Casual Conversation saves E350's Bacon

[Jimbo1959]

Just recently changed the front discs and pads on my Coupe after being advised that they were warped by the garage, everything was fine for a couple of weeks and then while travelling I had the need to brake very heavily from somewhere in the region of 150kph. My brake judder, as I thought of it was back, bugger!

My symptoms made me think that one or possibly both of the calipers were partially seized and that I would have to purchase both to rule them out of the equation, plus, replace the discs because I thought that the calipers were causing them to heat up and warp ...again. Hopefully, replacement would cure the problem.

Priced up the new calipers which turned out to be manageable, due to staff purchase costing, phew! and I could get the discs done under warranty (slight bending of the rules for a good customer, [me], I've spent easily in excess of £3K on all my family's cars in the last couple of years).

Anyway, I then had another chat with the garage to discuss the where, when and how much, and while describing the symptoms was told not to do anything with the front discs as the issue may well be with the back ones and perhaps also a rear caliper. FFS!

Now in fairness to the garage they are not Mercedes specialists, they will deal with almost anything and, have a broad band of experience of most cars, light vans and small HGV's. So, they can only diagnose on my word and what they find.

So, back to work to price up the rear discs and pads, and while chatting to the partsman who, it turned out, was ex-Mercedes sets me on a different path. After listening to my tale of woe, he reckons that one of the compliance bushes in the many suspension arms may be past it's best and allowing movement under the stress of heavy braking and that's what's causing the judder.

Apparently a common problem discovered at Merc, and after listening to what he says, it dovetails nicely with what I've been experiencing with the Coupe, which I must admit is a big relief as, I have been getting more and more disenchanted with the car and had begun to entertain thoughts of trading/swopping for something else. That's how much this issue has p*ssed me off I had started out loving it and then got to the stage of contemplating a change very quickly. Swmbo would have a total freak out if she was aware. Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will keep the car.

So, back to the garage again tomorrow to get them to check it all out and identify the guilty party (if they can fit me in), lol.

Fortunately, as far as I am aware, all the bushes, arms, etc... are available and are considerably cheaper than the discs, pads and calipers.

Thank God for friends and being a naturally chatty person, if I hadn't said anything I'd never have gotten any further forward and been totally out of pocket unnecessarily.

As a pleasant aside while chatting to my colleague about my car we broached the subject of a potential remap and he was able to put me onto a customer of ours who can do them, engine ECU and gearbox too. Our customer prefers to only do this work for people who are recommended by word of mouth, vetted almost, lol, he doesn't advertise or do anything for the boy racer fraternity as he doesn't want any misadventure on their part on his head. Being almost sixty and recommended by a previous customer puts me in the correct profile/bracket where I will get the work done.

I'll let you guys know how it goes after the suspension gets sorted out. I can't wait

 

[KennyN]

The garage should be able to "clock" the discs on the car to check for any run-out , this should rule them in / out as part of the problem.

A partially seized caliper would be dragging on the disc which would manifest itself as an overheating disc and a drag when pulling away.

Some of the front bushes are oil filled and ,again, should be an easy check for any fluid leakage. Unfortunately there are many bushes and balljoints within the front suspension setup that can be at fault so hopefully your garage dont go down the replacing them one by one to find the root of the problem as it could get expensive, the lower one for my CLS was £345 fitted that included mashing the front hub so badly with a hammer that i would require replacement should any further work be required in that area , i wonder what part of the official MB technicians course involved using a Monday hammer rather than a ball joint splitter.

Kenny

 

[Jimbo1959]

The garage should be able to "clock" the discs on the car to check for any run-out , this should rule them in / out as part of the problem.

A partially seized caliper would be dragging on the disc which would manifest itself as an overheating disc and a drag when pulling away.

Some of the front bushes are oil filled and ,again, should be an easy check for any fluid leakage. Unfortunately there are many bushes and balljoints within the front suspension setup that can be at fault so hopefully your garage dont go down the replacing them one by one to find the root of the problem as it could get expensive, the lower one for my CLS was £345 fitted that included mashing the front hub so badly with a hammer that i would require replacement should any further work be required in that area , i wonder what part of the official MB technicians course involved using a Monday hammer rather than a ball joint splitter.

Kenny

And they wonder why the public have issues with their workmanship Kenny.

 

[GlosRichCLK]

Dont buy new calipers, get them refurbished somewhere like Big Redd in Worcester. They do a post service.

 

[JBell]

Fortunately, as far as I am aware, all the bushes, arms, etc... are available

Just use Lemforder ones, they make them for MB

 

[Jimbo1959]

Dont buy new calipers, get them refurbished somewhere like Big Redd in Worcester. They do a post service.

As the car is my daily driver and I do at least 40 miles a day this is sadly not an option. I can have it off the road for a couple of hours while I'm at work and get refurbed calipers fitted but that's about as good as it gets.

 

[Jimbo1959]

I had another casual conversation today which resulted in my car going into my customers to see if he could do the remap as discussed. As it turns out his maps are all actioned through the OBD Port and my car has some sort of security protection on board, which prevents this, he said that the only way to do it is to open up the ECU which he doesn't get involved in as it's too easy to fry. Typical, he reckons that it's only a matter of time until he has programming which will circumvent the protection programme but it's not available to him at the moment. Oh well, it was worth a try I suppose.
Looks like I'll need to keep saving and head off to either GAD or MSL.

 

[John Laidlaw]

It’s the proper way to do it Jim!
Would think there would be someone closer to you- certainly Big Fish are a bit closer
http://www.bigfishtuning.co.uk/

 

[Jimbo1959]

It’s the proper way to do it Jim!
Would think there would be someone closer to you- certainly Big Fish are a bit closer
http://www.bigfishtuning.co.uk/

All about the same distance away John, give or take, so, just down to recommendation really, and opinion, as to who's the best for service and results.

 

[JBell]

All about the same distance away John, give or take, so, just down to recommendation really, and opinion, as to who's the best for service and results.

I watched Anthony from GAD remove and open up my ECU when I had it mapped, he took great care but the results are amazing

 

[Westheath]

Tricore read/writing is becoming common place halting OBD flashing.

 

[Road Rage Performance]

The Bosch edc17 Ecu in these can only be tuned via boot mode with the Ecu out , they are all tuning protected . A common and simple procedure

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Glynn350]

You'll have to let us know how you get on with the bushes Jim, I have similar symptoms and when my garage has had a look, they can't find anything wrong. However identifying part-worn bushes on a 1.8ton car by hand will be hard I guess, as replicating the required forces that create judders and clunks, by hand, is not easy.

 

[Jimbo1959]

You'll have to let us know how you get on with the bushes Jim, I have similar symptoms and when my garage has had a look, they can't find anything wrong. However identifying part-worn bushes on a 1.8ton car by hand will be hard I guess, as replicating the required forces that create judders and clunks, by hand, is not easy.

I spoke to my usual fall back guy today about the problem and the car's going in to his garage on Monday for a diagnostic on the brakes and the multi link suspension parts.

As soon as I started talking about the symptoms and possibilities he started nodding his head and commented that the bushes were a common problem/issue on Mercs, so, it seems that he is aware and has experience, he also spoke of another Merc he had similar issues with recently which turned out to be one of the rear calipers and a disc.

I guess I'll just need to wait and see what he finds and reports and then deal with it.

I'll report back and update the findings and cure, whatever that may be.

I just want it fixed, whatever 'it' is. It infuriates me when I can't use the car to it's full potential.

 

[JBell]

I had the rear sub frame bushes done on mine in January '17.

I need engine mounts and gearbox mounts doing next

 

[Jimbo1959]

I had the rear sub frame bushes done on mine in January '17.

I need engine mounts and gearbox mounts doing next

What age is your car 'JB'? I'm getting worried now, mine has just clicked over 21K even though it's nine years old.

 

[Jimbo1959]

I've decided to get the four wheel alignment checked when it's in on Monday, the outer 1/4 more like 1/5th of the front tyres look a bit on the bald side although the rest of the tyres look fine.

Why is it, it never rains but it fookin' pours?

My language is deteriorating quite badly these days, must be the stress.

 

[JBell]

What age is your car 'JB'? I'm getting worried now, mine has just clicked over 21K even though it's nine years old.

2010 with 70k on the clock

 

[Jimbo1959]

2010 with 70k on the clock

Hmm... 70K, 3 and a bit years away. All being well of course.

 

[Jimbo1959]

Ok update on my brake judder.

My fall back garage guy has stripped and checked the calipers and says that they are all fine moving in and out no problem.

The issue they have found is that on the o/s/f caliper, the slider for the caliper is pitted and, when it is all built up on the car, it causes a 'tightening' of the movement, he has also suggested replacing the pad sliders too as a precaution.

So, it is going in again this week as soon as the parts arrive from Mercedes.

I will further update the result as soon as I can, as I understand a couple of folk are suffering with the same issues and were stuck in the same predicament (sorry, no pun intended).