B Class (W245) … handling

chris10895

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Winchester UK
Your Mercedes
B180/2011/1.7L
Since 2000 I have covered over 250,000 miles commuting in a couple of W168 A Classes. Both had to go eventually because of rust and increasing maintenance costs, and I drove a 55 plate Focus for 18 months before feeling the urge to return to the Mercedes fold. A very tidy, one owner, 27000 mile '11' plate W245 B Class with Comfort and Light and Sight packages seemed to fit the bill. I took several test drives in it … it seemed rather light on the steering, and unsettled on country roads but good on motorway and major roads. The front tyres (Michelin Energy Savers 205/55R16) were rather low, and pressures high (as per the label inside the fuel filler flap which offers only max loading settings of 32/38), but a swap of wheels front to rear and setting pressures at 29 all round improved matters quite a bit.

Moving forward a month … I have driven Volvos, BMWs, Fords, Hillman Imps, Previas, VWs, RangeRovers, various vans … the list goes on ... over a lifetime of motoring. This has to be the worst handling car yet. Yes, I did read as many reviews as possible … some were scathing, but most were just mildly critical, and some were even complimentary about the car's road manners.

On anything other than billiard-table-smooth surfaces, constant steering correction is the order of the day, and yesterday my passenger got a fright when the car lurched viciously at the rear as it drove round a corner and caught a small patch of damaged tarmac with one wheel.

The earlier A Class wasn't the best, but it was fairly stable and predictable. I'm guessing that this unruly behaviour has something to do with the move to a solid axle from the earlier independent links at the rear.

Steering alignment has been checked; it has also been checked by a Mercedes dealer.

Has anyone any ideas how to 'tame the beast' before I sell it, or throw good money at different tyres. Or are they just something that Mercedes should never have let out of the factory (what do they pay their designers and engineers for, I wonder)? That cheap old Focus? … drives like it is stuck to the road! If Ford can do it ….!!!

Any suggestions (short of a match and a can of petrol) would be gratefully received. I'd like to keep it … but I'm not sure that I can live with it as it stands. Thanks
 
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chris10895

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2016
Messages
12
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Location
Winchester UK
Your Mercedes
B180/2011/1.7L
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An update … 7000 miles later, and no further forward, I still had the car, and the tyres were getting very low … just over 2mm on the rears, and 5mm on the front. A service had also identified a worn track rod end - not present during its PDI and MOT at the time of purchase, and presumably not a major factor in the car's road manners at the outset.

The original set of tyres were not all Michelin … someone had put a Firestone TZ300a on, and the from-to-rear swap brought it to the front offside. The service also highlighted that the tyres were showing signs of perishing.

I'd been debating the cost of a new set, and now desirability became necessity; having heard good things about Michelin CrossClimates, I took the plunge, had a new track rod fitted, and once again had the tracking checked and adjusted.

At last (mostly)!!!! The car is smoother, noticeably quieter, and far more stable in bends. So, if you have an unruly earlier B Class, have a look at the make, tread pattern, uniformity, and condition of what it is shod with. A new set of tyres may be your answer.

The next problem … there's a canary in the engine bay … one of the drive belt pulleys is on it's way out. There's always something!
 

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