CarHopper

Friends,

The OP stated essentially all of his problems started after installing the suspension (aside from the steering wheel being off but the car tracking fine) and then once he installed the suspension, the car was pulling to the right and he lost a tire.

...And we end up with something is bent? I understand that the camber is way off, and something may be bent, but if I were a betting man I would say the problem can be traced back to the suspension install.

Perhaps a refresher on lowering the c63 on H&R equipment is in order. For the most part, people have no problems with the install. Every so often we get someone in here asking for help because their car is pulling to the right and nobody can align it properly.

Those people either disappear (as the OP discovered), end up going back to OEM suspension because they throw a ton of money at this issue and get frustrated, or sort it out with camber bolts. (PS -- KMAC really are the experts in that whole realm so maybe a PM or phone call to them may also shed some light on your problem).

I said it before, and I'll say it again. The BEST way to fix your issue is to put your stock suspension back on and go from there. Sure, it may not hurt to first have everything inspected to see if anything got bent because that is a possibility. Again, this is definitely a possibility so for the sake of saving money it wouldn't hurt to have it looked at. Three things -- 1. Don't go back to that first shop. They sound like ebola. 2. Don't walk into a shop and say "something is bent." You basically just gave them an excuse to find something wrong or bend something for you. Just say "I tried having my car aligned but another shop couldn't get it done. Here is where it stands and it is pulling to the right." 3. Don't be surprised if nothing is bent.

If nothing is bent, and you're still chasing your tail, put your OEM suspension back on and go get it aligned properly. Then you can try the process over and once again, don't be surprised if you end up pulling to the right and need camber bolts at the end of the day. It's just a mystery why some people have such problems and others dont.

Still scratching my head that potholes get more attention than "After lowering its way more off and pulls to the right when driving."

CarHopper

OP.

Did you have the car aligned before lowering it?

Did you have the car aligned after lowering it?

Or did you just figure out your alignment problem following the flat tire?

BLKROKT

I bet he hit a big pothole

CarHopper

Very well may be the case. But it's just a little confusing as to why we start pothole & bent parts instead of bad suspension install.

Jasonoff

It's normal for the steering to be off center after lowering and in his case "One finger gap in the front exactly" is reasonable.

Not sure how you could install the front suspension wrong. Let alone do it in such a way to affect the camber that much. All the ball joints center themselves, the lower shock mount bolts flat against the knuckle and the top hat can only go in one way. You can't put it in wrong (lol).





You can actually file the tabs off in the front to get some camber adjustment. I think it's ±0.5° movement but -3.7° on the left is way too much even if that was done, and only -1.1° is oddly suspicious on the right.

Somethings not adding up. I'm curious what comes out of tomorrows visit with the coilover install shop.

BLKROKT

Yeah I had a reading comprehension failure with my first post in this thread and it kinda snowballed from there.

AMG3.2

Exactly. IIRC, there are 5 bolts that hold in a coilover. The three top mounts and the two torx bits on the knuckle.

Where an install like that would go wrong is beyond me. If it it's gone wrong enough for the OP to push 3+ degrees of negative camber, I have a feeling something is dangerously wrong.

More so - I personally don't see why the OP would switch back to stock suspension. If he has a problem with the coilover itself, he should be able to spot that on the car itself. If he has a bend somewhere, again, the stock suspension wouldn't really do much here either.

My two cents - but OP do report back. We're all curious at this point as your situation doesn't make sense

simandang

Ill be going to the shop in a few hours so hopefully we are able to find out whats going on today

As far as the alignment goes before lowering.....I did not have it done. It was defintely off but since I had ordered my suspension I decided I should just wait until after the suspension settles.

CarHopper

^Yeah I hear you, and don't blame you, but if there is an issue in the future you should solve the issue before adding on to. Just food for thought.

With everything said, perhaps the real problem (such as a bent part) could've been there pre-aftermarket suspension which would be good news. Because then you just fix that and hopefully are good to go.

If nothing is bent and everything checks out then you may have one of those "f***, this is going to take a lot of my time" moments..

Good luck.

TPete19

I went there immediately because of the OP's post on Facebook.
Not sure who else saw that as well. In my mind, the side to side difference is either a sign of damage or a poor install. Since it was pulling before the install, according to his Facebook posts, it was not due to a poor install. The camber wear is now exaggerated because of the lowering springs.

CarHopper

You're probably right and the OP is dealing with the wombo-combo of prior issue + install problems + potholes + god knows what.

My only real say in all of this the process in which to go about diagnosing exactly what the issue is and laid out what I think he should do above before throwing money in directions it may not have to go.

Just a minor small little baby peeve of mine where people will modify a car with known issues before fixing those issues first. It just complicates things down the road.

Regardless, hopefully it all gets sorted and the OP gets everything straightened out. See that MBworld!? I can still be clever, too.

Jasonoff

OP didn't know he had an issue pre coilover install other than the steering wheel being off center. He said it tracked straight pre install.

TPete19

He's said two different things in two different places. Either way, it's either damaged suspension or a poor install.

Jasonoff

How do a poor install to eff up the camber like that?

TPete19

No idea, but it could happen.

My money is on him having the problem before the install and never noticing the inner camber wear.

simandang

I went to the shop this evening. They didn't find anything wrong with the install. They had a new hunter alignment machine installed last week and wanted to see it on the rack and try to align it again.

They managed to do a much better job with the alignment. I have attached the new sheet. The steering wheel is centered and while there is still a little pull to the right its nothing like before but still not perfect. The pull doesn't happen on every road either now. I am guessing the camber bolts would be the best solution at this point. The car is driving much better now. It did take them three tries to get the alignment where its now but this was the best he could do.

I can't believe how bad the first shop was. That shop is so highly known and recommended. I am going to call the owner to get a refund tomorrow....simply unbelievable they were that bad.

Yidney

We have totally different cars and I'm not lowered, but my car pulled right and had excessive inner tire wear, so I had camber bolts installed and not only did it track dead straight, but I swear I would die of old age before my front tires wore out. Could easily do four sets of rears to one set of fronts.

m a x i m u s

OP, that's good news. Like I said before, I'm pretty sure the first shop didn't center the steering properly before aligning which resulted in the wonky alignment specs. Happened to me once before.

AMG3.2

OP - these specs are looking MUCH better.

Read the following quoted from this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...lls-right.html

Your front camber is more negative on the left - which will cause pull to the right, and you have more caster on the left than the right which will also cause a pull to the right as well.

Im used to reading specs in degree's and minutes which are a little different than degrees and 100ths of a degree, but with what you've got i'd pull the left lower control arm in towards the center of the car and push the right control arm out. by doing this your left side camber will go more positive, and caster will decrease. The opposite will happen on the right side. You will gain negative camber and increase caster which will allow a slight pull to the left which is what is usually needed if the roads have any sort of crown for water drainage. (by control arm i mean the ones most perpendicular to the car that affect camber more, not the ones referred to as torque struts, thrust arms, torque arms etc...)

The front toe being off actually just throws the steering wheel center point off. If has no real affect on pulling. (for instance your steering wheel is probably slightly off to the right) They cancel each other out when the car is moving and move the steering wheel off center. You should have around .16 toe in..... .8 on each side. always keep in mind that Toe is your primary tire killer, if you dont have the toe in the front tires will wear more than necessary on the inside which is what having alot of negative camber causes too (which amg's and any real modern performance car have alot of negative camber so you definitely dont want both working the tires on the same spot)

The rear toe ins't really off enough to feel any of the pulling out come in the real world. the way it is in theory should cause a pull/dog walk to the left.

Just have them set the toe's front and rear to factory specs. The pressed toe in the front requires a press bar, if you dont have that just set them in .01 more toe'd in. This bar is to simulate the tires pushing apart front eachother when at high speeds.

Let me know how it comes out, if it pulls too hard left after that - doubt it will, I can let you know what adjustments to make from there.

Per the first sentence alone, you need to just increase caster on the right, or decrease the caster on the left.

I believe there's an inverse reaction in terms of camber and caster when doing this but I can't remember correctly. It should all be in that thread as I ran into this problem as well but your in great shape at this point.

If I am remembering correctly, you should increase the caster on the right, which will decrease the camber on the right. If your lucky, your specs will be bang on after this.

CarHopper

So basically the first shop sucked, which is even better news for you.

You said "The pull doesn't happen on every road either." Probably because your car is tracking straight. Most roads are sloped so they are higher in the center and lower on the sides which will cause a slight drift to the right. Also, when aligned, the "safe" side to pull to is the right. If your car pulled to the left you'd head into oncoming traffic if you weren't paying attention for a split second.

Anyways, glad this got mostly sorted and it just turned out to be the people and not the car.

Jasonoff

That was the first shop (coilover install shop) who re-did the alignment wasn't it?

I wanna know how the hell did it have -3.7° camber on that side? That other shop must not have had the machine set up properly.

Jasonoff

Wasn't this the first shop?

The first shop right?

Which shop you talkin' bout' willis?

The second shop was the one who did the shˇtty *** alignment?

CarHopper

^I believe he has coilovers installed at shop 1, no alignment.

Then blowout.

Then went to shop 2 for an alignment and the bad alignment is what they sent him home with.

Then he either went back to the shop 1 that installed coilovers or a different shop for that last alignment which was better.

At least that's how I'm following this

BLKROKT

I bet he just ran over a pothole on the right side to fix it

Jasonoff

Yup, coilover install shop was #1. (in this thread at least)

Yup shop #2 was the retards...

He said he was going "back" to the shop (#1?) who did the coilover install. Then trashed shop #1 in his message about shop #1 sorting him out.