spyroz

Hi members, how many of you in here has install the camber bolts for your W211? I have a 08 W211 and lower it with Eibach ProKit, now I'm installing some camber bolts in the front. I did some research and find out that some of you guys say you need only 2 bolts, and some say 4 bolts? So how many do I need? and is the installation easy or difficult?

Thanks members!

MB Dealers charge me $39.95 for each bolts. That's $159.80 just for 4 bolts. WTH?







I aslo have to add 2 extra plastic washer shimmer to the bottom of the Eibach Springs, and that cost me $9.95 a piece and it take 2 piece to make 1 washer. A total of 4 piece on each side of the strut. Come out a total to: $79.60+Uncle Sam = too damn expensive!
But it will help raise your height up to about 0.90" for a better camber & alignment. Because I'm at -2.73 degree in front and -1.2 degree on rear.

((( Eibach front springs is too LOW! ))) I would NOT recommend Eibach springs. Save yourself some money and go with the KW V1 coil/strut.



















I strip both of the strut bolts! It will cost me $18.95 Each bolt & nut! Take your time, don't rush like I did.....haha

kosmo

i went to ewing MB in plano and they charged me like $50 for 2 camber bolts during an alignment. Its cheaper (like $15/) online.

spyroz

so you only use 2 camber bolts? for the lower control arm? I though you need 4 for the 2 lower control arm. How low is your car and what kind of lower springs you got?

Mike_W

I have no first hand experience, but the way I read the drawing you provided is that there is one bolt per front wheel and it goes in position A for positive camber or in position B for negative camber. Is there another drawing that shows more bolts?
Mike

desired_speeds

only two bolts are needed. the other control arms are for caster.

spyroz

I'm going by the book, it's recommended to do both. I'm NOT taking any chance, I did the suspension like 3 times already, i'm getting tire so the heck with that 2 or 4 .

MBE430TAN07

Hey, sorry to keep asking the same question, when you say 2 bolts you mean 1 per side correct or each side of the car will need 2 bolts, i have a 4matic, and i lowered it using the regular rwd sport springs, my camber is negative 3 now.

MBE430TAN07

hey, just wondering if anyone else has this issue my left rear is sitting a finger higher then the right rear any ideas?

spyroz

is alright dude, knowledge is power. If I has the knowledge now after I went through all the trouble it would of save me a lot of FFFFFking time and money!
Anyway, first I don't know how 4matic set up is. but on my 08 W211 strut has 2 lower control arms on the bottom. 1 is the camber and the other 1 is the caster. If you having -3 degree then you should add about 2 plastic washer ring ( as show on pictures ) You can do only 1 alignment bolt if you want for the camber. The caster how ever is an option. But, I did both.
my car was -2.73 degree. I add 2 plastic washer ring and did the alignment bolts and now the tires sit about 1 1/2" finger to the fender. I will get an alignment again this week. I would think it would be much better since I raise up a little bit.

As far as your rear springs, make sure you did install it right, double check it. Other reason could be the springs, your rubber piece is not align or connect into the hole. Good luck man, I spend ton of hrs working on my car and headache, wish I know all this before. I did some research on this forum but mostly junk, didn't find that much helpful.

MBE430TAN07

Hey buddy thanks alot, my car is also and 08 just 4matic but the control arms are setup up just like yours, so i am going to follow your foot steps and get the 2 washers for the struts and do both the caster and camber bolts, like you did. Mine is to low now anyway in the front i have about 2 to 2.5 fingers in the back of gap and the front is just tucked under the fender, but thanks again

MBE430TAN07

Hey, buddy sorry to be keep asking the same thing, i think i misread something, but for just the camber on the control arm that holds the strut, do i only need 1 bolt, i saw your diagram and it looks like it has 2 bolts on 1 control arm, sorry for the confusion.

MBE430TAN07

Hey just wondering where did you find the plastic washers are they from mercedes?

MBE430TAN07

Hey, i have been looking for the plastic spring spacers, i cant find them anywhere i was wondering where you purchased them from, thank you

spyroz

Yes, they are from your local mercedes benz dealer. Is 2 piece to make 1 ring, is like a lego piece that you connect together. My car now sitting 1 1/2 fingers gap.

You can just do 1 bolts per control arm, the caster is an option.

spinn

Did you recheck your alignment? What were your before and after results?

djvj

Went in for service B 20k miles. Advisor recommends 4wheel alignment, I okd it. Got a callfrom him. Need one alignment bolt cuz the stock bolt will not work to meet specs tolerance. Don't know how that bolt wore off for just 2 years of gentle driving. Billed for$650 including service B & allignment. I felt I was gang raped as I was leaving the dealer.

gni2002

First, my apologies for such a long explanation:

I need you thoughts on how I should proceed.
4 months ago, I purchased a previously enjoyed MB W211 E350/sport pkg, staggered from a reputable MB dealership in Palm Beach Florida. It has 62K mi. and in very great shape. I live in Jacksonville, Fl so it was a trek back home, but gave me an opportunity to assess the car. One thing I noticed was the negative camber to the front wheels, which I was told is normal, but I couldn’t stand the inner tire wear. Within a week of ownership, I decided to have all 4 wheels aligned with my local MB dealership just so I can save the front tires. They aligned all 3 but couldn’t align the front left driver side(July 25, 2013) for $181 w/tax. MB tech states that something is bent, but could not determine what it was. MB suggested that I would need to have it placed on a frame rack to definitively diagnose what’s bent.
4 month later, yesterday 11/7/13, I went to another MB dealership here in Jacksonville, and voiced my concerns on this “Unknown bent” situation. Per the 2nd MB service technician, they found nothing bent in the area of concern. 2nd MB tech states that he can actually align the front left driver side and match it up with the front right. Interestingly, the reason why the 1st MB tech wasn’t able to align it was because he installed the camber bolt the wrong way, per the 2nd MB tech. Should I bring this issue up to the 1st MB dealership and have them perhaps grant a credit or compensation?

dave2001auto

Did you need to disassemble any thing else to replace the bolts (steering link)?
It looks like the bolts are in a different direction that on my e320 (w211). Does it make any difference?

My camber is -1.5 will the adjustment bolts make it -1.2 with the lower control arm pushed in to the center? How to keep the bushing hole aligned with the bolt hole?

How long does it take to do these bolts, if I need to do it as a home job?

ptkacik

I did the front camber adjustment and it is easy. The lower control arm has a slotted inner pivot hole and the new special bolt has some grooves to make the arm pivot at a different position and hence change the camber. On mine, (2005 E320) the bolts just came out in my hand without any serious force.

There are two more bolts way up front at the forward end of the control arms and when you change these, is moves the pivot backwards and hence the caster. Those are harder to get to due to clearance on something.

The negative side of this is that these new "adjustment" bolts only let you move 0.4 degrees up or down. Not a very good system for accuracy but pretty fool proof. To compensate for lack of adjustability, MB has a huge tolerance on camber.

Heck, the rear camber which is not adjustable has a +/-0.5 degree tolerance. I guess they don't want to waste time adjusting it at the factory. My Porsche tolerance is half that and it is usably adjustable to 0.1 degrees.