ucfbeta92

Hi guys,

I just bought a CPO (but also still under factory warranty) 2009 C300 Sport from an MB Dealership that has new tires, new rear brakes and rotors, balancing and alignment (indicated in the Customer Copy of the Repair Order Detail).

I notice that the car seems to pull to the right under acceleration - this is especially noticeable going on a highway at around 80mph. It pulls quite heavily to the right. I also notice that it occasionally shimmies (feels like the car is moving around on the road; I relate the feeling to "riding on air") at 80mph+ speeds. There is no vibration per se, just makes me a little uneasy though to have the car not be completely stable. According to the instrument cluster, the tire pressures are normal/OK. I've seen that the 2011 model shows the actual pressures in the tires, but my 2009 only says the Tire Pressure is OK, but doesn't show actual pressure (unless I need to dig deep into the menus).

What gives? I know that the car is powered primarily from the right-rear wheel. Is what I'm feeling normal (the shimmying and pulling to the right)? Any idea if this sort of thing is covered under warranty (considering fresh tires, balancing and alignment were reportedly done on the car as part of the CPO process by the MB dealership)? I will give the service dept. a call tomorrow but I wanted to get a "second opinion" from you kind folks.

The MB dealership has been great throughout the sales process and the last thing I want is to have it seem like I'm calling them out. There were certain things that I requested them to address at the time of the purchase and they kept their word (something I appreciate very much). I bought the car in early July but I've really only had it for around 11 days in total, since the car has been in and out of the dealership while they addressed the promised issues. In all, I have put around 600-700 miles on it. (~200 of those miles coming from driving back and forth to the dealership because it's all the way on the other side of town.. lol)

NOTE: I posted this in the tech talk sub-forum but notice there was only one other member present in that sub-forum besides me. There appear to be a lot more members in this sub-forum. I have no intention of "spamming" the forum with duplicate posts, so I apologize in advance. I'm just hoping to get an answer from someone more knowledgeable than I am.

Ben'sBenz

If it's under warranty, don't hesitate to take it in. At the end of the day, if there's something not right with your MB then it needs to be addressed. If you returned the car and asked for your money back, they wouldn't say yes because you were a great customer to work with. Right?

ucfbeta92

Thanks for the response. While driving to work this morning, I decided to see how gentle/bad the pull to the right was, and I came to the conclusion that I had to call the service department. The service advisor I spoke to said there should be no pull at all, so it was most likely an alignment issue. I'm going in on Saturday. About the "riding on air" / shimmying part, he said the car has an air suspension so that's what I was probably feeling, but they would take a look at that as well when I bring it in. I'll sleep better tonight in the knowledge that this will soon be fixed.

ucfbeta92

BTW Ben, looks like we have very similar cars - '09 C300, White, P1, Multimedia. The only difference is you have the luxury model and I went for the sport model. I'll put up pictures of my baby soon. The picture in my avatar is my '07 C230 that I traded in for this baby.

RLE

Air suspension. Hmmm.

It doesn't.

JoeVal

More than a machine alignment issue, I submit that you ought to go through the motions and have it examined from zero.
a) Is the air suspension evenly loaded?
b) Are the four tires identical, perfectly balanced and at the same recommended pressure?
c) Are the wheel mounting, brake components and wheel bearings without play?
d) The car with full tank and empty trunk and places reads correctly on the alignment machine?

If the chassis is OK (without distortions or hits -you checked a report and the car was hit free, didn't you-) and there are no changes from OEM equipment, you should not have to go far from these fundamentals to find the answer. Stick to it.

Cheers, JV

ucfbeta92

First off, the brevity and dry humor in your response cracked me up.

That said, I was just posting what the guy told me - it's the first time I've heard of it on the C Class. The service advisor on Saturday will be somebody other than the person I spoke to, so I will be sure to ask again - perhaps I misunderstood or the service advisor misspoke.

ucfbeta92

I like your idea about the full tank and empty trunk - I'll fill 'er up before taking it in.

With regards to (a), if it has air suspension, then it sounds like something to look into.

The 4 tires appear identical. I had a W203 Sport previously and it had staggered wheels (which also meant no rotation) - does the same hold true for the W204 Sport? That said, I will ask them to check the balancing of the tires as well.

Lastly, the items you pointed out in c are also good suggestions.

Thank you for your suggestions JV!

tehc300

I've an 08 C300 and I can guarantee you it does not have air suspension. If it did I wouldn't have changed out for coilovers. I'm assuming there were no changes made to suspension in 09.

The 09 C300 is also staggered. The tires are wider in the rear unless you have a 4 matic model.

Have you heard any squealing while clocking the steering wheel to the left or right? If my guess is right I don't believe it's just an alignment problem if it pulls that hard.

Have them perform a full inspection and go with them on a road test to duplicate the problem. This falls into a safety warranty so they shouldn't take this lightly.

IllusionX

I have had the same issue in my car for a bit. Got it aligned and balanced by MB, it is because my right wheel is bent, so be prepared for a world of possibilities. I hope it works out for you bud!

snarlingchicken

I'm in the same situation as you. https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...igned-but.html

Might just be an alignment issue but apparently installing fluted bolts will help. Also check to see if they adjusted the steering rack properly.

ucfbeta92

No 4matic here, just the standard RWD. On my way out of the office, I checked my tires, and like you said, they're staggered.

The good news is there is no squealing whatsoever - I rolled down the windows, turned off the music and paid special attention on turns at regular road speeds (30-35mph) and very slow round turns.

It's not like I have to exert a lot of force to keep the car straight - but if I let go, it goes straight for a couple seconds and then begins pulling / drifting to the right. If I were to fall asleep on the leftmost lane of the highway, I would be off it in less than 10 seconds (or crash into someone sideways).. lol

Perhaps I should invest in a coffee dispenser for my car..

ucfbeta92

Ouch - certainly hope it's not a bent wheel. To the naked eye, none of the wheels look out of whack. And since I've bought the car, it hasn't hit any manholes / train tracks at speed, or any potholes. That's not to say that it couldn't have been an issue carried over from previous owner.

ucfbeta92

Really enjoyed reading your thread. The alignment check / fix will, per SA, not cost me anything because I'm within 30 days of my purchase and the balancing / alignment / new tires were put on as part of CPOing the car.

I certainly hope that it's just a re-alignment / re-balancing tires and nothing too serious. Having read your thread, I intend to ask for pre and post alignment numbers. And there will definitely be a test drive at highway speeds involved.

Good luck with your situation! I will keep checking your thread to see how it works out.

snarlingchicken

Glad to hear you found it helpful! And yeah, once I'm back stateside I'll definitely be addressing this issue as soon as possible! Hope your situation works out for you as well!

ucfbeta92

Turns out the alignment was off, and by quite a bit.. The before numbers show that the toe and camber on both right and left (front axle) were off.. the toe on the right was especially way off into the red.

They tried to tell me that there was no way it could have been off so much considering they'd done the alignment to CPO the car. First off, the alignment was done back in April and I bought the car in July. Who knows how many test drives it's been on. Second, in the month of July, my car spent more time at the dealership than I had it. And I know I didn't hit any potholes or have any out of the norm incidents. When someone higher up in the Service Dept came out and suggested there was no way the alignment was this off when I bought the car, I was rather aggravated and asked him flat out if he was implying something happened on my watch and I was lying about it. Since it was within 30 days of my purchase, the Used Car Sales Director signed off on the re-alignment as a courtesy.

The only negative part of the visit was that the service technician seemed very uninterested in answering my questions. Some of the "after" numbers were in the "acceptable" range, but closer to the outer bounds. When I asked him for an explanation while we were in the back looking at numbers, he didn't seem like he really cared. When I asked him if it was possible to bring those numbers closer to the optimum values, he became irate and said if he tried to do anything else, everything would go out of whack.
Frankly, I've met more pleasant and helpful techs working at Firestone and Tuffy's.. this guy was definitely not MB material. Thankfully, his attitude does not appear to be the norm at the dealership.

Since the alignment, the steering wheel feels lighter, but there is still a slight pull to the right. I went right back to the dealership and this time, the Service Advisor who went on a second drive with me. He thinks it's pulling because of the crown in the road / roads are slight banked/tilted to the right here. He could be right, and I definitely see an improvement since they did the alignment.

jctevere

Yeah, if you search fro posts by Glynn about alignment, he will say its normal for U.S. Spec Mercedes to slightly pull to the right because of crowning and stuff. However, he said that there is a fix for this. To install Fluted bolts and adjust a specific number up to a certain and specific amount. I can't recall off the top of my head, but there is a fix, but some "modification" is required.

ucfbeta92

I might just want to go that route... but I think I'll wait a couple months before I do. Thanks for the reminder about the fluted bolts.