sdunham

After lowering my E 500 several yeas ago, I've since trashed 12 tires even after 3 alignment jobs at the dealer... First alignment job included $175 for Camber Bolts but I've since found out that was only 2 bolts for the front and they didn't allow for enough adjustment according to the spec sheet. They never touched the rear... I guess they figured they'd just get it close and I'd keep coming back for return business... At any rate, if these are the specs from my last alignment, can I correct the Camber using a KMAC Camber Kit which provides -2 -> +2 of correction...? I'm thinking not... From the Chasis Alignment Test Sheet: ( the "d" is degrees )

Front axle B4 correction Left -64mm/-10.3d Target -0.7d +/-1.4d After Correction -42mm/-7.3d

Right -35mm/-6.3d -36mm/-6.4d

Rear Axle B4 Correction Left -26mm/-3.9d Target -0.6d +/-1.0d After Correcion -26mm/-3.9d
Right -27mm/-4.0d -27mm/-4.0d

Also, on the sheet, all these Before and After numbers are in RED, which I'm assuming means they aren't to spec even after correction, and explains why I'm still eating inner edges of all 4 tires... Short of putting it back to stock height, what are my other options to get the Camber back to acceptable...?

sdunham

After looking at this some more, I'm assuming the -2 -> +2 camber correction is in degrees so in order to get the camber closer to target, I'd need to raise the rear a little and the front quite a bit... I can do that by adjusting the lowering links, installing the camber correction bolts/bushings and then trying the alignment again... Other than KMAC, what are my other optins for Camber kits F& R...? I can't seem to find much...

tbone

What are your current camber (in degrees) and toe specs? Improper toe will wear out tires A LOT faster than moderately negative camber....and toe is easy to adjust on our cars. No need to buy aftermarket correction kits.

sdunham

There's about 8 different numbers for Toe for the front and rear axles and all are in the Green on the sheet... I just decided it's too much of a hassle to keep ruining tires every 6 months so I raised it back up about 1.5 inches... I'm sure this won't correct my camber poblems but at least the tires will last a bit longer before blowing out again...

tbone

Raising your car won't necessarily correct your tire wear issue. It's the lack of a proper alignment that's causing it. You should get your car aligned again. The key is to set your toe to zero. If you have moderately negative camber, your tires will wear just fine. If you look up pics of my car (and see how low it is), I have run -2.5 camber, and zero toe for 8 years now. Each set of tires wears almost perfectly even. If your camber is >3, then you will also start to get camber wear. But in general, toe will eat out tires way faster than bad camber

vettdvr

Are the tires cupping out? I don't really understand a technical defect "trashing". Can you be more specific on what the defect in the tire is and post pic of the tread? Might be more helpful. I went through much of the same and found my answer but yours may be different.

Leeward

It's not an E500, but we recently had a similar issue with an SL350 which had excessive inner tire wear. The K-Mac site shows that these use the same kit as the E500. We found it had Brabus springs that seemed to bring its height down 2" and the alignment shop was able to get settings back to an acceptable one degree negative front and rear using the K-Mac camber kits.

Our wheel alignment guy did say that the rear factory toe adjustment was simply not enough, but that the extra toe range supplied by the K-Mac kit enabled him to get it right. It was an essential part of the alignment and will make a big difference to the tire wear characteristics of the car.

ohlord

it most certainly is the lowering as a drop of over once inch can bring camber down a few degrees neg and you inner tires will wear in thousands of miles.
Or kmac fronts and lensolo or speedybenz rear camber links in the rears
Cupping has nothing to do with alignment the drop is your culprit.