w116 rear wheel wobble - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

WANT '71 280SEL · #1 10-21-2010, 02:59 PM

When the 450SEL is up in the air, I can wobble the LR tire around. It moves in every direction! It's hard to say how much, but it's definitely not suppose to move when you grab it and push/pull on it. Can rear bearings really get this bad? While I'm pretty sure the trailing arm bushings need replaced, they're not moving when I move the wheel around. It doesn't have a bearing whine (of course some rear-end whine, but they all do). Are there other parts back there that would let the wheel move around like that? Even with the car on the ground, if you kick the side of the tire, you can feel the tire wobble sideways. I'm not THAT strong

Any ideas?

Thanks,

David

pop & blow · #2 10-21-2010, 03:39 PM

yes they can you need to take a closer look and not drive it.

diametricalbenz · #3 10-21-2010, 03:48 PM

That was the side that had the tire with the core separation.

Take the wheel off and inspect the bearing.

WANT '71 280SEL · #4 10-21-2010, 04:22 PM

Curtis! You're alive!!!

I remember that being the side with the tire separation and I wonder if that was the cause or helped form the separation? Get this, though. The right side had the same problem on the same type of Michelin tire on the way to Dallas from ATL. That was two rear Michelin tires that failed in the same way. Then this past wknd, while on a random road trip to explore rural TX (yes, all stereotypes are correct) the RR tire detreaded (don't know if that's a word). I'd post a photo if I had a camera, and Curtis, you'd really find this interesting. While driving at about 50, there was a stronger vibration from the back that came on rather suddenly like a broken cord. While looking for Walmarts on my GPS I heard a loud wobbling/banging noise come from the RR. While looking back I saw a large piece of rubber fly though the air only after scratching the side of the car and knocking off the two chrome trime piece in the vicinity. The tire didn't go flat, but was silver because all the treading came off in one piece

It was strange, really... Anyway, nervous that it would blow up in my face I used a long stick and deflated the tire most of the way before going too close to it. Anyways, that was a low quality used tire. It now has two new tires on the rear but I don't want to drive it much and wear out these tires because there's obviously a problem with the suspension. And as Curtis could point out, the front end is also very tired as well. Looks like I need to take the car off the road and do just about everything at once: springs, shocks, b-joints, tie-rods, rear bushings and so on). Grrr... This is irritating....

Sorry for the long ramble. Hope everyone's day is going well.

Regards,

David