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Mercedes GLC Clonking and juddering on near full steering lock

545K views 1K replies 190 participants last post by  Tony Mac 
#1 ·
Mercedes GLC Clonking and juddering on near full steering lock

I have had this problem since new but now the weather is cold and damp or wet the problem is much worse. I have viewed other owners concerns about this phenomena and would like to document my experience.

The car has been with the Mercedes dealership and they have coated the drive shafts with a lubricant to hopefully reduce or remove the problem.

The service manager told me that the clonking noise is from the tyres and another manager told me the car is trying to drive straight ahead (whilst in a turn) and it is the scrubbing of the tyre on the road which is causing the noise and the judder.

The service manager told me the car is safe to drive. However, I'm not so sure.

If I need to turn sharply to avoid a collision I do want the car to turn and avoid the object rather than juddering towards the object.

My wife has said that she would not drive the car until the clonking and juddering was eliminated as it does feel and sound bad when it occurs.

Over the next few days I will check if the lubrication coating has any effect on solving the problem.

I would like to hear the latest situation with regard to all those owners who have the same problem. I.e. is there really a fix or is it a inherent design fault.

John
 
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#2 ·
This may be something called 'Crabbing' and is a known issue on all GLC and other MB AWD models. MB need to come up with a fix for it, but my dealer tells me it's not a safety problem. It is more noticeable in in wet conditions and the AWD tries to get grip. I have told MB customer service about the issue, so they do know about it.
 
#3 ·
GLC wheel judder and clonking

Hello John,


My dealer has told me its a tyre problem and we need to fit winter tyres at £300+ each - even though in my opinion winter has not really arrived here in the UK. MB are saying the car is safe and they recommend winter tyres when the temperature drops below 7 degrees. The weather here in the Midlands is pretty mild at the moment 10+ degrees, yet the car makes an awful noise, judders, skips and lurches when turning - not necessarily with full-lock. It is very disconcerting and embarrassing, not the luxury driving experience I had expected when buying a top of the range MB GLC


The car looks great, is very comfortable with a luxurious interior and drives well, but annoyingly bad at slow speed turns - very disappointed :crying:


Reluctant to buy expensive winter tyres until I'm 100% sure they will resolve the problem.


Has anyone fitted winter tyres or found an alternative fix?
 
#5 ·
it seems to happen in my parking garage at work, though only when the tires are wet/snowy or if the ground is wet/snowy. cant say ive had this happen in any of my other cars though, so i cant say i know what it is. its very odd.
 
#6 ·
Hi all
With regards to the clonking I think it's best described as crabbing.
I've Had this problem on my vito sport and on a porche booster as yet no problem with my glc 250d sport with 18 wheels and hancock tyres.
I knew of this problem before I ordered the car As I have quite a few friends in the moter trade it's considered as a trait of the car not a fault it happens on the c class estate ml ect but not on all cars so it could be a set up problem in the factory or driving style as I've had the problem on other cars to me it doesn't seem much of a problem but on the other hand
To pay top money for for top car it should not happen.
As for M/B dealerships once you you have paid for the car they just seem to shift the blame to say you should fit winter tyres
Is rubbish if that the case the car should be supplied with summer tyres and winter or option as to what country you are in.
But after all that I would still pick the glc again
The above is just my option.

Thanks all Alfie
 
#7 ·
Hi Everyone, I have exactly the same problem as described above.

I took delivery of a GLC 43 AMG in November and the car has been back to the dealer twice, and I have complained to Mercedes.

Mercedes have now come back and said that the only solution is winter wheels, as this isn't a performance or safety issue.

Problem is that I have the optional 21" wheels on the car and there are no winter tyre options available. So it's a complete set of wheels that are needed at a cost of £3000.

That isn't right in my opinion, how can mercedes be allowed to do this to customers?

I would also appreciate any updates from any other owners on their problems with this issue with full lock.
 
#9 ·
It is astonishing that MB can get away with saying the cars are safe and we need to fit winter tyres to fix a fault that feels like driving with square wheels. MB customers pay a premium for a high quality drive, that simply isn't true with the GLC.

Something is seriously wrong and the car is 'Not fit for purpose' - not sure if it's steering geometry / engineering issue or failing tyres. But as other GLC owners are seeing the problem on different tyre types and wheel sizes, I would say it's a steering geometry design fault.

I haven't found anyone who has fitted winter tyres and confirmed whether this does actually resolve the problem.

Winter tyres for my 20" wheels will cost close to £2,000 - cannot find run flat options so also have to get a compressor & gel

We took friends out for a meal last night and they were shocked at the noise, juddering and lurching in the GLC - the car looks great but is truly embarrassing when parking and driving with even slight wheel turn.

What a shambles - not a happy customer :mad:
 
#8 ·
Has anyone taken this up with a head office of some sort opposed to a dealership? They may be able to provide some more insight or aid once you tell them that you're dissatisfied and find it ridiculous that you have to spend £3000 on a set of wheels just to get rid of this stupid crabbing.
 
#55 ·
My 250 GLC HAS HAD THIS PROBLEM SINCE NEW. I reported it to dealership after 2 weeks, no joy. I toolkit in for inspection after 6 months , no joy .At its first service in November 2016, nothing reported back to me but the problem was still there. The dealership contacted me as to my satisfaction with service and I reported the problem yet again. The car was taken in for inspection and left outside at dealership for inspection the next day. I received a video of inspection and was told it was totally safe. THIS IS NOT THE POINT, IT IS FRUSTRATING , EMBARRASING ANDNOT WHAT ONE EXPECTS FROM MERCEDES BENZ. I suggest that owners should get together and face MERCEDES BENZ en mass as there is a definite design fault here. This needs organising not changing tyres etc which is just clutching at straws and allowing time to pass.
 
#105 ·
brand new Glc 220 steering judder


I have just taken delivery of brand new GLC 220 and I have the steering judder on full lock as well. The car has just retuned from the garage stating in the report it is a known characteristic but not unsafe. my question is, in the sales brouchure to my new £41000 car it makes no mention of this fine feature. Sadly merceds have got the steering geometary wrong on this design trying to gain a tighter turning circle but the result is skidding front tyres. Dont beleive the nonsence about it being a cold weather thing. When i tried to take the car back saying this is not what one would expect from a luxury vehicle i was told it is not unsafe and they are working on a fix but they dont know when so i am stuck with the steering judder. i think it may be good by Mercedes hello BMW, or any other non steering juddering manufacturer
 
#12 ·
I bought a new GLC AMG line (01 March 2016, 16 plate) which has 20" rims and Bridgestone RFT Dueler H/P Sport 255/45R20 run flat tyres fitted as supplied by Mercedes Benz. They are very noisy whilst manovering at slow speed and as one of the other disgruntled customers above suggests, I too often find myself apologising for the excessive noise, grabbing, clunking from the front of my car whilst parking etc. I took the car back to the dealer on the 22nd March and the service manager explained that the problem was likely due to cold tyres and was not an issue, once the cars tyres warmed up, he explained, the problem would go away (amazingly he did add that in time, following feed back, MB may decide that the tyres and wheels fitted to my GLC could be found to be unsuitable!)

I began to live with the problem as the weather improved into the spring and summer months. A couple of weeks ago I went to Manchester in the car where the weather was very cold, much colder than here on the south coast. The car performed terribly so much so that my 92 year old mother refused to get in the car after experiencing the dreadful noise. My wife will not drive the car as she thinks the wheels are falling off. The dealership have very little interest only to say now that they "haven't heard of this problem before, why don't I bring the car in for them to look at etc..." I thought it was down to the run flats but it sound like Tony above believes run flats will solve the problem so he must have another tyre fitted to his 20" rims which clearly show signs of performing much like the run flats. (Don't waste your money Tony, the problem will not be resolved by fitting run flat tyres)

The noise, lurching, grabbing, clucking etc from my £43,000 car is so embarrassing especially when you have people in the car and they start to feel unsafe. Mercedes need to sort this out. I like the look of the car so much but my confidence in MB has been knocked and I doubt that at this time I could consider buying the brand again.
 
#13 ·
Had this happen to my 250d.
Dealer ignorded it. 1500km later I returned it with photo evidence of tyre rubber pulling on front passenger tyre. Had 4 wheel align done and it was fixed. Demanded a print of machine data with pre and post settings, proving tyres were out. Running on Pirelli run flats. Had tyres rotated to even out wear.
I will now have them rotated every 10000 (km).
Best is I now have factory settings so I can get cheaper third party tyre places to do an alignment later. Still a little crabbing on one small roundabout when wet, but so much better.
Demand alignment and copy of data from machine.
 
#14 ·
GLC wheel judder video

To get a feel for the amount of juddering and bouncing I am seeing with my GLC, please take a look at this video taken earlier this evening - hope this works,

www.cncworks.com/tm/videos/glc_judder/judder/GLC_Judder.html

Temperature was around 3 c, damp surface, although no different on a dry road surface

The video doesn’t truly do justice to how much the car bounces and how bad the noise is - very sad MB owner
 
#18 ·
MB dealers have their heads in the sand, ignoring this problem and saying its a characteristic of the GLC range - RUBBISH


The key message we have learnt from owners on other forums is that only Right-Hand drive GLC's suffer from this inherent juddering and bouncing fault. Left-Hand drive vehicles in Europe / Germany / North America drive perfectly well, although may suffer minor and acceptable typical 4x4 slipping, which is totally different to what we are experiencing in our Right-Hand drive GLC's.

Conclusion - LHD GLC.s must be different to our RHD GLC's

MB need to accept and address this issue, identify what the differences are between Left & Right hand drive GLC's and fix the problem - German customers are not experiencing the same awful and unacceptable drive!
 
#19 ·
That is not a characteristic of any darn vehicle and they know it. Just because it's happening commonly to them doesn't make it a characteristic, it makes it grounds for a darn recall and to figure out what the issue is. I would be sending strongly worded messages to head office. Maybe even take to more populated social media platforms to really get their attention.
 
#21 ·
I have had my GLC 205 AMG line for just over a year. I have tolerated the juddering, and learned to live with it. It's only when someone else drives the car and they comment on it that you are reminded just how bad it is. My Father recently commented that if you stand and watch the car move when on full lock, the wheels are literally shaking.

I took the opportunity of today's FIRST SERVICE to raise this issue. I was given a couple of different responses, the first being "It's because the wheels are so wide, they all do it, the GLE is the same". A more lengthy conversation with an engineer at the end of the day was more helpful. He was cagey at first saying "yes I am aware that some customers have experienced this, we have raised it with MB and the corporate line is that the car needs winter tyres and then the problem with disappear". I pointed out that the problem doesn't just happen in the winter, and asked if they are suggesting winter tyres for all year round use? His response was that the problem only occurs when the temperature drops below 6C - I assured him that this wasn't the case as it happens all year 'round. He said that he hasn't had another customer say that they experience the problem during the summer. He warmed a little and agreed that after driving my car he too noticed how bad it is, though he assured me that it wasn't a safety issue. It seemed like they have been told to not comment too much on the problem. I asked his advice on how to deal with this and he said they could take the car back in and investigate further, though he wasn't enthusiastic about this saying "Mercedes take forever to deal with this kind of thing". I asked if they have any experience of customers changing to winter tyres but he said not.

Having read everyone's comments on here I can see that this is an issue that MB need to address, it is simply not acceptable. I'm going to write back to the dealer and MB documenting my concerns and asking for further investigate to take place in the Spring once the weather has improved. In the meantime I'm going to keep a log of the air temperature and juddering and save my pennies up for a new Discovery.
 
#22 ·
Unerstand where you are coming from but be careful not to jump out of the frying pan into the fire with a discovery. The discovery is a new model and I bought a discovery sport again a new model in April 15. I am changing my car and going for a GLC as you wouldn't believe the issues the Discovery sport has had, have a look at there forum. Lots of them have been rejected because of quality issues and Land rovers response is about as good as Mercedes. Hopefully the D5 will be better but somehow I doubt it.
 
#23 ·
Thanks for the tip. Though after a Freelander, two Range Rovers and two Discovery's I am really disappointed that I made the switch to the GLC. Not just because of the juddering but for many other reasons too - I really wish I hadn't made the switch. I wanted a smaller car now that my children are at full time school and I don't need the boot space for buggies and Mummy clutter, but didn't want an Evoque. The GLC seemed the answer, generally the car is good but it's just not doing it for me. I hope that you are happy with your GLC when you get it.
 
#24 ·
Hope all goes well for you with the DS, it would be a great car if they sorted the quality issues.
 
#25 ·
#26 ·
Just thinking about it from a cost perspective they have more room for spending to ensure build quality is better. With brands like this poorer build quality lower down the range is always the case. The Mercedes CLA is a good example of this but still people are buying and there are more reasons for buying than not.
 
#27 ·
I think LR have plenty of money to spend as they can sell all the cars they make with very little discounts, my view is that they think it is cost effective to fix the cars that customers complain about and keep churning them out. Hopefully this attitude will come back to bite them.
 
#28 ·
The new car sales manager at my dealer called me to say that after receiving dozens of complaints from GLC customers, he decided to test the GLC C43 for himself. He said it the worst low speed juddering and bouncing he'd experienced in a MB, it felt like the car was doing an 'Irish Jig' - I thought this was quite an appropriate way of putting it :)

He has been receiving the same - fit winter tyres - response from MB HQ, but doesn't believe this is really the answer. He also admitted that none of the sales people have told prospective GLC customers they will need to fit winter tyres, and nobody in a relatively warm UK should need to read the user manual before buying a £50,000 MB car - fitting a new set of tyres at <7'C temps in the UK is nonsense.

We also talked about the rapid tyre wear on our 250d AMG Line GLC - after 8,500 miles the fronts show excessive edge wear that will probably result in a total life of around 11 - 12,000 miles maximum - This is my Wife's car, it's being driven quite cautiously, averaging approx 43 mpg. She's not racing to and from the shops! As the GLC is relatively new model, the sales manager couldn't give me an answer on whether this was an acceptable level of wear, but did agree it was on the low side for a mid-sized car. He did not accept that the wheel juddering and tyre wear are related, but I believe they are.

He doesn't have any answers but is hoping, like all of us, that MB find a fix soon!
 
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