W124 - Dealing with the vibrations - Part 1

So my wife calls me fussy because I am not willing to let go of the vibrations that I have on Rhino. My argument is that since we have spent quite a bit of money on it, it should not be there and if it is still there, we should know why. That was my reply to her and she isn't amused.

Vibrations have been a journey that I have been battling on Rhino and I hope I am near to get it all resolved. When I took it in again, the issue was that firstly, I felt that there was massive feedback on the harshness of the road on the steering. Subsequent to that, I am noticing a particular vibration that takes place between 60 - 100 kph before it subsides.

I took it in for an assessment. After a quick look, the mechanic reported that the idler arm bush is busted. They further said that the tie rods need replacement as well. They insisted that the replacement parts will need to be from Lemforder as they are not getting success with other brands.

I went to look for the parts and got what was needed and a few others. The shopping cart was filled with:

  1. Idler arm bush - Lemforder
  2. Tie rods - Lemforder
  3. Engine Oil - Revenol 10w40 semi-synthetic
  4. Oil filter - Mahle
I then made time with the mechanic to have the items replaced. An appointment was made and I sent the car in the morning, by noon, they were done with it. I took it for a drive and the observation was the steering was no longer harsh. It was a lot smoother than it used to be. A further test to the drive revealed that from 70-100 kph was still making some sort of vibrations on the steering, but it wasn't as much as before. The old idler arm bush was busted despite being just 4 months old, the tie rods were in pretty bad shape and it was of some unknown brand. 

A further check revealed that the long-shaft/prop shaft/drive shaft was marred with some scuffs in the rear end that could affect the balance. A few calls and a sample later, a replacement long shaft was found in Klang. A quick haggling and pick up later, the long shaft was en route to the mechanic again for installation.

It took a good 2 hours for the installation to be done and the immediate observation was that the car was smoother. I also observed that the jerk from gear 1-2 is a lot more subtle (unsure if this is a placebo) and the car drives smoother overall. Speed was tested up to 160 kph and Rhino was very comfortable.

On a side note, my iPhone fell today and cracked the screen. All in all, it was a good day with the iPhone screen that needs replacement as a bummer.

No pictures this round!

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