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Mercedes E class pulling to the left


Leon
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I have recently purchase a 3 year old Mercedes E class. After reporting uneven tyre wear on the front wheels to the Mercedes dealer, they change front tyres and did 4 wheel alignment adjustment.  

 

The car is still pulling to the left and very noticeable when driving on dual carriageway and motorway, even when the car is on a straight road with a right camber it wants to work its way to the left.

 

The dealer is saying that this is acceptable and all of their cars try to follow the camber of the road. 

 

With the majority of UK roads having a left camber, I should accept this as the normal for all Mercedes cars. 

Have anyone had the same or a similar experience with a Mercedes or any other car.

 

Note; For the last 30 years I've driven mainly SAABs for 10years to 1995 and BMWs in last 20 years and can't remember experiencing this before.  

 

 

leon..

 

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Welcome to WIM! :)

 

I'll let Tony respond to this properly but I also have a Merc that had exactly the same issues (they all do) that was cured by WIM - it's definitely not "how they should be".

 

Are you within reasonable distance of the WIM centre in Chesham? If so the best thing to do is let them work their magic and sort the issue.

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Hello

Agreed a printout would help. As for the pull no it's not natural if it's a pull on the steering you have to resist. I was asked by a Merc forum to explain the pull which i did and that post has had 31 thousand views. Now in my book that suggests there is a problem. Anyway here is the post

 

..........................................................

 

To the point
The reason most/ some MB's pull/ drift is the build is to perfect?? WTF most are thinking now, and what am i going on about!!

The MB chassis build is superb, tolerance's are minute allowing little future correction at the chassis in the event angles would change. In truth this is a fantastic statement since most modern cars allow for chassis corrections during the cars lifespan.

The problem
The problem is the perfectly symmetrical MB build and our roads!! As abrupt the reason reads that's it.

Solution
Level all the roads in the UK...... Well we all know that's not realistic so what now?

After year 2000 the MB chassis positions was fixed, this was more a
ease of build issue in my opinion but whatever the positions would need additional help by installing adjuster bolts to move angles.

Solution P2
There's a need to move away from the perfect MB build and off-set the chassis in order to cope with the UK's road crown. In order to do this there's two options
1: Stagger the camber positions
2: Stagger the castor positions

Stagger what's that?
The wheels geometric positions offer energy, and handling, tyre wear and all that stuff, but if the "energy" is staggered it's possible to use this inert force to belay the drift.

Options
1: Staggering camber is a dangerous option since camber controls the vehicles weight at the tyres contact patch. Camber position is a prevalent player but a violent force, not to be messed with until desperate times are required.

2: Castor... This is a difficult angle to explain because it has many duties but the one that concerns us is "directional stability". Castor angle holds a directional force that can be manipulated, stagger the castor you can change the force.

To conclude the historic complaints
As said the MB has a "surgical build" in reply to this the MB permitted tolerance's over the axle is minute 30' in most cases, this permitted disparity will not allow sufficient energy to compensate for the UK road crown. MB dealers cannot violate the registered tolerance's even though they probably know what the reason for the complaint is.

In summary
Staggering the castor within the permitted 30' in the UK won't work, it needs to be between 45' to a degree, this violates the MB tolerance's, so in truth MB Uk cannot help you.

....................................................

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All, thank you for your response.. 

 

Tony, thanks also for that explanation,

I will forward 4 wheel alignment printout later today or over the weekend.

I'm also within reasonable distance (under 1 hour) of your location in Chesham.

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The reason the printout helps is

1: I can tell at a glance if the problem is the chassis

2:We could also have a pneumatic pull

3: There's a distinct difference between a pull ( chassis ) and a steer? A steer is when the steering position is off-line and to correct the line the driver steers to one side.

4: All cars in the UK will have a natural drift ( not a pull ) to the left due to the road crown. Actual distance differs between marques and not available to the public.

 

By the way MB are well aware of the complaint and how to correct it but they cannot violate their own datum. If they did there would be 1000's of owners demanding they correct their car.

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I have seen the report and in truth it's typical.... The NSF castor position is 20' lower than the OSF whereas it needs to be 45' to a degree in order to belay the UK road crown. In addition the castor change will displace the toe which when corrected will move the cambers indirectly. In your case the change works in your favour by decreasing the NSF and increasing the OSF.

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm in more or less the same predicament as the OP.

 

I'd noticed after buying a 13 plate S212 E class that it pulled left more than I'd consider acceptable on roads with camber I'd describe as normal. 

 

Before doing my research, I took it to my local F1 autocentre (I get the feeling you'll be groaning about now) for a 4 wheel alignment, telling them I wanted the pull to the left rectified . They carried out the adjustments as they saw fit, and off I went. 

 

The car now seems to pull even worse, so whatever they have done certainly hasn't rectified the problem. 

 

Am I right in thinking that to properly rectify this, I'll need to purchase and install adjustable caster/camber bolts to dial in a degree more caster on the left front wheel than the right? I'm a bit annoyed that somewhere that presumably carries out hundreds of alignments weren't aware of the problems that MB owners seem to face and after test driving the car thought that the problem had been fixed, when clearly it hasn't. I've got video evidence of the car diving left badly on a smooth road with minimal camber. If they say they can't rectify it to my requirements then I'll be inclined to ask for my money back and then take it somewhere local with a better reputation, or take a day out to WIM.

 

Thanks

 

Edit to say...I think my car might be better described as having a "steer" to the left, seen as I have to constantly steer right to keep it straight. 

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Hello

A steer is something that happens when the steering position is held straight. A pull is energy you have the resist by holding the steering the opposite  direction to go straight.

 

If the problem is the latter then yes the castor/ camber needs repositioning. The camber/ castor MB bolts are the same but historically one bolt is fitted to the NSF to increase the castor which indirectly reduces the camber and a camber bolt is fitted to reduce the OSF camber which indirectly reduces the castor. Once done you should have a degree difference in the castor in favour toward the right and an even or slightly different camber in favour toward the right.

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Thanks, Tony.

 

I have to physically steer slightly right for the car to drive straight. When I let go of the wheel, it self centres and the car goes quickly left. 

 

Looking again at the receipt for the work carried out last week, it was front and rear toe adjustment only for £89 which now seems expensive. I'm not even sure what system they have, so god knows if they can even measure-adjust camber/castor. 

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Just so you know wheel alignment/ four wheel alignment and tracking cannot make a car pull no matter how wrong it is. Camber and castor can make the car pull so if your complaint to them was a pulling issue they could not cure it by toe alignment/ tracking knowingly or unknowingly.

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Just so you know wheel alignment/ four wheel alignment and tracking cannot make a car pull no matter how wrong it is. Camber and castor can make the car pull so if your complaint to them was a pulling issue they could not cure it by toe alignment/ tracking knowingly or unknowingly.

 

Cheers. Never knew that. I always assumed any pull that requires steering input to counter could be cause by any geo angle being misaligned. Just more ammo to throw at them if they can't adjust camber/castor.

 

Out of interest, can you give a ballpark figure of how much it would be to install the adjustment bolts and adjust as necessary if I was to take a drive down to you?

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Miss-alignment AKA four wheel alignment AKA tracking is a shared angle or put it this way. You just hit the curb and knocked the alignment out 10mm, as soon as you move the front wheels will self centre meaning each wheel has 5mm and not as many think one wheel is 0 and the other 10mm.

 

As for cost we charge by the adjustment and not by the car, so on the MB it would be a full chassis image £30+ vat or full image and front - rear toe correction £95+ vat. Add to this the MB adjuster bolts they are £30+ vat each and it reads like you would need two. £30+ per bolt reads expensive but the entire under-tray needs removing, fitting the adjuster bolts are a bugger and then replace the under-tray.

 

Before you spend any money there's something you need to test first which costs nothing? Move the front wheels with the tyres side - to - side. The reason for this is to see if the pull is due to the tyres. If it goes straight or pulls the other way then it's the tyres. Don't worry though it's not a defect it's a build issue with radial tyres.

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Well, I'm waiting for them to put the car back on their system and they say they can measure/adjust camber and caster. They've also said they'll refund me if they can't get it right.

 

They're adamant that incorrect toe angles will cause a pull though. Seems they disagree with you. Think I'm going to have to agree to disagree with them on that one.

 

Thanks for all your help Tony.

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If they have to fit a bolt for the castor you will need two ( both fronts ) reason being is the adjuster gives a fixed amount of adjustment and one adjuster won't be enough.

 

As said before each adjustment effects other angles so they need to fit one NSF for the castor and one OSF for the camber. On each install the toe angle will go way wrong and when this is corrected everything will fall into place.

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