Thanks for the tip. I may very well replace the tires with the Cross Terrains.
Regards,
H3rmes
Go ahead and do it now!! You'll be happy you done it. Why ride in a vehicle so nice and endure all that vibration? It's worth the money![:)]
Very, very tempting I must say. . .How are the Cross Terrains on HWY speeds (70 mph to 120 mph)in terms of noise and vibrations? When they were balanced and put on your rims, did they use a lot of weights? I am not too concerned about the HR vs VR speed ratings of tires.
Regards,
h3rmes
Do it. I replaced my original Dunlop Grand Treks with X-Terrains, even though I still had a good 10000 miles left in the Dunlops and the X-Terrains were pretty much the most expensive tires I could find. Rough ride & vibration = gone. Excessive road noise = gone. The Michelins are smooth and quiet on just about any surface, and pretty decent in snow as well. You will find direct replacements for your OEM spec: 275/55R17 H-rated.
I shelled out a chunk of money on Michelin X-Terrains and got them Hunter Road Force matched at less than 20 lbs. 3 of the wheels are under 20 lbs. The 4 one on the rear side measure 24 lbs. The tech tried 8 times to get it under 20 lbs. but it simply would not give, which is "acceptable" according to Hunter. Their thresh hold is 34 for light truck tires.
Net net, this eliminated all vibrations and the car drive like a dream.
Lessons learned: wheel balancing is not the same as a road foce matching with a less than 20 lbs baseline. Don't simply balance the wheel! Pay the extra and get it roadforce matched at less than 20 lbs.
I shelled out a chunk of money on Michelin X-Terrains and got them Hunter Road Force matched at less than 20 lbs. 3 of the wheels are under 20 lbs. The 4 one on the rear side measure 24 lbs. The tech tried 8 times to get it under 20 lbs. but it simply would not give, which is "acceptable" according to Hunter. Their thresh hold is 34 for light truck tires.
Net net, this eliminated all vibrations and the car drive like a dream.
Lessons learned: wheel balancing is not the same as a road foce matching with a less than 20 lbs baseline. Don't simply balance the wheel! Pay the extra and get it roadforce matched at less than 20 lbs.
I'm glad you finally bit the bullet. You'll be happy you did this!! Now if you can just afford to drive it with gas over $3.00 gallon now!
One lesson I learnt the expensive way was that many wheel balancing machines are way out of calibration.
A simple test for this is for the mechanic to balance the wheel perfectly, then to turn the wheel 180 degrees on the machine and check again, if the errors are within 10 gram then the machine is calibrated OK.
Even the best machines need proper calibration.
I have Continental 4x4 Contact and, although I will not be buying them again for other reasons, they are properly balanced (and have been since new, now 20K miles) and the vehicle is completely smooth past 100mph.
If the mechanic does not want to run the above test then I would simply not go there again and I would tell him so.
Excellent point! I hope that people don't get the idea that Conti tires are fundementally bad. My case is very different than most people.
I bought my ML500 with about 15K on the odo from a used car dealer who kept bragging about the fact that the car had "new" Conti tires.
The tech who balanced and roadforce matched the Michelins told me that my Contis were way way off, as much as 50 to 60 lbs off on each wheel and that it was nearly impossible for him with the rim and tire combination to go under 20 lbs.
This confirmed the MB dealers inital finding that the tires were indeed defective. Perhaps if I got set of good Contis I would go back, but since I had to replace the tires, I chose the best rated tire I could find to replace them.
Another point which I forgot to mention is that once an unbalanced tyre is used for more than a few hundred miles it will always vibrate.
The imbalance causes spot and uneven wear and, although a machine may be able to balance it, the uneven wear due to the previous imbalance will always cause vibration meaning the tyre has to be replaced.
I shelled out a chunk of money on Michelin X-Terrains and got them Hunter Road Force matched at less than 20 lbs. 3 of the wheels are under 20 lbs. The 4 one on the rear side measure 24 lbs. The tech tried 8 times to get it under 20 lbs. but it simply would not give, which is "acceptable" according to Hunter. Their thresh hold is 34 for light truck tires.
Net net, this eliminated all vibrations and the car drive like a dream.
Lessons learned: wheel balancing is not the same as a road foce matching with a less than 20 lbs baseline. Don't simply balance the wheel! Pay the extra and get it roadforce matched at less than 20 lbs.
I'm glad you finally bit the bullet. You'll be happy you did this!! Now if you can just afford to drive it with gas over $3.00 gallon now!
I find that the ML500 is a different car altogether with the Michelins. I am just angry that I didn't do it earlier! Just finishing up my local commute on I-78, I again appreciated how important tires are in the ride quality department.
As an additional benefit, instead of getting 18 mpg on the hwy, I am getting 20 mpg!
My wife’s Ford Escape came with Continental’s from the factory and I think these tires are the worst I ever had on any car!
After less then 10000 miles the tires became extremely loud on any kind of road surface. I had them pulled, rotated and balanced. Nothing helped and after hitting 30000 miles I replaced them with Michelin X terrain.
The Michelin are a bit expensive but it made a world of difference. Very smooth and not noisy at all.
The only issue I have with the Michelin is how badly they pick-up small rocks.
We go hiking almost every weekend and drive unpaved gravel fire roads. I never have seen a tire pick-up so many small rocks, the treads on every tire was completely covered with small rocks which wedged themselves so badly that it took me hours and a small screwdriver to get them all out!
On my ML I have Dunlop’s SP and I am very happy. Smooth ride and last weekend we drove the same gravel road and I have a difficult time finding any small rocks wedged in the treads.
I shelled out a chunk of money on Michelin X-Terrains and got them Hunter Road Force matched at less than 20 lbs. 3 of the wheels are under 20 lbs. The 4 one on the rear side measure 24 lbs. The tech tried 8 times to get it under 20 lbs. but it simply would not give, which is "acceptable" according to Hunter. Their thresh hold is 34 for light truck tires.
Net net, this eliminated all vibrations and the car drive like a dream.
Lessons learned: wheel balancing is not the same as a road foce matching with a less than 20 lbs baseline. Don't simply balance the wheel! Pay the extra and get it roadforce matched at less than 20 lbs.
I'm glad you finally bit the bullet. You'll be happy you did this!! Now if you can just afford to drive it with gas over $3.00 gallon now!
I find that the ML500 is a different car altogether with the Michelins. I am just angry that I didn't do it earlier! Just finishing up my local commute on I-78, I again appreciated how important tires are in the ride quality department.
As an additional benefit, instead of getting 18 mpg on the hwy, I am getting 20 mpg!
A 10% increase in gas mileage! What a bonus. At today's gas prices, it will not take long to recover what you spent on the tires!![:)]
Hello,
I've had similar problems with my Ml 320 (99) , when i go to stop its a vibration in the front it feels like,
i took it to several places including the dealer and 1 place said it was due to the gear shifting down right before stop, or a warn frame mount, or a transmission problem or the air conditioner unit?.Aanyway i have my 5th trip back to the mercedes delear monday so i'll let you know what they come up with.Thank god for warranties!
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