chrisxiao

I have recently replace 4 tires of my 2006 E350 with Bridgestone - Potenza G019 Grid Tire(Radial type) at Costco and took the car to MB dealer to do wheel alignment. Notice the car was pulling to the passenger side on straight flat road, I took it back to MB. They said it is because the tire. They recommend using MB's non-directional tire. Any way, they rotate the tires, and the problem improves a lot. They said that's because the tire, again. I don't recall the user manual mentioning anything about tire type, except suggesting using MBOriginal tire.
I get a copy of the alighment data. The Front Axle SetBack is -5' and it appears to have same setting for both left and right side. I did some search on Internet. It seems change the Setback of one side may fix the problem.
Any suggestion?

Plutoe

I know this will sound expensive, however I it were me and not satisfied with the dealer, I would take the car to another alignment shop for alignment. Good Luck!!

vettdvr

BTDT Run Michelin's even air pressure and if it pulls increasse right front wheel caster. Has it pulled from when you bought it or just currently. If so what did you change? Tire brands?

johnng117

I have this problem, by changing the tires around left to right improved the situration.
I have yhe alignment done twice and the no. Were spot on, so the conclusion is tires.

homeofstone

I purchased a new set of tires a few months ago. the car pulled to right. Switched tires around and the car still pulled to the right. End result was three bad tires in the set of four that I purchased. weird but it happend.

Craftysince86

i have heard adjusting caster will eliminate the pull for multiple euro platforms

benzmodz

Swap the tires left to right. It can be specific to the tire.

vettdvr

When you say an alignment is "spot on" this really isn't a clear statement.

For Example if the Caster range is 1degree to 4 degrees yours might be on 2.5 degrees. You could call that spot on. But that doesn't mean the car will drive correctly.

MB gives a range because there can me statistical stacked tolerance variations in cars that even MB can't prevent.

So for your car to drive straight it might need 3.5 degrees of caster to drive straight and it would still be in the spec. Would this be spot on.

Remember we are talking about the total acceptable range of settings and not just one number in the center of the range.

Too many alignment shops use the "center of range" for the alignment numbers and this may or may not work.

Chassy variation for center of range numbers could leave you with a pull to one side or other and/or possibly uneven tire wear. But your numbers would all be "?? spot on?? in the center of the range.

Any alignment shop that only uses center of range is really not understanding the variation that can occur and even center of range may not be right for your car.

IF you move tires from one side to another you are now dealing with TIRE variations and this is also a statistical measurement.

It is possible to have a tire with belts in range for acceptable but way off center of range to low or high side compared to the rest of the set.

My suggestion on increasing caster is to remain within MB acceptable alignment ranges for individual AND cross caster settings.

This alone can correct pull to one side but MANY shops are very reluctant to do this with the skills they have.

IF you can find a shop that really understands how to set a front end you can align your car to "within" range for MB and correct the tire pull.

IF the chassy wont' allow for enough you can add caster bolts as I have done to mine to stop the pull right and drive straight.

Drive straight of course is also tempered with road crown. My testing is normally on interstate as level as I can find to be level.

On a crowned road driving in the center of the crown might be another way to test. Just dont' bump into anything else or get reckless driving ticket .

Flash Gordon

A very crucial part of the alignment is checking the accuracy of the equipment itself. If it is not adjusted periodically, your alignment reading is off! I once had a MB dealer aligned my E, after some time the tire is still wearing unevenly. So I took it to the local Firestone after communicating with a local Hunter rep who sold the latest Hunter to the Firestone. Since then, I go to this Firestone for alignment for all my 3 cars.

My point is MB dealer is no expert on alignment. Most big name tire shops do more alignment on a single day than the MB dealer does in a week. And the alignment equipment has to be adjusted periodically just like the tire balancing equipment. If not, you get readings that are not correct but think they are correct.

vettdvr

You are right I did not cover the equipment variation as an exclusive item. I only covered the chassy and how normal variation can affect pull/drift and how shops can claim it is alligned and be 'in the numbers' but still not drive straight and further adjustment within specifications could solve the problem but too many shops don't understand this.