jpmancuso

I brought my 2014 e350 4matic in for an alignment because it was a bit shaky at 75+ mph. The dealer tested it and said 2 of the wheels were bent and that the tires were worn and needed to be replaced.
I had the wheels straightened and got 4 new tires at Costco (Michelin Pilots). I took it to the local Mercedes repair place (not the dealer) for an alignment and they told me it could not be brought into “spec” without Camber Kits for all 4 wheels. $975 later, I have camber kits and supposedly aligned wheels to spec. Did I get ripped off?

cetialpha5

Probably. There was probably some suspension parts that were worn out so instead of replacing those, you got something to compensate for the worn out parts. Should have just figured out what was worn out. Probably bushings, tie rods, control arms, ball joints or something else worn out in the suspension.

jpmancuso

The repair guy said the camber kits are a new part. Not a replacement of anything. They’re installed to compensate for otherwise old and worn suspension parts

cetialpha5

But what was the worn suspension parts? Better to replace those. If the bushings are worn out, you put it on the alignment rack at 0mph but when you're moving, there's play in them so you're still going to get tire wear so I'm not sure you're that far ahead by getting the camber kits, I'd rather just fix the worn parts.

Quint22

Did your old tires show indication of camber wear or was it just the shake at higher speeds? Usually IME the shake at higher speeds with normal wear is either a tire balance problem or a wheel balance (bent) problem. On my truck I can tell the first time I get on freeway if the new tires arent balanced properly or if Ive thrown too many weights.

S-Prihadi

MB genuine correction bolt for camber/caster is only for the front arms (2 ) as far as I know. Its correction value is small too.
Vibration and camber is not related , unless your tire worn out to one side so extreme....then the vibration will come from tires.

MeltdownSpectre

Do you have an invoice or any paperwork from the dealer showing exactly what was done to the car? Usually they mention part numbers installed.

Miloosh

Would also be helpful to know if you’ve lowered the car. W212 suspension geometry from the factory characteristically produces premature inner tire wear which only gets worse with suspension modifications.

ygmn

google k-mac on here... he makes kits to give you camber adjustments since MD does not have any Camber adjustment on stock mb cars.

Mine eats thru rear tires - I will be getting the k-mac rear camber kit to allow my local alignment shop the stuff they need to adjust camber so as not to eat tires...

rapidoxidation

I had the "inner rear tires wearing quickly" issue and K-mac's kit works to fix it. That said, as Cetialpha noted, if you've got badly worn rear suspension parts then you're better off replacing them THEN considering the adjustable camber bushings.

brentif

I have a 2016 212 Wagon that is lowered an inch and a half or so. The rear camber/alignment chewed through a set of tires, so I ended up ordering the K-Mac kit. Super pleased with how everything is now.

Quint22

Hopefully the parts are better then the website, even by my standards (pretty low) that website sucks as far as finding the correct kits or other parts for a specific vehicle.

brentif

Oh yeah, I was super skeptical based on the website, but the parts all seemed very high quality. I think I ended up calling them to make sure I was ordering the correct parts.

ygmn

Send them an email with what you are driving and they will reply with what you need.