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So, twice now the inside of my front tires have worn down to the steel cords in less than 5K miles. First time I had the dealer align the car and they told me everything was within spec and made no changes. They showed me alignment sheet which showed everything within spec. For the record, I have a 35 year background in chassis and suspension setup from racing so I said no damn way it’s correct and any front end guy who looked at the tires would instantly know the camber is way off. They refused to acknowledge anything. Should have gone to a real alignment shop right then but didn’t. I am now going back for round two of this BS and wondering if anyone else has dealt with this and what they ended doing about it. I doubt MB is going to acknowledge anything but I believe they owe me for two sets of tires plus a refund on the alignment they didn’t do. I also put a camber gauge on it yesterday just for fun and the camber is way, way off. Any advice on how to politely get the dealer to acknowledge and fix this without creating a scene? PS: 2017 C63S.
Have you taken the car to a "real" alignment shop yet? I'd start there and have them provide a printout of the specs so you can compare it to the MB specs..
No way you should be blowing through tires every 5k miles.
The inside edge of my front tires wore out pretty fast as well, but not 5k miles fast. I put on a new set of tires and took it to an alignment shop that came highly recommended. He was able to get the car aligned, but advised the car has no camber adjustment from the factory (front or rear). Luckily, my camber was not bad so the alignment should hopefully resolve the problem.
I'd suggest taking the car to a good alignment shop in your area and having them take a look.
Interesting. I did not know there is no camber adjustment on these cars. I spoke with an acquaintance that used to work at the dealer and he mentioned some kind of replacement bolt or something is available to correct this. Anyone heard of that? At this point, if there is no fix from MB this car is gone. Very disappointed as I only have 25k miles on the car and it’s my favorite AMG and I’ve had five starting with an SL 55, S55 coupe, E55, E63 and now this C63 S coupe.
There is no camber or caster adjustment on these cars. The only thing they can adjust is toe, so your MB dealer didn't try to pull one over on you. Toe was probably in spec, but they can't do anything about anything else. Have you inspected your suspension to see if something is bent? If you want to adjust camber you need to get aftermarket adjustable control arms. The front camber on these cars is quite aggressive, so camber wear is normal, but going down to the belts in only 5k miles is not. I did have the same issue at 10k miles, and had the car aligned and replaced all 4 tires with the PS4S. Front toe on both wheels was out of spec. Haven't noticed an issue so far after 8k miles.
Yes, the often quoted reassuring “FULL FRONT & REAR WHEEL ALIGNMENT” is only TOE (directional) adjustment!
OEM there is no Camber or Caster to resolve costly, premature edge tire wear by allowing to adjust tire contact angles, spread load more evenly. Excess edge load can also lead to higher impact, ruptured side walls.
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Adjusting lower arms, retains clearance top of tire to outer fender when wanting to reduce inner edge wear (or when adjusting for “extra negative Camber” also increases track width!).
Other advantage of this lower arm kit is the forward facing thrust arm (Caster bushings) are Mono ball / 2 Axis. Deleting the OEM soft rubber, oil and air voided bushings, yet still allowing arms to travel through their required arc without binding, locking up.
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5. #502226 -3 M $595 Upper Camber turnbuckle adjustable arms (including extra Toe adjustment to compensate).
Unlike other brands not soft extruded aluminum but OEM design high strength forged alloy.
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