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NOT SO GOOD "VIBRATIONS" 98' E300 TD

1K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Jetdude1010 
#1 ·
I've come across another "nuisance" issue with the W210 TD. car has 170K miles.

The car has developed this teeth rattling resonance vibration at idle. 600RPM when in "D" Drive. both cold and at operating temp. Goes away at 1000 RPM
The Vibration is reduced by roughly half when placed in "P" and "N"
The vibration completely goes away when the transmission is placed in "R" reverse. ( WEIRD!!!) it is smooth as glass.
That leads me to rule out engine mounts.
The car drives great. shifting is normal. Transmission fluid and filter service was done 8K miles ago with MB trany fluid.

I thought i had fuel with low cetane so I added half a can of royal purple X-thane additive but no change was noticed.

So the questions are:
Could it be the engine mounts. Any way to check these before I blow $200 bucks.
could it be that the transmission is "pulling" more than usual? why only in drive but not reverse.?
Does the transmission have any adjustments?
are there any transmission additives recommended to smooth out the trany. It has 170K miles on it?
harmonic balancer?


Jetdude 1010
 
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#3 ·
+1 for motor mounts. I don't agree with URO replacements, but that's your call to make. I just did my mounts a couple of months ago and they were extremely easy to swap on the OM606.

As an edge-case possibility, the torque converter clutch is known to drag on some 722.6 models and lead to an engine stalling and apply shudder condition. This could probably exhibit as more vibration in one direction than another. I mention it only for completeness, as at this point in a W210's life cycle it's not likely to be found in the wild -- if someone was going to have one of these problematic converters, it probably would have been fixed by now.

I'm not aware of a harmonic balancer issue with the OM606 engines.
 
#6 ·
You have to evaluate price, value and potential risk.
I would not buy flex disc by URO as the risk is too high, but put URO radiator hose in father's W124, where OEM retail at $260 and 4 years later it is still good.
On SL- OEM MM were expensive as well and since I don't plan to make more than 50k on that car in next 10 years, I went for URO.
What also weight heavily on my decision was the fact that everybody bitches about URO, while I have small devil in me that likes to prove everything different ;)
 
#7 ·
Yeah, I agree with Kaj in that I do not believe in a blanket condemnation of a manufacturer, just because a few of their products were / are not as reliable. Few months ago, some poster decided to use a Uro tensioner, and he was told how bad his choice was, and the tensioner would not last more than a year or so. I had searched possible complaints on that "particular" Uro part in the forums, and there was none. Sometimes it is the installer's fault, not the part's, especially if the installer is not experienced, and he does not fully follow the installation guidelines (like proper torque requirements).
 
#8 ·
[shrug]
You pays your money, yous takes your chances.
Uro is proven (to me, anyway) to not be reliable as a supplier or quality parts.
YMMV. Prove away!
I am one of those people who hates to do a job twice. Chances of long-term repair success are better using parts from vendors who don't have a large (!) number of complaints. Plus, I'm not particularly price-sensitive when it comes to parts.

As I said:
[quote="Al_Savage] I don't agree with URO replacements, but that's your call to make. [/quote]
I'm not going to shame someone who makes a different choice . . . with the possible exception of an "I told you so" sometime in the future.
 
#10 ·
Get back to me when your URO radiator hose makes it to ten years. Right, you don't care about longevity, you're not keeping the car that long.

There's a niche for second- and third-tier quality parts. I understand that you're the target audience for those parts. I'm not, and I don't advocate that position for others, esp. those who -- like me -- have things they like to do other than perform longevity testing, and esp. when URO already has a large pool of quality testers -- with posted results.

I especially do not like dealing with a lower hose coolant leak on a car when I'm 1200 miles from home on a car with a diaper.
 
#11 ·
Let me repeat >>> evaluate price, value and potential risk.
When you have 25 years old car, with less than $2000 value, you don't put $200 hose in it because it will last 10+ years.
Hoses can be fixed in several ways in case they rapture and the rapture is predictable by inspections.
MM even completely shot will still do the main job.
 
#12 ·
Speaking only for myself, I didn't buy a 17-year-old car to save money. It fulfills a specific purpose in my life. I don't have the illusion it's going to be reliable, though I do expect it to be durable, as have my previous MB vehicles.

I'm also not aiming to extract every ounce of monetary value from it. It has not been unusual for me to spend three times the residual monetary value of a vehicle to continue to use it.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that you & I evaluate price, value, and potential risk in different ways.

And I neither recommend nor support (with my purchase dollars) organizations that provide low- or second-tier quality anything. From what I've read, URO falls into that category.
 
#13 ·
You are making it political, when for me it is strictly economics. ..
although.... supporting less-greedy businesses is our family tradition.
Typical sample is buying fuel at cheaper station, when often driving additional block and wait in line is not worth the $2 saving.
But think about long-term impact. Will you go to convenient, high priced stations - the lower priced one will have less business so will have to raise prices or close.
Than the prices at convenient station will go up and up.
Sometimes you have to act on principals even when it makes no economical benefits.
 
#14 ·
Middle of the road compromise on parts.

Well, ill be replacing the 3 mounts. (with a mid price supplier )
hopefully that will smooth out the vibration. Folks can use Uro but just need to increase the inspection interval. for example the flex disks.
i get the MB because its a 100K miles job that I dont want to do until 200K miles.
hoses, belts , etc you can easily inspect.


Jetdude
 
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