C320 Pulls to the right even after alignment
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Joined: Jun 2008
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From: Llandudno, Cape Town, South Africa
late 2009 CLK 350 Coupe Elegance, '65 Jaguar S Type wires
Set the castor one degree more positive on the passenger side than the driver side. Typically 9.6 & 10.6 degrees. This is a well known problem - pulling with the camber of the road.
Benz allows up to 2 degrees more positive castor on the passenger side to correct pulling.
Benz allows up to 2 degrees more positive castor on the passenger side to correct pulling.
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Joined: Oct 2008
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From: the ML/GL/R assembly line
2005 C230 Kompressor
I used to do that automaticly(add 1/2* to the right side) but on the interstate when you drive in the inside lane it pulled to the left so I started putting both even so that it would "drift" right in the right lane and "drift" left in the left lane.
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 19,942
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From: Llandudno, Cape Town, South Africa
late 2009 CLK 350 Coupe Elegance, '65 Jaguar S Type wires
Some brands of tyre with hard sidewalls make this situation worse. If you run the vehicle often on cambered roads & do not do the castor adjustment the tyres actually wear into the road camber. Then if you rotate across the front axle it can improve things for a while. It can also cause the car to pull to the centre of the road.
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 152
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From: Northern VA
2010 e350
Well to follow up. I replaced off the strut and knuckle with parts from the junk yard. Had it realigned. After that it was quite a bit better, but not perfect. Now the steering wheel was actually centered, where as before after 3 alignments the steering wheel was never centered. There was still a bit of pull.
I replaced off the front 2 tires with some 17's, after that it was even better. Just got the backs replaced, and now the car is back in line.
So in all I think that I did have a bent knuckle, but I think the asymetric DWS tires also contributed to the pull problem.
I really didn't want to replace off the wheels to 17's, but I had found a pair on CL for a pretty good price and I wasn't about to pull off nearly new 16's to put another set of 16's on.
I replaced off the front 2 tires with some 17's, after that it was even better. Just got the backs replaced, and now the car is back in line.
So in all I think that I did have a bent knuckle, but I think the asymetric DWS tires also contributed to the pull problem.
I really didn't want to replace off the wheels to 17's, but I had found a pair on CL for a pretty good price and I wasn't about to pull off nearly new 16's to put another set of 16's on.
