S204 C220 CDI Manual - shuddering

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
Wanted to ask the experts opinions before I take it to a main dealer:

The car is a 2011 Facelift S204 C220 CDI Manual gearbox @ 105k miles.

So I noticed a few months ago that when in 3rd and 4th gear at low revs and demanding power, there's a shuddering feeling and noise coming from the rear of the car. Seems to be coming from either rear centre or rear left of the car. The noise is similar to going over the yellow rumble strips when you approach a junction.

This ONLY happens in 3rd and 4th from low revs when asking for the power or when going uphill at low revs in 3rd/4th. Once past 2.5-3k revs, the shuddering stops. If I boot it and use the full rev range in every gear, I get no shuddering at all.

Other than that, the car drives completely normally, is in great condition and under a MB service plan.

Any ideas? I'd hate to take it to MB and have an unnecessarily hefty bill.

Thanks.
 

John Laidlaw

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
26,373
Reaction score
9,163
Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
Hmmm, might be the diff /Prop but hard to tell and unfortunately no way of avoiding at least a diagnostic (Star) to find out. Your description on the revs/gears rules out my first thought which is tyre wear (Especially Conti which begin to drone a bit from half worn on, almost sounding like bearing failure)
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #3
Thanks John. There's no warning lights or error messages, so not sure if Star would have any codes to display and the tyres are relatively new, OEM spec Contis so pretty sure it's not that either.

With the noise coming from the rear of the vehicle and a rapid clunky noise in time with the shuddering feeling, my thoughts are drivetrain too although I'm happy it's not the gearbox given the location of the noise and the particular parameters required to recreate the symptom.
 

ernieh

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
1,603
Reaction score
181
Location
Scotland, East
Your Mercedes
Audi Q2 Sport, 2022, 1.5 Petrol
You need to be very careful on this one (I probably don't need to tell you....!). Someone on one of the American forums had a drive shaft let go on a 204, taking out the transmission casing and landing them a $10000 bill. I didn't manage to work out what had failed, but it looked like a prop shaft to me, in our terms.

Ernie
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
Thanks Ernie. It's getting booked in with MR soon. Oddly, it doesn't do it when cold. Only after a longer drive. I hope that helps them diagnose the issue.
 

jj1975

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2009
Messages
436
Reaction score
3
Location
essex
Your Mercedes
w203 c220cdi 2002
1 possibility is engine mounts worn worth of checking them
Try to pull hard from stationery
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #7
The noise is from the rear of the car and only happens at 40mph in either 3rd or 4th. From stationary at full bore, there's no shudder so don't think it's engine mounts but thanks for the suggestion.
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #8
For those interested, we think we've got to the bottom of the issue.

It was in MB this morning and was difficult to diagnose. No error codes or warnings on Star. They had to remove the rear seats and have one technician driving whilst the other was in the back to find the source of the noise and vibration.

After lots of searching, they've isolated the issue to the UJ in the middle of the propshaft. There's play in one axis but not the other. They're pretty confident as the issue only happens during a particular speed range and is worse at high torque demand - making the UJ oscillate and therefore transferring that vibration to the rear diff making the car shudder. They think that the issue only manifests when the car is hot because the UJ will loosen up when it's warm, and tighten when it's cool, temporarily 'curing' the problem.

It's going in at the weekend to have a new propshaft and couplings and hopefully no more issues!

Thanks to those above correctly assessing the prop/diff area as it no doubt saved me some labour time.
 

John Laidlaw

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
26,373
Reaction score
9,163
Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
Nice one, hope it all gets sorted with minimum fuss and cost!
 

LostKiwi

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
31,328
Reaction score
21,575
Location
Midlands / Charente-Maritime
Your Mercedes
'93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
That sounds a very likely explanation. Fingers crossed its right!
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #11
Finally all repaired. After a wait of several weeks as there was zero stock in Europe of the correct propeller shaft, it's all now done - but it certainly wasn't cheap! The complete propshaft, including centre bearing and 2x couplings was nearly £900 +VAT on it's own. :(

That said, I didn't realise just how badly it affected the drivetrain all the way through the rev range. I could really feel the vibrations between 35-40mph but now its sorted, the car is so much smoother to drive in general.
 

LostKiwi

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
31,328
Reaction score
21,575
Location
Midlands / Charente-Maritime
Your Mercedes
'93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
Great result! For future reference Bailey Morris make up propshafts to order and are excellent. Not that I expect you'll need another for quite some time!
 
OP
Sentinel-R1

Sentinel-R1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Age
44
Location
Wirral/Lincoln/London
Your Mercedes
F/L S204 C220 CDI AMG Sport
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #13
I'll make a note of Bailey Morris, thanks for that - and thanks to all for the help with the diagnosis.
 


AMF Automotive - We are an independent Mercedes-Benz and AMG specialist located in Paddock Wood, Kent, with full Mercedes Diagnostic equipment. We offer a full portfolio of tuning options for AMGs and can cater for all your Mercedes needs.
Tel: 0203 384 4644www.amfmercedes.com/
Top Bottom