Ihopaz

So I just has .75 drop H&R spring installed in my 2013 C63. Right after install car pulled bad to the right so I took it in for alignment as install shop didn't do alighments. After being at the alignment shop for a few hours and them trying multiple things with me back in the shop watching they couldn't get it to stop pulling to the right.

So I call the install shop, no call back! So I call H&R I get one of their techs on the phone he spends most of the day trying to help diagnose. He even calls the alighnment shop to calaborate a fix. But they can't figure it out.


H&R has me call a high end dealer in town and their alighnment show that does very highend cars. As soon as I explain the problem to the tech at the other shop. He says NO SOLUTION! Once you put springs on a mercedes it will pull to the right. On my car there are limited adjustments and he says on a Mercedes will pull once the springs are changed.

Is this true? No solution???? Please I need some input my car has 19 inch staggered wheels, they even swapped front wheels and it still pulled to the right. Tires and wheels are new and no pull until I lowered. Please provide some input!

Thank you!

CarHopper

Did you try going to Mercedes?

These shops clearly don't have a clue as there have been a ton of C63's lowered on h&r's.

Ihopaz

I was thinking the same thing, I called them and they wanted 300 for the alighnment. So before I went and dropped more money I wanted to see what you guys did to fix the issue.

Hsg08

I had the same issue when I lowered my E55 via links. It was pulling to the left badly, found out because I was running two different brand tires on the front. I guess the thread is different.

JRHolt

Sounds like the alignment shop doesn't know how to align a Mercedes.

When I had my SLK55 AMG I replaced all of the control arm bushings myself and replaced the struts while I was at it. I called around the Dallas area to find someone that could align it for me and there were very few shops that said they had the capability to actually align it.

I ended up taking it to the Dealership and they charged me about $180.00.

$300.00 sounds a bit high. Are there any other dealerships that you can go to?

Even if you have to pay that much, at least you know it will be done right.

Good luck in solving your issue

Ihopaz

Definitely not the tires or wheels all brand new and they drove perfect before the springs where put in.

They told me you can't adjust camber on a W204 C63 or some stuff like that H&R agreed. But I agree it has to be some type of issue in another thread a guy posted its geometry it has to have a solution. I agree, I'm just afraid my dealer will start going crazy with charges on me.

Ihopaz

There is another dealer but I don't trust them. I'm just going to go to the dealership. I agree I just want it done right. I'm not driving a 560 hp car that was $83,000 plus my mods pulling to the right everyday, every second, just because I wanted better wheels and tires with them tucked in! WTF

Roswell

Wow sorry to hear about ur problem. I had H&R springs installed for about 3 years now & never had an alignment done cuz the car drives straight like on rails.

I'm ready to bet it has something to do with the installation. Why is the shop not calling u back? Sounds shady.

I would bring it to another shop to let them double check everything about the previous install before going to the dealership for the alignment.

Mort

Search on Roadtalontsi as he is an alignment tech and replies with good info in most alignment threads. There are alignment bolts for the front camber and caster that allow some small amount of adjustment that may do the trick but you need to find an alignment tech that knows his stuff. Here are links to a couple of threads to get you started. May be an install issue but most likely not as you just unbolt the strut, install the springs and bolt them back in. Not much to go wrong but you never know.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ent-bolts.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...t-problem.html

Jasonoff

The ignition has to be in the on position to align the rack properly.

This has happened before if the car was completely off.

silversleeper48

Alignment bolts
Hey guys,
Finally got my 2011 P31 C63 on sunday. Noticed a few things that I have to fix already and had an appointment made at the dealer today and where it is at right now. Here are a few things I got from the phone call back:
1. Car pulls to the right so I had them check for alignment. The service rep came back with I need front camber bolts to get it back to spec. My question was, why can't that be done with the stock bolts? the rep mentioned the stock bolts do not have enough range and the other MB bolts would provide the necessary range to get it back to spec, a little over $300 for the bolts without install. I asked him to send me the part #s so I can do some research on these bolts.

Front camber bolt part # 000-333-10-71



https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ent-bolts.html

Roswell

300$ for alignment bolts? Wow.. I hope they come with free vaseline.

silversleeper48

that might be the wrong part number.... I thought they were around $40 or $50 each not $300. Let me double check my notes and I'll post it back up or if someone already has them they can chime in....

silversleeper48

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ent-bolts.html

Here is what my dealer in Canada charged me to install 2 bolts. They had 4 bolts but only installed 2 camber bolts and left the caster bolts out.


The guy Mort that already posted up on this thread, posted this information on another thread link above.
Labor to install bolts $ 94.46
2 Bolts 000-333-10-71 @ $35.15 = $ 70.30
Alignment and testing $209.90
Shop supplies $ 8.97
Total (without tax) $383.63

Also another guy roadtalontsi posted this up.....

Feel free to post specs and ill let you know my thoughts on it. 300$ for the bolts sounds absurd. Most dealers sell them for around 20-25$/each. Most cars usually need 2, but some need none and others need 4. you never know till its on the rack.

so check out that thread up top as it as more information...

Ihopaz

Is that a MB part number? My suspension shop tells me on the bolt they put in only caster can be adjusted not camber. They said to adjust camber some major part would have to be changed. Where did you guys get these camber/caster adjusting bolts?

suedstern

did u get an alignment done already ?
what are the measurments ?
may be the springs are not seated properly in the conrol arm that will give u diffent camber, your numbers have to be close to the same on the left and right side
i installed hr on my c63 no pull after

Ihopaz

So the shop told me today when I called with the part number that I was given here said the found a caster/camber kit. Basically with bolts that allow some more degrees of adjustment. So they told me it will take a few hours of labor and they can install the kit and try to adjust the front more. I'm out of town for a week, so next week I will let you know what happens.

I got an email back from the install shop today and the GM said he wasn't ignoring me, he said it's crazy that it would be driving like this and unable to be fixed. He said they lowered the owners CLA and it drives fine. But he didn't say what if anything they did to it after lowering it. He said he was going to talk to the tech who installed and get back to me. And of course no call!! This shop I bought and I had install the springs is a sponsor here and sells parts here. I think I should have bought from a shop that could have done the alignment or had more experience with how Mercedes need to be aligned. When I was there dropping the sales guy kept telling me how 90% of their sales are over the country and the world. I met their tech, he seemed to be very knowledgeable and the cars they were working on were nice cars. I just don't think its a big deal to them because it's such a small sale and I'm not spending big money.

After they were done putting the springs on, the tech took the car for a drive and when he got back he parked it in the back and I watched a guy with a nice camera walk out to my car. I asked the sales guy what he was doing and he said oh he is taking pics so we can put them on our site and other sites like this one to help their shop advertise. He said "oh he's already been taking pics all day." I said I never gave permission or was told. He said "oh we do that on every car" I said I don't care you don't have my permission. What the heck is that?!! I didn't get a discount or even notice that they were going to use my car to make profit from. I had to talk to the GM so they wouldn't use the pics.

I not trying to be petty but it would be nice for some help or at least them try to help me on parts I bought from them and they installed! Right?

Roswell

I agree the install shop (sponsor here) should at least offer to double check everything again.

As for taking pics of your car for advertisement, it is common practice nowadays unfortunately... but as long as they edit your license plate, it should be good.

Ihopaz

You know I understand shops may do that but by law they must notify you that is their intention or shops policy with any car in their possession. They must have your permission. For instance, I know my dealer trolls these forums if I were to talk about all my mods which I do and they were to post pics of my car in their shop and then I take it in for service and even if all of those mods weren't still on there, then poof my warranty could easily be void! You should be compensated to help them sell product. Or at least that's how I am if they want pics, then I want comensation! And certainly help if I have issues!!!

This isn't my first performance car, I own and have raced sports cars for years and AMA sport bike and super bike. Not all shops are this way!

roadtalontsi

Post up the alignment specs and I can tell you what you need to tell them to do - where to put the bolts. I know 300$ sounds like alot, but Benz's are a whole different monster to align. Control arm and torque arm bolts arent a quick 1 minutes change. On the c63, the torque arm bolts require dropping the sway bar as well to remove. Most dealers charge 120$ for a toe set and tops out at 350$ for 4 bolts w/ sway bar removal. The price varies depending on what needs done to the car. Sure it may seem expensive but you get what you pay for. Not to mention benz dealers have the toe press bar which applies a slight pressure to the inside of the front tires to simulate the force of the road that pulls the tires out while driving.

Sure it's pricey but the new benz's are much much worse. the new 222,231,205 (S,SL,C) dont have adjustment bolts. The have offset bushings. so you have to do an alignment check, pull the car off, remove the necessary control arm(s) press in a bushing. Do another alignment check and adjustment to see if its going to be what you need specs wise and possibly repeat. Not to mention distronic calibrations etc... These bushings are about 120$ each so an alignment could hit 1000$ which is simply absurd. I really have no idea what the engineers are thinking by doing this. Supposedly bmw requires entirely new offset controls arms on some models which is even worse.


To anyone who lowers their car and doesnt get an alignment that's a poor decision. When you lower the car the toe changes drastically. Toe is the #1 tire killer. As an example - the benz's with adjustable ride height - abc and airmatic will kill the tires in about 3000miles if they leave them in raise mode and dont ever drive on the highway. I've seen it a few times. The car requires 55mph for 3 minutes straight or 75mph+ to lower to normal ride height.

Ihopaz

Thank you for chiming in, I don't have the sheet in front of me but I post it tomorrow for you. Thank you for your help!

AMGPower88

3 words: Radial tire pull.... I just recently got coilovers and the radial pull was bad, steering wheel was pulling to the left after an alignment, they made 2 attempts to try and fix it in that one alignment, couldnt do it, told me to come back after a few hundred miles if the radial pull didnt "correct" itself. Went back, they fixed it in 30 min, now car is running true and straight. Sounds like your shop did the install wrong..

Ihopaz

Ok here are the specs:

Left Front Camber -2.2 degrees Right Front: Camber -2.7 degrees

caster 11.3 degrees caster 11.0 degrees

toe 0.00 degrees toe 0.10 degrees

Thank you for any help!

Ingenieur

So left toe is 0 and right is 0.1?
What is total toe? Should be 0.1
What are the signs + or - ?
Edit: no sign is positive

What are the rear numbers?
in particular the thrust angle

I would think it would pull left?

Ihopaz

Sorry I messed that part up that was before on toe, now it is:

toe is left 0.11 degrees right 0.09 degrees

total toe 0.19 degrees

steer ahead 0.01 degrees

left rear camber -1.7 degrees right rear camber -2.2 degrees

left toe 0.11 degrees right toe 0.10 degrees

total toe 0.21 degrees

thrust angle 0.00 degrees

and definitely pulls right