The E spent the last week at the MBz dealer. In their opinion the wobble in the torque converter was not sufficient enough to produce the vibration being felt in the car and through the steering wheel. They did replace the engine mounts (which were already repalced a year ago at the time of the transmission replacement), re-aligned the transmission linkage (whatever that means) and tweaked the idle so the car idles higher. HEY - I thought that wasn't possible!!!

I've had the car back for a couple of days and the vibration is still there - but about 25% less than before. Mainly because the car is idling just a tad above 500 RPMs where as before it was just a tad under 500 RPMs. I have been less than kind to Mercedes Benz of Bellevue - however - in this case they been very receptive. All the work was done under warranty and the service advisor, Dean F., has been very pleasant.

Coming back to the idle - the idle is alot different than before. Now, when the car comes to a stop the car is usually idling around 550 to 600 RPMs then over a 3 to 5 second period, it settles to 500 RPMs. Sometimes it sticks around 525 RPMs for around 10 seconds. If it would stick at 525-550 RPMs all the time the vibration would be gone. So, I'm going to ask Dean if they can tweak whatever they tweaked some more.

So, is the problem solved - no. Is it better, sometimes. I don't think the idle setting is the issue, but increasing the idle hides the problem - and at 96k miles that's good enough for me and all I ever wanted.

After all of this - there is a question - why does the idle decrease from 550/600 RPM to eventually 500/510 RPMs during the first 3 to 5 seconds the car comes to a stop at a light? Am I losing vacuum pressure? Also, does anybody know what the adjusted to get the idle higher???