people who are bothered by it. I'm one who is not bothered, mainly because my experience of (far too many) other cars and configurations confirms it's not unusual. If you are bothered by it there's two choices really....get over it or buy something else.

Fitting softer and less performance orientated tyres is the other option, but they'll be inferior performing tyres because....they're softer and less performance orientated. So you'll get rid of the skipping in cold / damp / full lock conditions....yet have less performance (from your performance car) in other driving situations. There's no right or wrong but it just highlights how most things are a compromise one way or another.

A great motto to keep in mind in these situations (it works for me when getting wound up about things that really aren't that important in the grand scheme of things).....trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world changes in an instant.

UOTE="Palmball, post: 2569238, member: 27245"]Wow, so much anger on this subject.

My wife has an AMG GLE 63 and this skips / judders very noticeably at low speeds.

I had until recently an AMG GT, obviously a rear wheel drive car, and this skipped at low speeds.

Before that I had a Porsche 911 GTS, a four wheel drive one, and that skipped at low speeds.

I now have an Audi R8 and this skips at low speeds. The R8 is probably worst of the lot.

I've had many many other cars that do this too, all of them high performance cars on big wheels and sports-orientated tyres.

Likewise, I've also had other cars which don't do this.


In my personal experience it's nothing to do with being 4WD (the Alfa Giulia mentioned above is a 2WD car) and it certainly doesn't just happen to Mercedes cars. It is more typical in high performance cars with a combination of aggressive geometry, big wheels and high performance tyres. It's just one of those things and it is a characteristic of such cars.

I'm not suggesting that how Mercedes have handled this is particularly good. Indeed, I've been on the receiving end of some particularly cr@p service from them, however, Mercedes are no better or worse than other manufacturers and it's nothing to do with the cost of the product (Mercedes service is definitely no worse than I get on a £150k+ Audi for example!). However, they do appear to be bombarded by customers with unreasonable expectations on an technical 'situation' that is neither unusual nor exclusive to Mercedes.

I suspect there will be more people NOT bothered by this people who are bothered by it. I'm one who is not bothered, mainly because my experience of (far too many) other cars and configurations confirms it's not unusual. If you are bothered by it there's two choices really....get over it or buy something else.

Fitting softer and less performance orientated tyres is the other option, but they'll be inferior performing tyres because....they're softer and less performance orientated. So you'll get rid of the skipping in cold / damp / full lock conditions....yet have less performance (from your performance car) in other driving situations. There's no right or wrong but it just highlights how most things are a compromise one way or another.

A great motto to keep in mind in these situations (it works for me when getting wound up about things that really aren't that important in the grand scheme of things).....trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world changes in an instant.[/QUOTE]

I think you are overlooking something here, and that is in order to address this issue the OP has been advised to fit winter tyres. Now I know there will be limitations using these boots but MB themselves are recommending this and if they knew about this issue they should have offered new owners who take delivery of their cars during the colder months the option of stock tyres or winters. This whole debacle is becoming very diverse but at the end of the day if this is Mr Ackerman's doing and many other marque of car suffer the same then why would MB offer to replace FOC customers tyre's? No need to answer as the answer is that -probably- the backlash of complaints were greater than MB had expected and way more than other prestige car makers with the same issue have experienced. So I guess they felt duty bound to address this in some way. Last word on this... at the lower end of the performance scale all new C43's are being fitted with Continental SSR MOE tyres which masks this issue. Good move MB pity you didn't think of that before....
 
Our Audi doesn't do this at all. I have two sets of 19"x8.5" wheels one with P Zero's and a second with Sottozero's.

No juddering whatever the weather, whatever the wheels.
 
Same with my previous two Audi's (Q5/SQ5) the latter had 21''s!! Which begs the question, if Audi can do it why can't MB? But that's a whole different topic and one that most people probably won't be able to answer..... Just to complicate this further as previous contributor has said that some Audi's do, do it.... Where's Mulder and Scully?
 
Same with my previous two Audi's (Q5/SQ5) the latter had 21''s!! Which begs the question, if Audi can do it why can't MB? But that's a whole different topic and one that most people probably won't be able to answer..... Just to complicate this further as previous contributor has said that some Audi's do, do it.... Where's Mulder and Scully?

Audi's started off as FWD fore and aft engined vehicles and added RWD thro a clever transfer box/centre differential. Later models might have been transverse engined but the design starting point principle was the same FWD to 4WD whereas Mercedes 4 matic [ recent A class and its derivative chassised cars accepted] was RWD to 4WD ???
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom