MBNUT1

I had my car aligned about a year ago but only have driven it a couple of thousand miles since then. At 11 years and 139K miles I suspect that the ride would improve if I replace the struts / shocks. Is it possible to replace the struts and not need to realign it?

CaliBenzDriver

Have you replaced any suspension parts already?

Swapping struts does not directly mess up the steering tie-rods but affect ride height (toe!) besides camber angle.


ALL the rubber bushings gone soft affect the geometry and ride quality.
I guess the best way is to swap the list of suspension wear items then get an alignment.

Arrie

I replace both front struts (Airmatic) without doing any alignment as there is no alignment to do in my car. There are no adjustable "slots" for anything. The struts bolt to the top and to very tightly fit bolts on the bottom. I would need some seriously special offset bolts or something to move anything in the suspension.

I have not had any issues at all after the strut change. No steering pulling or uneven tire wear.

I would think the result with car without Airmatic is the same.

MBNUT1

Drove it tonight and what is tending to make me think that it needs suspension work is that it is noisy over bumps. Not loose parts noisy put road impact noise. I think that it is telling me that I need to replace bushings. But when I had the subframe dropped maybe 10K miles ago and when I had it aligned 3k miles ago both shops said the suspension was in good shape. Its not like it leans in curves or anything of that nature (it might but I don't notice it if it does) but the ride quality is getting unMercedes like.

AaronKK

As I have changed many dampers of many suspension types, I believe you don't really need to change your alignment, unless you are not going to lose the tie-rod nuts, you really don't need to do the re-alignment. It will affects to caster and camber somehow, but mostly the toe angle is decided by the connection between knuckle and tie-rod.

Here's what I do for the exact job you want.
After rebuilding the dampers with springs, I put the assembled strut to the shock tower and fasten upper mount bolts first. (it might be three bolts for each side)
Then I tried to put the knuckle to the strut.

Previously, I temporarily assemble the strut to the upper mount (Shock tower) by hand, and assemble whole, and I give torque on those top mount bolts when the car came to the ground.
This was for the spring settled down, but it tended to change camber and caster as the normal force acted on the not-fully-fixed bolts. (cross caster and cross camber occurred)

Thus, fasten fully the upper mount bolts first w/ determined torque, and then put the knuckles and wheels; it will allow you to have the less change of the alignment. Springs are gonna be settled down after you passing some speed bumps with an appropriate speed. Ride height will be back to normal then.

andynmaas

I did replace my front strut with Bilstein B4 and rear with HD B6 around december 2019 because uneven wear and chopped tire without alignment. It fixed the problem and ride is perfect. Month ago I replaced the wheel rim from 245R40-18 to 235R50-17 and alignment myself using Vevor Camber and caster alignment tool around $120. I did toe adjustmend using string. I had to use camber repair bolt on passenger side to fixed camber and caster for front passenger side. I am able to manage camber, caster and toe within spec.