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Old 06-29-2019, 09:15 AM   #1
Eligracem
 
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Carmel , Indiana
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 12
2016 Interstate shudder & tires

Hello,
We recently noticed the brakes were shuddering on our Interstate. We took it to our local Mercedes dealer and they told us they were fine. They kept shuddering, took it back 3 weeks later, and then they told us we needed to replace all 4 brakes. We had them do the work, picked it up and drove it to Iowa from Indiana. The brakes were fine, but we now have a wicked shimmy in the steering wheel. We got home and took it to the Mercedes dealer again, and they are telling us it had nothing to do with their brake work, and that the tires are out of round and we need to replace all 6 for $2000. We picked it up again, totally disgusted with the dealer, and are going to take it to a tire store to see if the alignment is off or the tires just coincidentally decided to be problematic at the same time the brakes were replaced.
I would love to know if anyone else has had a significant shudder in their steering wheel at interstate speeds - 60-75mph, and if it was the tires. Has anyone replaced their tires and especially loved what they put on? If we do end up replacing them, I would like to get some that help the smoothness of the ride, especially in the back of the van. I like Michelins, but our tire store says they wear out faster. They are recommending Cooper tires, which we have never used. Our current tires have 26000 miles on them and still have plenty of tread. Thank you!!
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Old 06-29-2019, 11:19 AM   #2
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2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Lady Lake , Florida
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We have a 2016 GT. No shudder from brakes. Original equipment tires (Continentals) were replaced with Michelin Defenders at 38,800 miles. The Michelins ride much softer. Love them at 48,000 miles. Beads used for balancing.
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Old 06-29-2019, 12:31 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eligracem View Post
I would love to know if anyone else has had a significant shudder in their steering wheel at interstate speeds - 60-75mph, and if it was the tires.
No shudder, and no uneven wear on the old tires or the new ones.
Quote:
Has anyone replaced their tires and especially loved what they put on? I like Michelins, but our tire store says they wear out faster.
I put on Michelins, and really like them. The sidewalls aren't as stiff, though, so people are always telling me I have low tires even when they're not low on air.


As for Michelins not lasting as long, I suspect that like me, most Interstate owners will need to replace their tires due to age long before they need to replace them due to wear— assuming they keep the front end properly aligned, and the tires properly balanced and inflated.
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Old 06-29-2019, 05:18 PM   #4
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2006 22' Interstate
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I had Michelins on my Interstate until the day before yesterday. My tires were six years old with 50 thousand miles when I had a blowout while going 70 miles an hour. We were miles from home but just beginning a 3 week trip. Ended up at a Les Schwab tire center and bought 5 Back Country tires including the spare. I'm told these are their top of the line tire manufactured by Cooper. I've put about 1000 miles on them and so far am very pleased with the ride.
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Old 06-29-2019, 05:31 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eligracem View Post
Hello,
We recently noticed the brakes were shuddering on our Interstate. .......

Our current tires have 26000 miles on them and still have plenty of tread. Thank you!!
Plenty of thread, wear fairly even and the way you describe, sounds to me like tires need to be balanced. Find a garage that works on trucks, ask for tire balance and perhaps have alignment checked. have them give you a printout what the balance was and what it is, same for alignment.
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Old 06-29-2019, 06:07 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eligracem View Post
Hello,
We recently noticed the brakes were shuddering on our Interstate. We took it to our local Mercedes dealer and they told us they were fine. They kept shuddering, took it back 3 weeks later, and then they told us we needed to replace all 4 brakes. We had them do the work, picked it up and drove it to Iowa from Indiana. The brakes were fine, but we now have a wicked shimmy in the steering wheel. We got home and took it to the Mercedes dealer again, and they are telling us it had nothing to do with their brake work, and that the tires are out of round and we need to replace all 6 for $2000. We picked it up again, totally disgusted with the dealer, and are going to take it to a tire store to see if the alignment is off or the tires just coincidentally decided to be problematic at the same time the brakes were replaced.
I would love to know if anyone else has had a significant shudder in their steering wheel at interstate speeds - 60-75mph, and if it was the tires. Has anyone replaced their tires and especially loved what they put on? If we do end up replacing them, I would like to get some that help the smoothness of the ride, especially in the back of the van. I like Michelins, but our tire store says they wear out faster. They are recommending Cooper tires, which we have never used. Our current tires have 26000 miles on them and still have plenty of tread. Thank you!!

Just to clarify, is the shutter you still have at 60-75 mph occurring
only when the brakes are applied at that speed?
.
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Old 06-29-2019, 08:46 PM   #7
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We had a steering wheel shimmy develop at 60-70 mph after driving out west in 60+ wind gusts in the TX panhandle and NM. Front tires were removed and balanced and then they did an alignment. Many alignment shops can't do a Sprinter. You need to go to a tire/alignment shop that handles large trucks. That did the trick. Good luck!
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Old 06-30-2019, 05:44 AM   #8
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2014 Interstate Ext. Coach
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BurntAsphalt View Post
We had a steering wheel shimmy develop at 60-70 mph after driving out west in 60+ wind gusts in the TX panhandle and NM. Front tires were removed and balanced and then they did an alignment. Many alignment shops can't do a Sprinter. You need to go to a tire/alignment shop that handles large trucks. That did the trick. Good luck!
And while you have your alignment done, have them install a Front Cam Bolt Kit. Does not cost all that much and allows them to adjust camber to 0 degrees, what it should be the AI.
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Old 06-30-2019, 09:41 AM   #9
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Alignment and Balancing.

I have an old post on this. Proper alignment for your van may be 0 camber. Once airstream modifies the van the weight distribution changes a bit. Particularly if you have an EXT.

The alignment and a proper balancing did the trick for my vibrations and tire wear issues. If possible, find a place that does ‘road force’ balancing.


http://www.airforums.com/forums/f240/front-end-tire-wear-sprinter-3500-ext-112000.html
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Old 06-30-2019, 12:42 PM   #10
Eligracem
 
2016 Interstate Grand Tour Ext
Carmel , Indiana
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The shudder in the brakes went away after the brakes were replaced. After we picked it up from the brake work, we all of a sudden have a shudder in the steering wheel at 60-75 mph.
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Old 06-30-2019, 09:20 PM   #11
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Shudder

It’s possible a tire wheel weight was knocked off, or while the brake work was done the tires were crossed side to side. Tires will wear in and swapping them can cause a problem if a wear pattern has set in.

Also recheck the tire pressures to make sure they are not over inflated or under.

It’s most likely a tire problem, however if a shop ranked ( over torqued ) the wheels on with a Airgun hence over tightening the lug nuts and not following torque pattern procedures a rim and or brake rotor can be warped.

Only a Road Force Tire balancer can determine the rim tire assembly balance, lateral and radial runout. Then a tech with a dial indicator and micrometer can verify wheel bearing end play and the brake rotor's lateral and thickness variations. It not a easy fix as they point fingers at everyone else but them.

I hope you don’t have loose lug nuts?
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Old 07-01-2019, 08:29 AM   #12
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"out of round" caused by uneven ware/flat spots?
Bad balance and weak shocks can cause it, not round is usually a manufacturing defect.
Check all your shocks...

I have used Michelins on all our TV's, never had a poor mileage concern, excellent ride and durability.

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Old 07-01-2019, 08:50 AM   #13
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I have seen many posts suggesting that 0 deg camber is the right camber for the always-loaded chassis of the Interstate. The posts talk about resetting the camber to get 0 deg. This is instead of the factory recommendation of 0.3 degrees for the assumed lighter load. But my camber was about 0 degrees when I first had it checked. My theory is that the factor setting of 0.3 when lightly loaded 'flexes' to 0 degrees under heavier load. So when (if) you need to have the alignment reset, you should have it reset to 0 degrees (since your Sprinter is heavily loaded). But, I don't believe that you need the special cam bolts to do this. The factory bolts that allowed it to be set to 0.3 at the factory when lightly loaded should also allow it to be set to 0 deg. when 'flexed' (heavily loaded).

Said another way: 0.3 degrees and 0 degrees are the exact same physical 'setting' of the camber bolt when the suspension is unloaded. The only difference is how much the system has flexed when you are making the measurement.

Interested in hearing the opinions of others about the above.
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Old 07-01-2019, 09:09 AM   #14
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I know nothing about an Interstate. I have run both Cooper and Michelin tires on my trucks and cars over the years. Coopers wear out almost twice as fast as the Michelin’s. Michelin may wear faster than some of the tires with a b or c traction rating. But they have better traction and are worth it.

I hope you get it fixed. My experience is that out of round tires show up as a low speed wobble or hop at about 10 miles an hour.
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Old 07-02-2019, 01:46 PM   #15
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Please note that out-of spec alignment does not directly cause a shudder or vibration.

Out of spec alignment may cause improper tire wear (cupping or feathering) over time which may cause a tire vibration of sort which cannot be corrected without replacing the tires.

One thing we have seen on upfitted (RV) Sprinters with Hi-Spec brand wheels was improper installation of the wheels which ruins them and will cause them to be forever off center (or not hub-centric.)

It is possible that after servicing the brakes, the technician mounted the wheel on the studs and then torqued the lugnuts down without making sure the wheel was properly centered on the hub. It would be easy to determine by removing the center cap and looking at the inside of the hub area of the wheel. See the attached image.
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Old 07-02-2019, 02:00 PM   #16
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The fact that this started immediately after you had the brakes replaced probably tells the tale. YOu could have a caliper binding a little...the shop may have screwed up something when they did the brakes.....
my guess is it is brake related, since it started after brake work. Your tires did not all of a sudden do anything...unless they knocked off a weight, as was suggested in earlier post....having said that, I have seen rotors that were balanced, and perhaps the shop did not install balanced rotors when they replaced yours, if they replaced them? .....My vote is it is related to the brake service you had done, one way or another.
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Old 07-09-2019, 04:18 PM   #17
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This may or may not be related:

We had our 2016 van aligned about 10K miles by Mercedes. We now have 30K on the original tires, and there is severe wear on inside of front tires. We have a lot of vibration starting at 69mph.

We plan to replace the original tires with Michelin at the end of our current trip.
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Old 07-10-2019, 07:22 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TayaraTravel View Post
This may or may not be related:

We had our 2016 van aligned about 10K miles by Mercedes. We now have 30K on the original tires, and there is severe wear on inside of front tires. We have a lot of vibration starting at 69mph.

We plan to replace the original tires with Michelin at the end of our current trip.
A set of new Michelins will not cure a problem you may have.

My suggestion is to find a shop that can do alignments on MB Sprinters, ask them for an opinion as to your tire wear. Then go to your tire shop or a fairly large tire dealer, ask the same question.

My guess, once you install new tires, the front end needs to be rechecked by a shop you can absolutely trust. Also the 0-0.1 camber should be given consideration, the vehicle weight does not change very much and is not heavily loaded
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Old 07-16-2019, 11:26 AM   #19
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Grove City , Pennsylvania
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I want to change the factory wheel lugs with some acorn style lug nuts. I don't like the slipover caps that comes with the airstream interstate. I've lost three of the caps all ready.
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Old 07-16-2019, 04:28 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by grumpys View Post
I want to change the factory wheel lugs with some acorn style lug nuts. I don't like the slipover caps that comes with the airstream interstate. I've lost three of the caps all ready.
GRUMPYS - I dont think a solution exists for the Alcoas. At least not from Mc GARD. Please read this thread and if you find a viable alternative, hope you can post it there

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f240...rs-181664.html
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