Depreciation Road Racer - Mercedes E350

Over the week, I got the new tires installed, and put in the new hub.  Was a little concerned when I saw the grease in the hub looked pretty fresh, so worried that may not be the problem, or someone just installed the bearings too loosely.  Didn't get a chance to test drive until tonight.  First trip, the vibration was worse than before.  Pulled back into the garage, jacked up the car, and shook the wheel, still some movement, and it also seems there was more on a horizontal axis than vertical, too, but I took a look at the tie rod end and it was not moving as far as I could tell.  Took the wheel off, popped off the grease cap, tightened then loosened the bearing with a wrench, then snugged it down with my hands a bit more than I had before.  Put the wheel back on, and shook the tire again, and it still seems like some movement, but I was getting leery of tightening the bearings any more than they already were.

Next test drive, vibration seems back to what it was before.  It is possible the bearings are still too loose, but I am running out of time, so the Mercedes got parked outside, and the Mazda5 went into the garage.  I'll do some work on it first, then go back to this car.  I am thinking, I'll jack it up again, snug the bearings up with the wrench past hand tight, put the wheel back on and shake it again.  If the movement is still the same, I can safely say it isn't the hub.  I will also check the passenger side, too, but I think the only wheel wae and I noticed any movement on was the driver's front.  I got to thinking, since it has a double ball joint lower control arm setup, if one of those is loose, it could potentially allow movement on both the vertical and horizontal axes, but if it was mostly horizontal, it could present as a bad tie rod end. 

My concern at this point is I am headed to the Challenge on Monday, so if it needs parts, I am unlikely to get them in time.  I'll either have to drive this down as it is, or hope that the front end work I do to the 5 is good, and I'll take it.  I'd rather drive the Mercedes, as it is a lot more comfortable, but then, the 5 will probably save me over $100 in gas.

Very minor update  - finally got around to replacing spark plugs, air filters, cabin air filter, and resetting the service minder.  Plugs are so much easier than in the LS S10, but I did have an issue where I lost the rubber piece of my plug socket and caused a coil to not fit properly, until I realized what had happened.   Still need to get it back in the air to figure out what suspension parts are causing the vibration in the front, and the slight clunk in the back.  I am tempted to order a set of front control arms, and a full set of shocks/struts, but will try to wait until I have actually diagnosed this issues.

Running errands this morning, and the check engine light came on.  Neither my obd2 scanner or the Mercedes-centric one I got from wae seem to be able to read codes right now.  I guess I'll see if I can get my Bluetooth reader to work or I may have to try to get the Mercedes service software and connector going on my laptop.

While I was leaning under the dash to hook the readers up, I also noticed the tear in the seat is starting to come back.  Not sure whether I'll contact the company that fixed it, or just try to do the job myself this time.

Any progress on the vibration??

jfryjfry said:

Any progress on the vibration??

Nope - my plan was to get the S10 out of its garage bay when weather gets better, then put the Mercedes up on stands to confirm if it is a lower ball joint or something else, and to search for the clunk again.  I am now wondering if I have a bad rear shock - need to go through the maintenance records and see if they've ever been done.  If not, at 14 years old, it's probably time.

I may take a while to get to it.  With no storage anymore, I'm space constrained, and my neighbors have pretty much taken all the on street parking near my house.  Somehow, I have 2 cars in my 2 car garage, and one of them needs to come out so all the crap stored in the bed of the truck has a place to go.  Might spend a little time this weekend decluttering.

Hmmm, I'm going to put my bet down on "O2 sensor".

wae said:

Hmmm, I'm going to put my bet down on "O2 sensor".

Wouldn't surprise me, since it seems to be running fine.  However, since it was a few hundred miles ago that I was under the hood changing plugs, I could have bumped something.  Also, with the heavy wind and rain overnight, something electrical could have gotten wet.

And I need to avoid looking at classified ads.  One of the local Mercedes dealers recently got a 2011 E550.

eastsideTim said:

And I need to avoid looking at classified ads.  One of the local Mercedes dealers recently got a 2011 E550.

This comes as no surprise. LOL

Dug up a Bluetooth code reader I picked up a ways back, and it worked, although I have a suspicion with the other ones, I was just not turning the key far enough.  I may have been in the accessory position instead of run.  I'll try again with one of them in the future.  Got Code P0128 - Coolant Temp low.  As long as it is full, and doesn't have an air pocket, the thermostat appears to be the most common culprit, and the coolant temp sensor afterwards.  Once I can get the car on level ground, I'll check the coolant level, and then start throwing parts at it if need be.

Finally got around to replacing the thermostat over the weekend.  The car does seem to be coming up to temperature faster, but it is also possible that it still needs to bleed some air.  Supposedly it is self bleeding, which freaks me out a bit.  Did make a bit of a mess draining some old fluid, when it turns out the pan I was using had started to split.

Got it on jackstands, and now it appears whatever excess movement I thought the front left had, I cannot reproduce.  As for the noise in the rear, I found a loose fender liner - the stud it is supposed to bolt to is missing.  Drilled a holed in the liner, and the lower flange of the body, threw some paint on the metal, then zip tied it all together.  Noise is quieter, but I think I still hear something.  The shocks don't appear to be leaking or anything, but I could not find a record of them ever being replaced (though there may be a gap in the records I have), so i think that will be part of my next purchase.  Oddly enough, the sport suspension shocks are cheaper than the standard ones. 

Did also get a pretty good idea of where the oil burning smell is coming from.  Looks like the oil cooler is leaking, and there is a chance the filter/cooler housing is as well.  Aftermarket Chinese-made cooler is about $80, while the factory cooler/housing/filter cap assembly is closer to $300.  I am tempted to go ahead and eat the bigger cost, because I'd hate to have it apart, and find out I needed to order more stuff.  Some of the cam position sensor o-rings may be leaking as well, but they are definitely not the main source.  Still, they are cheap, so I'll add some of them to the order, too.

Really needing to get all these issues dealt with, and put some miles on the car to find out if anything else is needed.  Less than four months to go.

Been watching instructional videos on the oil cooler replacement.  Looks like I have to take apart everything I did for the thermostat replacement and then some.   Wish I had found the source of the oil leak before then.  Should probably order a new thermostat gaskets, since it is paper, and may go ahead and grab a new idler pulley and tensioner.  I'd been happy parts were arriving tomorrow, but now it'll be another week before I can work on it.

Over the last couple of weekends, I replaced the oil cooler, did an oil change because I may have gotten a bit of coolant mixed in when I pulled the old oil cooler, and I replaced the rear shocks.  The ones in the car were not blown, but I suspect they were the originals.  The new ones were definitely firmer.  It was also way more work than a set of rear shocks should take.  It did not help that the Sachs replacements I installed had an extended length about 2.5" longer than the ones I removed.  I spent some time on the internet checking parts numbers to make sure I got the sport package shocks instead of the regular ones.  I also verified the old and new shocks had the same compressed length.  The oil leak does seem to be dealt with, I could no longer smell burnt oil after a long test drive.

I spent some time driving to try to chase down the vibration some more.  I still can't place it for certain.  I am feeling it through the wheel, and to a lesser extent through the seat (probably lesser because of the padding).  Once I spent some time driving at higher speeds, I was actually able to feel it at lower speeds, just not as strongly.  Down to 35 MPH, I could pick it up for certain, and maybe lower, but at that point it may have been getting lost in normal road feel, yay Ohio roads.  I think, but am not sure, that it does change frequency with the speed of the car.  Since the tires are new, and wheels balanced, I'd hope that is not the issue, but if I have a damaged wheel, maybe even balanced, it is causing problems.  There is curb rash on pretty much all the wheels.  I'd like to borrow a set of wheels to test this theory, but don't know anyone around with anything compatible.  Also keeping an eye out for  a cheap set for sale locally.  My wife needs new wheels/tires for her GTI, so if she goes the aftermarket route, I may take the hub centering rings off them, and test with them really quickly, even if the are not the right size.

Some perusing of the Mercedes forums is a little scary.  Seems like there are tons of potential culprits, and it is hard to diagnose the actual cause.  Outside of wheels, the possibilities seem to be driveshaft balance, driveshaft flex discs, driveshaft center support bearing, engine mounts, transmission mount, rear differential, control arms (even with no easily detectable slop).  A lot of people have spent thousands of dollars trying to fix it, some successful, and some only reducing it.  It makes me a little scared that the dealerships' solutions seem to be to throw parts at it and hope it works, when I'm not a master diagnostician. 

In reply to eastsideTim :

I'm at a bit of a loss to figure out what among those things could be the problem.  The only data point I have is that on the Mazda 5, one tire shop screwed around with one of the wheels and was never able to get it balanced.  Another shop just threw it on the machine and the ride was suddenly perfect.  So a total longshot but maybe try a balancing somewhere else?

Beyond that, I've got no ideas for how to isolate any of those.  Could you rule out the motor and trans mounts by throwing it in neutral and cutting the engine at 70mph to see if it's still vibrating?

try swapping fronts and rears (assuming square setup) and see if the vibration changes as felt through the steering wheel.

I'm reasonably certain it isn't the transmission and engine mounts, just because I'd think I'd notice something during hard acceleration, and I don't.   Might not hurt to get the wheels rebalanced, but since the issue existed before the new tires, I have my doubts that'd fix it.  eastsideWife gets home from her trip this afternoon, so I am going to push her to hit the Tire Rack site soon.  Thing is, it is light enough, that if I was just going to use it as a daily driver, I'd be fine with driving it until it makes itself more obvious as to what the source of the problem is, but you know, 100+ MPH driving is planned in a few months.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

try swapping fronts and rears (assuming square setup) and see if the vibration changes as felt through the steering wheel.

Sadly, not square, but I may see if the wheels can temporarily be fitted to opposite ends without interference issues.

Driving back home from messing with someone else's car, I noticed something in my neighborhood- at 25 MPH, I am getting a vibration while turning right, but not left.  Leads me back towards something wrong in the front left suspension, but I need to do some more testing, and find a place I can swerve around without getting pulled over.

Hmm maybe my cranky German and yours are in cahoots.  Seems like ball joint, tie rod, or bushings if only one side is finnicky.

In reply to 84FSP :

I am inclined to agree with you.  I hate to fire the parts cannon at it, but time is getting shorter.  Might be best to order a front end kit, then spend a day installing everything over on wae's lift.  Will try to get it out and drive a bit more in the next few days.

This vibration somewhat reminds me of a bad CV axle with the whole change as you turn one way or another.

bumpsteer said:

This vibration somewhat reminds me of a bad CV axle with the whole change as you turn one way or another.

Now that you mention it, I had a rallycross car that would make noise on turns and it was 50/50 whether it was a CV joint or a wheel bearing that would be starting to go bad.  Although, that was a FWD car.  I have replaced the left front wheel bearing and adjusted it more than once.  Not sure a rear CV axle would be a potential culprit or not.

eastsideTim said:

In reply to 84FSP :

I am inclined to agree with you.  I hate to fire the parts cannon at it, but time is getting shorter.  Might be best to order a front end kit, then spend a day installing everything over on wae's lift.  Will try to get it out and drive a bit more in the next few days.

I'm game whenever you are.  At some point I'm going to need to drop the fuel tank off of my mother-in-law's truck so I can weld in the frame patches, so we'll need to work around that.  I'd like to get that done sooner rather than later so I can get that thing out of my way so this might provide the necessary motivation.

I too have been dreaming of participating in the Silver State Classic for 20+ years. 

I'll definitely be watching and living vicariously.

This thread has sent me down the performance luxobarge rabbit hole.