zam2000

This morning, upon checking on the tires while filling up gas, I noticed that the outer of my front right tire is almost worn out (only 15K on the tires). I have OEM continental 225.55.16

I stopped by Firestone (at corner of Beach & Endinger, Orange County) for alignment (since I bought lifetime alignment there few months ago). They told me that the toe of my alignment is within spec, but the camber & caster is pretty much out of spec. FYI, the outer of the worn out tire is at 0.23 camber, spec is -0.33 to -0.99.

Stop by Flecher to camber bolt ($17 each), didn't know, I bought only two, thinking that I'd need one on each side (there's no OEM camber kit for rear wheels). Go back to shop, spent couple hours w/ tech only to figure out that I need TWO bolts each side (tech service at Flecher is kind of stupid, they told us that only one per side). We decide to put both bolts on the wheel that had most damage. After adjustment, camber is within spec (-0.44). The other side is still a little out of spec (-0.18), but I can live with it for a week (going vacation tomorrow for a week, don't give a crap).

On the way home today, I tested out my car on the LA auto bahn (105 east, after 7:00 pm, very light traffic, V1 on). At around 110-115 mph, my car feels light, more than before the alignment. Also, the car drift a little to the right. I checked the alignment print out, and saw that the caster at the left is much greater compare to the right (6.5 vs 4.4), I was rushing them (late for work), I think that's why.

I'll get two more camber bolt, and will' come back for the left sign adjustment.

Couple thing:

* The W210 is very sensitive & picky w/ alignment.
* Regardless what tech tell you, you'll need TWO camber bolts each side. ($17 each).FOUR total.
* Only front wheels can have camber adjustment.
* Adjust tie rod (toe) of the W210 will affect the camber. So camber & toe need to be adjusted at the same time. Few cars have this effect, and the W210 is one of them.
* Beside toe, caster will also affect car pulling to left/right.
* Go to Firestone for alignment. Their machine is super. And their lifetime serivce deal worth every penny (they charged me $35 to install the camber kit, quite cheap).
* OEM camber kit can help up to 1 degree, beyond that, I guess you'd need aftermarket.

PMC II

Thanks for the input. I have an E320 with 94K and my Continental tires have worn the same way. I have new tires, shocks, and bushings to be installed this weekend in addition to having the car aligned.

fatchance

Yes, there are 4 bolts.

2 for camber, 2 for caster.

The front bolts are caster, the rears are for camber.

Make sure you get the right bolts! Does your alignment shop have the right specs and parts to do the job rather than you being the parts shuttle?

Looks like the same part number for both caster and camber bolts...

210-330-00-18
description: caster/camber correction bolts.

good luck!
-travis

hgp

After I had my car re-aligned, I also feel that my steering is lighter than it was BEFORE the alignment. Now my steering wheel is also offcenter - although the car tracks straight on highways. The lightness and the off-center steering is a little bothersome. Any advice on this?

Thanks!
hgp

M Brabus

zam2000,
My car was lowered with H&R's a while back and recently I 'raised' it back up with E55 springs so I need an alignment real bad.
My last resort is to go to Laguna Niguel dealer, but wanted to ask you some questions about this Firestone.
I assume it's the one located at 16171 Beach Blvd, Huntington Beach. Do you remember the advisor or tech's name? How much did it cost?
I am very concerned about their quality (carefulness) since I have 19" rims and I don't want them scratched or removed. Can you comment on Firestone's quality? Also, with the camber bolts, is Firestone very skilled in installing them or did they have to fiddle and figure it out...
appreciate your comments.

mr.z'sE320

To all those needing alignments, I have a friend who is So. Cal. MBZ tech -alignment specialist- who does alignments at a reduce cost. If you are interested feel free to PM me.

hubert

Can he come to NY to do my alighmentn. LOL

zam2000

That awesome technican is no longer there. I stopped by last time, about to check/do alignment for my car again (since I bought lifetime service), however, the person who do alignment is now some man look like freshly out of school, barely know what to do. I left immediately.

E420SportGT

wow..I can't believe you guys actually go to a Firestone shop to get an alignment...well, unless the tech was a close friend or a good referral. I would never trust those kind of places if I didn't know anyone working there.
I got mine aligned at a race shop...Roger Kraus Racing..usually only performance shops are more sensitive to your ride and have the best diagnostic equipments too...guess I am just picky

Dema

I also heard bad things about Firestone. What's about MB dealers, are they expensive or do not have right equipment?

zam2000

Let's try to be fair and non-bias here: it's not the place that sucks, it's the mechanic who sucks !!!!

You could go to any place: dealer, Firestone, Pepboys, mom&pop shop, if the person who work on your car have little knowledge, or just careless about the job, then you got a lousy result. Vice versa, if the person is knowledgable & passonate about his/her job, you'll get superb result. Simply as that. Granted, pay and work environment is highly related/dictate mechanic knowledge and work attitude, but that's not everything. Lot of time, you will bump into complete jerk & idiot at dealer (more and more nowaday), or you could just met a top gun mechanic at any generic repair shop.

An alignment system is the same, regardless of what car you put it on. The concept of alignment is the same, whether that's a Kia or Bentley. It's the mechanic who know what to do, since each car have a different setting of camber/toe. Computer system show the number, however, a good mechanic take into other factors (wheels, suspension, car weight...) to get you a perfect alignment.

Over the long run, however, place that treat mechanic and customer well get to retain both. Look like that's the case: Firestone lost a top-gun mechanic, and also lost myself as a customer.

E420SportGT

I agree with everything you said except for the equipment issue. Not all equipment are the same. Not speaking from personal knowledge, but have heard that there are differences on the type of alignment equipments. For example, Custom Alignment here in the Bay Area is the top notch place to get an alignment.
www.customalignment.com
They supposedly use the best equipment there is for alignments. I tried getting my car aligned there, but the wait is backed up for 2 months..and I couldn't wait, thus went to a race shop to get it done (and it was great service too). But this place is where all the car connoisseurs go to...and really, when it comes down to the dealerships, some of them are total jerks and don't really know what they are doing..

drc

After lowering my 97 e420 with eibach pro kit springs, 3mm pads, and koni yellow shocks, I had very serious problems with front camber, visible to the eye but did not appear to be an issue until looking at tire wear. Camber kits are available and offer tremendous adjustment for this car. Without the kit, I ran on the innermost edge of the fronts, wearing to the cord in less than 7k miles--careful how you lower this auto. Also tolerances are close to the upper idler arm bolt with an 8.5 rim, your tire can hit the bolt. I ordered the camber kit from shox.com aprox, $250 each, then expensive install but now safe and alligned.
good luck

OceanView

Since were talking about alignment, has anyone bought the rear camber kit for our E's?

Just wondering if its worth the money and the trouble to get this kit installed.

chitlah

I've installed rear camber adjustable bars from Speedy G and my camber problem is gone. However i now seem to have a rear toe in issue as the car feels like a sea doo in the snow..... I've put in the crash bolts in the front, but only one per side... I see people are saying that there needs to be two per side..... My rear end trippin and my front end 'frontin'

Musikmann

My dealer here in West Virginia has the proper alignment equipment and a pretty seasoned tech doing these. I was in for the sqeaky steering wheel issue, the fix for which is removing the rack and pinion and replacing a seal. The front end has to be re-aligned after this, and as far as I can tell, the job was perfect. In fact, the invoice states that he did a 4-wheel alignment and the car handles perfectly.

For certain cars, I think places like Firestone are fine. On my other cars, I use the local company-owned Goodyear store for tires and alignments (they do this all day long so they should be good at them) and I have never had any problems. However, I will not take my Mercedes to them. In West Virginia, I do not think they work on enough of them to know what they are doing.

E-Klasse

Anybody have pictures of these on the car and the different kits?