Do you have a grinding noise in your 2007-2013 Mercedes
4Matic gearbox? Do you hear a grind that starts at low speed and increases as
the car speeds up until it’s so loud you’re afraid to drive it? Many people
confuse the noise with wheel bearing failure, but it’s not. The 2008 and new
C-Class 4Matics are prone to this same failure. S550 and C300 4Matics are the
most problematic. If you’ve got either of those models, read on.
We’ve seen several W221 S-Class Mercedes 4Matics with noisy
transmission / transfer case assemblies, and we’re thinking this may become
more common as the vehicles age. The
cars we’re seeing have 60-90,000 miles on their odometers when they start
grinding.
Our most recent client came to us after the local Benz
dealer told him he needed a new transmission, because Mercedes didn’t want them
making internal repairs. He thought
$6,000-some was a lot of money for a bad bearing and he asked if we could help.
Of course we said yes.
Lead tech Danny Ferrari in our Mercedes shop removed the transmission
and tore it down, whereupon the failure was obvious. The bearings had failed. The ones that carry the
transfer case shafts and take the load from the driveshaft had totally come
apart. It seemed like an easy fix, but
Mercedes does not sell internal parts and they build this gearbox in-house.
We have spent the time to locate sources of original quality repair parts overseas,
and we’re now able to fix these formerly unserviceable units. We can generally save you a few thousand dollars over
the cost of a dealer exchange part.
Our shop can perform any service or repair on these fine
cars, including transmission services. However, there’s no preventative
maintenance we know of that will head off this bearing failure. It may be that
the load on these bearings is just too much for their size, or there may be
another cause.
If you've got an older Benz, look to us for transmission fluid flushes, filters, repairs to the sensor plate, and repair of leaking electrical feed-through connectors. The older Mercedes transmissions are showing more problems because the years and miles are piling up, but we can fix anything that happens to them.
From what we can see the repaired transmissions will last as
long as the originals, and repair takes less than a week, start to finish, for
most units. J E Robison Service is a
Bosch Car Service specialist in Springfield, MA. Find us at 347 Page Boulevard, in the Springfield Auto Complex, in Springfield, MA 01104.
Robison Service has provided independent service, repair, and restoration for
Mercedes Benz owners all over New England for over 25 years. We also service BMW, MINI, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, and Rolls Royce and Bentley motorcars. We have flatbed
transport all over the region. We also offer pickup and delivery for cars in Springfield, Wilbraham, Longmeadow, Agawam,
Westfield, Northampton, and Amherst.
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