slight vibrating at low speed, low throttle - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Maroon 300D · #1 06-05-2006, 04:39 PM

The car will vibrate a little when moving at approx. 25-35 mph, but the vibrating ceases when I put my foot down harder on the pedal. It's most noticeable when I'm in slow-moving city traffic, but even then it's not really too bad.

It seems the likely culprits are engine mounts, driveshaft issues, brakes dragging, or wheels out of balance. There's lots of info. on vibration, but I haven't found any threads where the problem goes away when you give it more fuel. Most people seem to have these problems at higher speeds, too.

The wheels were balanced a few months ago. It's hard to pinpoint the source of the vibration.

I guess my main question is: can I rule out the drivetrain as the culprit since there's less/no vibration when I give it more fuel?

Palangi · #2 06-05-2006, 09:10 PM

Worn out engine mounts sometimes give you kind of a low rumbling noise, maybe more noticable when braking or turning at low speed.

vollpreuss · #3 06-05-2006, 10:24 PM

I have a similar problem with my 85 300TD. There's an intermittent waddle at low speeds only that instantly goes away when I get more aggressive with the pedal. I got the vehicle with a mixed bag of inexpensive tires. I plan to replace those first and see what happens. I was also wondering if my motor mounts are due. That's the path I'm heading down.

Maroon 300D · #4 06-06-2006, 11:10 AM

When I got my car I immediately replaced two tires, which were shot. Now the other two, which are in the front, are getting worn and I wonder if that might be the problem. I looked at the motor mounts yesterday (from the top) and they looked OK...but I'm not sure if that means much.

Since I originally posted this I've been trying to pinpoint the origin of the vibration and I'm not positive, but I would guess that it's coming from the area of the front tires/motor mounts. So I guess I need to investigate the brakes, the tires, and the mounts.

Too bad I won't have the money to replace any of these things for two months!

vollpreuss · #5 06-06-2006, 07:42 PM

The worst tire of the lot is on the rear where the vibration seems to come from. However it looks like some of the engine suspension components had a multi-year bath of power steering fluid until I fixed the leak recently. I figure that can't be good either. I hoping to address the tire part in the next 4 to 8 weeks. I plan to post back the results.

vollpreuss · #6 07-31-2006, 08:13 PM

As a follow up to this post - I started researching replacement tires this weekend and on cue the bad tire decide to show itself at highway speed by slowly disassembling itself. Put on the nearly bald spare - the low speed waddle is gone. I was also very surprised at the noticeable decrease in rolling resistance. Anyone considering the Pep Boys Futura label should think twice in my opinion. My engineer family members were not impressed by the construction of the tire.