I purchased my first CPO 2007 E350 a little over a week ago. So far my only complaint has been that the steering seems to pull to the right. I had a Ford Escape before and we all know that front wheel drive vehicle all pull a little more then normal cars. So I took the car back to the dealer and the head mechanic took me for a drive. He said that the E350 do have a right side pull but that this was normal. He did state that maybe mine was a little excessive and that a wheel alignment was warranted. He also mentioned about a kit to realign the camber/caster (not a mechanic).

I have two questions for the group:

1. Does your E350 have a little pull to the right?
2. Have you ever heard of the camber/camber kit?

Thanks

By the way, I am loving my new car.

 

I would take your car to a perfectly flat road with no crown. I initially thought my 08 E550 was pulling to the right as well but my dealership requires the mechanic to go with you on a test drive. He showed me a perfectly flat road and the car tracks straight ahead.

As soon as I tough the steering wheel, the car tracks straight ahead, so the right pull is very slight if at all and only on crowned roads.

If it is more excessive, yes there is a camber/caster kit that can be installed.

Search this forum, it has come up many many times.

 

My '07 E550 was perfect from delivery till a year later when it started to pull to the right. The Caster Kit is a well known fix for this well known pulling problem when installed with an alignment. The car then tracks perfectly. The '07's are pretty much the perfect car otherwise. If you are pretty "in touch" with the vehicles you drive, and you feel it pulls to the right, trust your judgement. Again... this is a well known problem with these cars... Not all of them, but enough of them for MB to have developed a kit to fix them. Enjoy your car & welcome.

 

Vik888 -

Thanks for the feedback. I tried a search but did not use caster or camber in my search. I have now seen a few postings on this.

Would you recommend the kit or just have them check the allignment. Is there any downsides to the kit.

 

Find a perfectly flat road and check if it tracks straight.

If it doesn't, go have the kit installed, lots of people have done it and its covered under warranty from MB.

For me, on a crowned road, my car pulls to the right slightly and just touching the steering wheel w/o applying any pressure results in it tracking straight.

 

i have a 09 with 1500km on it and it has started to pull to the right. ill try to find a straight road and see what happens

 

As Barry45RPM said...trust your judgement.
You may find that you occasionally get some bad info from svc advisors and dealer "mechanics." Insist that the alignment or any other "fix" gets done on your car. You paid for the CPO, so take advantage of that investment.

 

Pull to the right can be sometimes corrected by using cross caster. This allows both wheels to be within spec but the right wheel will have a lead caster as much as 1 degree and still be within spec. Many places always want to center the caster settings in the range. The reason you have a range is to compensate for minor variations. Letting the right wheel lead can correct a drift to the right.

 

From my understanding most benzes pull to the right

 

Thank you all for your comments.

I do have an appointment tomorrow and will ask for the alignment and the caster/camber kit. Right now I feel that I am driving all of the time and I guess I am not use to this.

 

If its that bad then def have the kit installed.

 

So the car was out of alignment and needed two kits installed to fix. The dealer added a right Caster and a left Camber kits. Part number was 000-330-00-12.

Now the car drives straight. As a test I removed my hand from the wheel and the car has a very very slight drift to the right now. Way better then before.

Again thanks for the feedback.

 

If you have the time to tie the car up at the dealer, do it. Our cars should track as if they were on rails. They are manufactured THAT well. You paid extra for "CPO," so...just my .02...protect your investment Bro.

 

No any pulls right or left. It looks like the mechanic isn't a good one, since trying to lie.

 

I am not sure that he was trying to lie about anything. I am trying to see the positives in is comments. Either way, it is fixed and it drives straight.

 

It is good that you used the forum and then isisted on fixing problem. So now you can fully enjoy ride of the great car.

 

Dema,

I meant no disrespect on my part. My original questions were answered by others and yes I did get the problem resolved.

 

I'm a fairly new owner of first MB, E550, which had the same issue.
Suppose your car track perfectly straight on a flat road, it will pull to the right with a crown of the road more signifincantly than most other cars because the E-class steering is very soft.

My car went straight with left crown, and pulled to the right for the most time somewhat noticeably.
The dealer was saying that it's normal, and I had to argue that it wasn't.
They performed alignment and now it's perfect.
I studied the alightment sheet showing before and after numbers for various setting, and concluded that the mechanic did adjust left and right spec differently to acheive this outcome.

My guess is that if the alignment on these are set identically on both sides, it tends to pull to the right slightly.
I don't think the dealer installed any kit on my car.

 

anyone know if the camber caster kit is also available for the e55??

 

I agree with you. If they set the caster in the center of the range it will be on spec and they will tell you pull is normal. But if they adjust cross caster with one wheel leading it will compensate for pull and still be in spec. Too many are inexperienced and don't know how to do this. They tell you it is properly aligned and "they all pull right". They are correct but they just don't know how to set the cross caster to compensate.

 

Has anyone tried your suggestion and found success?

I always feel the nose of my MB E350 2008(4Matic sport version) points right from day one(including test drive) I bought Certified auto, about a year ago. I have had three alignments done. Two by Mercedes dealers and one by a certified Mercedes body shop.

Caster/Camber kit has been installed with last alignment(cost $154 for 2 kits on the same wheel per dealer, each kit costing $72) on the right front wheel. I see very slight pull while driving. All the numbers on the alignment sheet looks within spec. However, I have to keep turning steering to the left to keep the nose of the care straight in the direction of car movement. However, the nose is back to the right in a quarter of a mile.

When I got my last alignment done by a Mercedes Dealer, I did ask him to make caster on the right positive compare to the left front wheel, but the dealer did not do it. According to them shop manager and service advisor checked for the right pull and did not notice it after alignment.

I am going back again this Saturday and see if they can do it per your instructions.

I have moved the front wheels from front to back and that has not helped either.

I have several other cars in the house and I do not find this problem. They all drive close to straight. Chrysler 300 drives so perfect, drives straight, that as long as I can get my hands on it, I do not touch Mercedes. In fact I have more fun driving every other car, but this Mercedes.

Everything else is perfect with this car. Nose not pointing straight drives me crazy. Not sure if steering or 4matic or Electronic stability control has anything to do with it. These cars have too many variables not to mention the tires, roads etc.

Before my 2008 e350, I drove E300 Diesel 1995 for over twelve years and put over 145K miles on it and never felt this issue. I noticed that on this car, right front wheel caster was .5' more positive than the left front wheel. This may be my answer, but it would be nice if some other people have tried it and found a success with positive caster solution.