Front driveshaft failed at 80mph in the left lane of a major highway. Car was not able to move under its own power after the vehicle was pulled off to the side of the highway. After getting the vehicle towed to my house for diagnosis, I learned that the front driveshaft had failed. This also damaged both oxygen sensors and my passenger catalytic converter, along with a protective shielding, brackets, and scoring on the bellhousing. This seems to be a common issues with C-Class 4Matic and S-Class 4Matic cars as my friend also had this exact failure on his 2009 S550 4Matic, another friend with a 2010 S550 4Matic had catastrophic damage requiring a new engine block, and it is well documented on the C-Class 4Matic W204 chassis cars. I suspect it is due to the angled design of the front driveshaft, which introduces stress onto the u-joint, thus allowing for premature failure.
For such great engineering dollars, the engineers could not design the transfer case to extend a few more inches towards the end of the passenger floorboard to negate the angle in an obvious high load environment that the front driveshaft is subject to.
Interestingly enough, my local Mercedes-Benz dealership has a few (not just one) of the protective shieldings in stock just for my vehicle; a component that would not otherwise ever need to be replaced since the part is very well rust-proofed and is an inanimate part under all circumstances. Perhaps Mercedes-Benz is aware of this issue?
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Front driveshaft failed at 80mph in the left lane of a major highway. Car was not able to move under its own power after the vehicle was pulled off to the side of the highway. After getting the vehicle towed to my house for diagnosis, I learned that the front driveshaft had failed. This also damaged both oxygen sensors and my passenger catalytic converter, along with a protective shielding, brackets, and scoring on the bellhousing. This seems to be a common issues with C-Class 4Matic and S-Class 4Matic cars as my friend also had this exact failure on his 2009 S550 4Matic, another friend with a 2010 S550 4Matic had catastrophic damage requiring a new engine block, and it is well documented on the C-Class 4Matic W204 chassis cars. I suspect it is due to the angled design of the front driveshaft, which introduces stress onto the u-joint, thus allowing for premature failure.
For such great engineering dollars, the engineers could not design the transfer case to extend a few more inches towards the end of the passenger floorboard to negate the angle in an obvious high load environment that the front driveshaft is subject to.
Interestingly enough, my local Mercedes-Benz dealership has a few (not just one) of the protective shieldings in stock just for my vehicle; a component that would not otherwise ever need to be replaced since the part is very well rust-proofed and is an inanimate part under all circumstances. Perhaps Mercedes-Benz is aware of this issue?
- Calvin O., Commerce City, CO, US