I have a 2008 gs 350 and that's has vibration at idle only in drive and neutral. Is this normal ?

 

*****Correction it only vibrates in D and R but goes away in neutral ....

 

Do you have AWD?

 

My 2010 GS 350 RWD also has a vibration while in gear, but it vanishes when in neutral. It's not a very strong vibration in my vehicle, but I do feel something like a low-level and continuous shudder. RPMs have never jumped erratically, and I've never had any other issue with it (in 53k mi).

I pointed this out to my dealer and they said it was quite normal, they even deterred me from running some diagnostics on it. My car has been in for service very few times, but the loaners (ES/IS) I've had also have similar small vibrations, when I've gone 'looking' for it.

 

yes it is awd

 

Hi guys,

I have this weird problem with my 2011 GS450h that seemed to have developed after replacing the shocks /KYB gas shocks/. When I turn the steering wheel either way at low speeds like under 10 mp/h, it feels like my front tire is rubbing somewhere, but there is nothing rubbing. It almost feels like I'm driving on a rough surface. When I push the gas the rubbing seems to disappear, and it never happens on high speed corners, only when I'm driving slow and turn the wheel.

I took it to shops and the dealer, but no one mechanic can identify anything wrong down there. One mechanic test drove my car and was able to reproduce the vibration and he gave me, "there's nothing to worry about, you're making a big deal out of nothing" sort of response. But it is not nothing, I know how my car felt like before, now its vibrating.

Before this problem presented itself, I replaced all 4 shocks with KYB gas shocks, but I used the old strut mounts and the old springs. I also had them replace the sway bar bushings, and the lower control arm bushings, so they are brand new. Also, throttle body was cleaned thoroughly, and the wheel alignment was done.

My possible 2 guesses would be:
1. My original strut mounts were not fully compatible with the new KYB shocks, thus acting funny when turning.
2. Or my engine RPM is too low at low speeds and making the car vibrate when turning the steering wheel /but unlikely/

Could strut mounts cause all this? If you have encountered anything like this, please help me resolve this. Thanks!

 

Interesting problem.

You can rule (2) out by putting the car in EV mode and seeing if the vibration is still present (I'm assuming that, since my girlfriend's Prius has EV mode, 450h has it too )

Also, it could just be that you got used to the old shocks, and the new ones allow more feedback through the wheel?

Only other thing I can think of is that a bolt either wasn't torqued to spec, or became loose.

Where did you get the work done?

Also, welcome to CL!

 

Could be worn tranny or engine mounts.

 

Yeah it does have an EV mode and it still smokes its non-hybrid equivalents just like it does every other day .

Anyway, the problem is not any of the suspension parts, its the electric power steering... I just need to get it diagnosed and potentially replace the motor. Wonder how much that's gonna cost.

 

First of all, speed isn't everything!

Jesus I hope that either (A) you're wrong about the issue being the electric power steering, or (B) your car is still under warranty – if not, it'll probably run you a few grand or more (not sure how much labor is involved, but I'm guessing it's a fairly big job).

How did you conclude that it's the electric power steering?

 

I had the shop put back my old front shocks thinking it would fix the vibration, but the problem still persisted, and I was back to square one, didn't even know where to begin to try to figure this out. Then I remembered, the company I work for also owns a local Mercedes dealer, so I went to talk to the head of service there /can't believe I didn't think of this/, explained the symptoms of the car to my fullest capacity. Then he called in his service manager and had me explain whats going on with my car all over again.

After listening to me for a while the service manager said, "That sounds like an electric power steering problem /EPS/". He says, "Because, it doesn't do it all the time, and vibrates only at low speed turning - even that doesn't happen every time - and the suspension is fine, it can only be the EPS. It has nothing to do with any of the suspension parts".

There are couple of reasons why I believed him, 1) He's been the service manager there for over 10 years, so he should know better than me and 2) His wife drives a Toyota that did the exact same thing as my car, and it was the EPS. So more I thought about it, more I realized how right he was on this one.

They graciously offered to fixed it for me even though its not Mercedes, but even with the employee discount the preliminary estimate they gave me was just mind blowing. Let's just say the figure was way more than couple thousand. I'm not sure how people own Mercedes, its just ridiculous. I'll just go on and get a Lexus dealer do their thing, should be cheaper... relatively.

 

For the original poster most AWD's vibrate! Its a common issue and nobody has solved the problem. They vibrate a lot more if youre lowered, but at stock height its very mild

 

Yep, sounds reasonable, though I'll add that 3) As a Mercedes service manager, he's had more experience with failures of major electronic systems of all kinds than almost any other man alive!

Lol reminds me of a story a friend told me a while back that may shed some light on the mind of the Mercedes owner. His dad was friends with the owner of Beverly Hills Mercedes in the 70s and 80s, and my friend met him a couple times. On one of these occasions, the owner told my friend that he had several customers that actually sold their homes to purchase a Benz, and were basically living in their cars and hotels. Of course, this was back in the day when Mercs were damn good cars, so at least they wouldn't be hit with massive repair bills every few months!