Vibrations while braking

[Alex_I]

Hi everyone.

I recently had the front passenger wheel bearing starting to fail, making a horrible noise on the highway. At the same time I started to feel intense vibrations all around the car while braking at high speeds.

Went and changed the wheel bearing. No more noises but the vibrations persisted. 1000 miles later I decided to change all rotors and pads. Everything was smooth for like 1000 miles. Then, the vibrations started once more. Quite intense these ones too. I can feel them on the wheel, pedal and if braking at really high speeds, the entire car trembles.

Went to my mechanic again, and we found out the wheel bearing we just replaced has failed. 2000 miles it lasted. I ask him to replace it again. Vibrations are still there, maybe a little less intense. I thought maybe the front rotors went bad because of driving with the bad bearing, so I took them to the shop once again. The tech says he tested all rotors and "bushings?" individually, to make sure they are within spec and nothing is bent. Says everything is fine. He cleaned everything once again and installed them back. Vibration is still there. He claims he can't see anything wrong with any suspension part either... I would say it comes from the the front passenger side.

Tires are pretty new too. A few months old, and the wheels (stock 18") I'm told are in perfect conditions. The car drives really smooth and I can't feel anything weird at any speed other than when braking... Previously I used to have slight vibrations when going like 80 mph but it was solved by balancing the wheels.

Any ideas? Is this normal? Any suggestion at what we should look at?

I'm quite happy with the car in general but it's kinda annoying how fragile it is, suspension wise. Both stock wheel bearings failed before 100k miles and one damper at the 50k miles mark. I live in Germany and I very rarely use it on broken roads. 90% of the time is only highway...

[Normski]

Hey,

I too have the 2.2 diesel - very rare thing by the looks of things...

Have you checked for a sticking caliper? Sounds like that could be the cause of the vibrations. I too was suffering similar but turns out it was just poor quality front discs/pads.

Wheel bearing - interesting as I think I may be suffering similar failure now You are right - these cars to seem to be a little too fragile on such components. The chap before me had spent close to £3k(!) on suspension items such as roll bar links, arms, etc. Crazy.

I'm also suffering an oil leak too now that the car has reached 121k miles so all in all quite a disappointing ownership experience. I reckon I'll move it on soon if I can't sort out the oil and potential wheel bearing...

[Alex_I]

Hey,

I too have the 2.2 diesel - very rare thing by the looks of things...

Have you checked for a sticking caliper? Sounds like that could be the cause of the vibrations. I too was suffering similar but turns out it was just poor quality front discs/pads.

Wheel bearing - interesting as I think I may be suffering similar failure now You are right - these cars to seem to be a little too fragile on such components. The chap before me had spent close to £3k(!) on suspension items such as roll bar links, arms, etc. Crazy.

I'm also suffering an oil leak too now that the car has reached 121k miles so all in all quite a disappointing ownership experience. I reckon I'll move it on soon if I can't sort out the oil and potential wheel bearing...

Ohh, cool finding another one with the diesel in this forum!

2 different shops looked at my brakes so what is the chance they both fail to take a proper look at the calipers... Thanks for the info. Ill take it to the infiniti shop next and check if they can figure it out. My front discs are brembos and the pads are ate (german oem manufacturer for merc, audi, etc...). If not even these companies make quality stuff anymore, then I dont know what to think about the car world anymore...

Really sorry to hear about your oil leaks. As far as I know, engine wise, this merc engines should be quite bulletproof. Im on a european infiniti whatsapp group with hundreds of diesel owners (mostly q50) and the only issue regularly reported is with the air filters. I hope you find a way to fix your problem. Mine, mechanically at least, has been trouble free for the 150k km that ive been driving it.

And well yeah, I suppose well have to be extra careful with the suspension bits. I've spent like 2000 euros on replacing the dampers and wheel bearings. Hopefully it stops there. It doesnt even offer some super refined ride to be commanding this kind of maintenance costs. Not very sporty either. My uncles 5 series is way better at controlling the body roll while also doing a better job at dampening the road imperfections.