TASHO

I need to get one tomorrow after I lower my vehicle. My buddy owns his own shop and has the machine to put the vehicle on, anyone have done an allignment on a 2002 E-class? Any tips or tricks???

Thanks in advance

dsmith

nope. pretty straight forward. MB requires a special tool to load the suspension to simulate high speed driving loads. for the US, you really don't need it. just set the toe to zero. i think toe is the only adjustment, unless you installed adjustable links or crash bolts to dial out the camber caused by lowering. if so, then adjust camber then toe. good luck getting the steering wheel straight...

simple.

TASHO

Thank you, appreciate the input, another question though----can the rear end be alligned as well on W210s?

dsmith

not that i recall, unless you buy eccentrics for the control arm. if something's bent, replace part.

TASHO

Thanks guy, appreciate it.

jimmydagreek

Only a couple of guys are making the rear camber adjustable arms for the rear of our cars. One of them is SpeedyBenz but I hear that lately he's been MIA. I had a pair of his rear adjustable camber arms on my last W210 and I loved them. Now there's one more guy making really nice ones over at MyMBOnline and I think that's the route I'm going to take if needed. KMac also sells a camber adjustment bolt kit for the front but I've never needed to use it because the slight neg camber in the front was always appealing to me; the car corners much better.

blueC230K

From what I heard, KMAC camber kits squeaks like crazy?

Craig Ewing

At 80k miles I found my tie-rod ends worn so I replaced them, the lower ball-joints and the sway-bar links.

I wanted a good alignment done by someone totally knowledgeable on our car so I took it to our local MB dealer, Smythe European.

I made an appointment for a Friday and dropped it off Friday morning.

The service writer said it would be $180 unless it needed "camber bolts" then it would be $380 and asked for a number where he could reach me.

He called Friday afternoon and said they weren't going to get to it and that it would be done Monday. I said OK.

They called Monday and said it was ready, we picked up the car and the bill was $380 and there was NO ALIGNMENT-RACK COMPUTER PRINTOUT long established as standard in the industry.

Cheers

4XFORE

you got 4 front camber bolts?

4XFORE

I keep forgeting the shops name (I'll look for my receipts) but they did my alignment and they were honest with me. All they did is front TOE and they said that's all they can do not unless I get front cambers bolts and rear camber kit. They adjusted to the closest specs. They charged me $75 and guess what? I got a print out of before and after

dsmith

Kind of like putting your finger in a light socket, huh? Won't do that again! You could have not so politely declined to pay for the bolts, since you didn't ok it and they didn't even show any kind of backup (print out) that it was needed. It's the law, you know.

Really, it's not the pricing that gets you at a dealership, it's the ethics. If you haven't learned that business first hand, you may be quite surprised.

tsk, tsk

Craig Ewing

I wouldn't try to get out of paying for parts or labor that were at least brought to my attention initially, I'm only expressing disappointment they didn't call to discuss it. And there's no law in CA requiring an alignment print-out as old Ammco alignment racks can still be found in local shops.

"Really, it's not the pricing that gets you at a dealership, it's the ethics."

German brake rotors from Arizona Auto Parts are $40 less EACH than from Smythe so your wrong about that too.

As far as learning the business I would expect to be treated professionally by a business I knew nothing about just as much as I would be from one I was in at one time.

dsmith

wow, guess i have spell out everything. they didn't discuss the parts with you, you didn't ok the parts, so you don't have to pay for the parts and labor you didn't ok (+ or - some % of $$ by law). of course there's no law about providing an alignment printout.

i didn't say the parts were the same price, or course they are more. the point was that's not the bad part, it's the ethics, because... lastly, a sales job is a sales job. the less the customer knows about the product/service being purchased, the easier to take advantage of the customer.

so, the constructive part would be: learn about your vehicle's maintenance before 1. letting someone work on it and 2. letting someone do repairs you don't understand. it ain't rocket science and the $180 to set toe should have been your first clue that you were walking out with a $380 bill. you just might want to check and see if they even installed the camber bolts.

David

Craig Ewing

"so, the constructive part would be: learn about your vehicle's maintenance before 1. letting someone work on it"

What was needed to be known? 'Wheel alignment' = caster, camber , toe-in right? Thrust angle, steering axis inclination and wheel setback would be only noted on a modern machine. Knowing this made no difference with my experience with Smythe.

"letting someone do repairs you don't understand"

Whether or not the repair was fully understood has nothing to do with my dissatisfaction with Smythe, it didn't say "set toe" on the RO it said alignment, if your saying all I should have expected was toe-in for $180 where's the clue?

Craig

dsmith

[QUOTE=Craig Ewing;2464105
Whether or not the repair was fully understood has nothing to do with my dissatisfaction with Smythe, it didn't say "set toe" on the RO it said alignment, if your saying all I should have expected was toe-in for $180 where's the clue?

Craig[/QUOTE]

because that's the only alignment adjustment available on your car in stock form. i really wish i would of had more customers like yourself. let me park your car all weekend to do 15 minutes of work AND happily get $300 more out of the customer (vs normal alignment cost), no questions asked. did you check for your new bolts? did you get your old ones back?

live and learn, if you want to, but i'm not the one who took advantage of you, nor am i the one who let you be taken advantage of (pardon my grammar).

Craig Ewing

"i really wish i would of had more customers like yourself. let me park your car all weekend to do 15 minutes of work AND happily get $300 more out of the customer (vs normal alignment cost), no questions asked."

That would (does) make you no better than the service writer at Smythe.

tsk, tsk indeed

dsmith

Craig, good sparing with you. You can probably tell I'm a fan of sarcasm! Seriously, though, I'm sure you learned something from what I wrote, even if you didn't like my delivery.

I serviced 500+ cars per month for several years. All referral and repeat business. No marketing. I also serviced 7 Enterprise rental car locations (including their cars for resale) during that time, because I was the only shop that wouldn't screw them. I left the business with my integrity intact and all of my customers transitioned to my lead tech's new shop.

Feel free to ignore what I write, if you feel it doesn't add value, but do a search and you'll probably find my unselfish help appreciated now and then.

Craig Ewing

I was just giving the original poster a thumbs up on his alignment and you seemed to jump in with a dislike for me I didn't understand.

Of course your right about not being careful about getting ripped off but the way you were saying it made me not care.

I left some details out of my original post that most people would rather not read (my wife is not well) that makes the money I'm out a very small detail.

I was a Mazda master tech, ASE master tech, and CA smog licenced. At the dealer I worked at, giving any customer ANY reason to be dissatisfied was unheard of. This Mazda dealer here in San Jose had ten techs, a single lane service driveway and at most ten cars waiting for three service writers.

When I brought my wife's 210 to Smythe I was a bit taken back to see four service lanes, fifteen service writer offices, and 33 cars waiting to get written up. That should have been a clue they don't have to be as nice as I'm used to.

So, you're a respectable guy after all, cool, so am I.

Cheers