What now...

[nycdude777]

I've been having very strange road behavior problems with my 2008 CLS550.

I admit that I hit a nice perpendicular trench dug but the road workers who just left it there over night... I hate that!!!!!

The car drives like a piece of crap ever since. I want to fix it but no one seems to know what the hell is wrong.

What happens is the car never wants to go in a straight line. Tiniest grooves in the road and the steering wheel goes CRAZY, for example if I decide to change a lane and turn left, the car pulls violently to the left as I am crossing the lane mark and then to the right again as I enter the left lane. The slant on the road to either side affects the pull as expected, but more than usual. When accelerating from stand still, I hear a subtle click from the front suspension. When stopping at a stop light, i feel a KICK, as if transmission is releasing the gear and then grabbing it again... WEIRD. I took it to a FORMER mercedes mechanic who now does work on his own for his mercedes customers, and he told me immediately that my SUBFRAME is shifted or even LOOSE, which would explain the jumping and the shifting.

I did wheel alignment 5 times, so thats not it. He also said that my rear left wheel is pushed back by impact, and I possibly have a BENT lower control arm.

I took it to the dealer with the complaint that the steering is unstable and there is clicking sound when shaking the wheel on the lift.

They called me back 2 days later saying there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with my car and that I am paranoid. I said there is something DEFINITELY wrong with the steering. The service advisor says: "Well, what are you a mechanic? Then why don't you come down here yourself, I will call the foreman and YOU can show us what the problem is. I did. They bring the car out and wait, I say put it on the lift, they say okay, but if we do that and we find nothing, you will have to pay for the work. I said OK. They lift the car, I turn the wheel all the way to the left, and shake it. They hear the sound. 15 minutes later, the foreman comes to me and says, listen, your whole rack and pinion is shot, we need to replace it, we'll take care of it no problem. I'm like are you kidding me? You were gonna let me go with a shot rack and pinion????

Then I also mention the tranny kick, and they do a software upgrade on it and the engine.

I pick the car up 2 days later... The steering is amazingly tight and smooth. BUT, the car STILL jumps all over the road, and the tranny still kicks, except now I think the car became less aggressive when accelerating. Also when accelerating, the car fishtails a little bit.

So I am at a point where I want to replace all the the possibly damaged control arms, both fron and rear, and also want to put the car up on the frame machine to pull out the subframe and tighten it there.

The problem is, it could be just ONE thing, or maybe few, but to do all that its going to cost me a lot of money. One shop quoted me 700 to set the subframe in place (without a guarantee, or 200 just to check if its okay).

The control arms are very expensive at the dealer, about 260 each. There are other components that might be affected which I don't know about.

Any suggestions? Does anyone know a good place to buy the control arems cheaper than at the dealer?

I would pay someone to just diagnose the problem and tell me exactly what I need to change.

THANKS!!!!!!