RJV

Hi all, first post.

I have a 2012 W204 - C250 CDI

My wheel alignment report (front wheels) shows castor is under the lower end of MB spec by 7 and 12 minutes, and camber is under the lower end of MB spec by 18 and 27 minutes. I know that the W204 has no means of adjusting the front castor or camber in the standard set up.

I must bring the castor and camber within the MB spec for re-registration of my car. It’s not negotiable.

Does anyone have direct experience of using the MB castor or camber repair kit bolts (part A000333107) and can relay how much adjustment these delivered?

I’ve read the bolts provide adjustment by about 20 minutes on either castor or camber, but when you do both there must be a small cumulative effect.

I’ve thought about adjustable top mounts for the front struts (I.e. K-Mac part) but this seems like overkill to achieve just a 7 to 27 minute change in a family sedan.)

Then there’s also eccentric bushes for the upper and lower control rods, but do these really work long term or are they more of a gimmick and have a downside?

All thoughts appreciated. I must make this adjustment - so advice to leave it because it’s so close to spec doesn’t give me any comfort.

I've attached the MB Work Instruction for these repair kits if anyone is interested - particularly if you've not heard before now that MB supply this kit to adjust castor and camber for models which (when standard) are non-adjustable. It would be good to hear from someone who has used these.

Thank you.

NZ-Merc

Hi, the caster arm bushes are fluid filled (large bush where it connects to chassi) what happens is the bush gets old fluid leaks out car ends up pulling one way while driving straight along the road.

With mine I seen fluid on the drive traced to L/H caster bush, order new bushes and installed them in the old arms.

After doing that I would recommend new caster arms as it was a PIA with out the expensive bush puller kit. Same issues will be with the lower camber arms, just order new caster and camber arms first then recheck alignment, probably find adjusting bushes not required.

RJV

Thanks for this, I wasn’t aware that the bushes are fluid filled. But if fluid loss was the cause I would have thought that this would lead to an increase in negative camber as the vehicle weight squats and pushes the lower control arms out (to take up the slack in the now softer bushes).

My camber is -0*43’ and -0*52’ as compared to the MB spec of -1*22’ +/- 0*30’ so assuming it was within spec when new my car has not pushed the lower control arms out. Put another way my front wheels are sitting too close to vertical (ie. not enough negative camber) and the bottom of both wheels needs to be moved out ever so slightly.

Given the above further explanation could loss of bush fluid (if that has occurred in my case) still be the root cause of my low negative camber?

NZ-Merc

Hi,
Just read your post fully I was in rush to work in my first reply, real PIA about registration are you sure 100% that the shop has had there alignment machine calibrated with no errors and also on the figures are 100% correct for your exact model?
Just those are your one time easy outs & just gets expensive from here on down the rabbit hole.

Photo of my L/H caster bush fluid leaked out at 130,000km result was car pulled to the left, ie reduction in L/H caster. New bush installed - car did not pull drove straight.
I think either way you will be driven to buy some some adjuster bolts like you posted,I have no experience with them.

Just check your bushes like mine to see if they are cracking if yes start there.