Magicman09

Short story: My car is wearing the inside of the front wheels much faster than the middle/outside.

Dealership says the car naturally has a camber that consumes the inside of the tires faster. Due to various factors. (Airmatic suspension and different from stock wheel and tire specs) Basically "you're SOL if you want even tire wear, and you'll have to change them out prematurely forever."

I know Mercedes has a special camber that they recommend, but am I crazy thinking that they are just selling me a line to get more tire sales? It can't possibly be that bad for the 4matic system to adjust the wheels to wear more evenly, can it?

Technical:
2014 E550 4matic
Riding on the 19" ten spoke E63 Wheels.
Setup is slightly staggered (wheels came directly from an E63), but well within 4matic tolerances.
Tires are Pirelli Pzero (I don't have the sizes in front of me)

Thoughts? Personal experiences? Advice?

LILBENZ230

I've had several Mercedes cars over the years and have never had even tire wear in the front. For me, the cars always wear the outside shoulder of the front tires well before the middle/inside. It's too early to tell on my W212 if that will remain true.

I came to see this as a feature rather than a bug. Certainly not all of my Mercedes cars were chronically out of alignment, as that was done/checked periodically by both dealers and independent specialists.

cetialpha5

That's the problem with the staggered setup. They basically cut your tire warranty in half because you can't rotate them. The only way to cut down wear on the insides is to rotate the tires. I think you can also get the bolts to adjust it too, but they're not cheap, cost almost as much as a set of tires. Basically the other way I've heard it is that it's designed for the car to run 100+ on the highway, then you get even wear. But we can't go that fast here.

LILBENZ230

All of mine have been staggered setup. It costs more in terms of tire wear, but I still like it.

DFWdude

I would NEVER buy tires at the dealer... you're a fool if you do as the dealer will charge 30-50% more than the same tire bought anywhere else. Plus they push OEM tires, which are seldom the best for the car. I never buy the same OEM tire that comes on the car that the manufacturer buys from the lowest tire bidder by the train car load.

If you don't mind a slightly stiffer ride, add more air pressure, to take some of the pressure off the inner edges. With 19s, you should be well over 40psi anyway..

LILBENZ230

True that - who buys tires at dealerships?

cetialpha5

The best deal on tires is typically at Costco. They usually have Michelins on sale every other month or so and the store personnel seem to know when it goes on sale in advance. I suppose you could ask them about the tire warranty and what happens if you don't get the stated mileage out of them. I think there's a company, kmac that makes kits that allow you to adjust camber/caster, but they charge $545 for the kit, plus you need to install it and get an alignment. I'm not sure it's worth it because you probably have to save at least 2-3 sets of tires just to break even and then you're ahead after that. Way too long for payback. Especially if you can get some coverage on the tire treadwear warranty. They normally cut the coverage in half if you can't rotate the tire and you didn't mention what kind of tread life you were actually getting.

mtnman82

My '03 c230 wore the inside of the front tires prematurely too. I was going to get the KMac camber kit but then wound up getting the E. Hoping the E does better on even tire wear...

LILBENZ230

7100 miles on mine so far and it is not that encouraging. Keep us posted on yours. Alignment checks out.

Magicman09

Interesting. Looking at my tires, they definitely have more wear than I was expecting. However I may just be misremembering how much they had when I switched them out for the winter..

Magicman09

That is a good idea, I will change the pressure, and see if I can get a few more miles out of them.

Don't worry, I was only putting that in there because the dealership was recommending I buy from them. I don't buy tires from the dealership, compared to where I go, they aren't terrible, but they are still overpriced.

leardriver

Mercedes sells replacement bolts to change the camber by about .3 of a degree. The bolts are $12-ish per side, but you need an alignment printout to know where you started. Sometimes you can just change one side.
Unfortunately, it also changes the castor by the opposite amount, such as, a -.3 degree camber change gives you a +.3 castor change. That isn't always bad, depending on what you start with, because you want more positive castor on the right tire in a right side of the road driving country like the US. I put them on my 2015 E350 pretty easily, like 15 minutes per side, but I have a lift. You have to get it aligned afterwards, because your toe will be way off.

Arrie

How about you close the toe a little bit? And if the dealer says alignment is fine close it anyway as obviously it is not fine.

I drive a 2010 E550 and front tires wear very evenly at edges. I can make center wear slower or faster with incorrect pressure but tire wear is the same at edges.

I have a slight alignment issue, could be camber, in the right rear where the tire wears very slightly faster on inside edge but nothing major and car tracks absolutely straight.

And I don’t see much camber in the MB cars at all so I don’t believe that is the culprit in your case as you say the wear is much faster.

Have you noticed any odd behavior of the car if you make fast steering moves? Situation like this would be when you pass a slower car on a two-lane road and make quick move to the other lane to pass.

I had an old Crown Victoria a long time ago and this car Would want to keep going left when making fast lane change at pass situation like above. Alignment was checked and found to be in limits but I asked the front toe to be set to the minimum limit and that fixed the issue.