Baloo588

I finally have 29k miles on my Michelin Latitude Tour since last year summer and the tires are very noisy despite rotations and good balancing. The tires are feathering with increase wear on the outside shoulders.

I did do a properly alignment last year at my Mercedes dealership when mounting these tires after burning through a set of Pirelli Scorpion Verde in 19k miles that led to feathering and noisy ride.

I went to my independent mechanic to re-do the 4WD alignment and they found that all 4 of my toe-in were excessive end of the Mercedes alignment spec. Front left and right were around 2mm toe-in and the rears were around 4 mm toe in each. That's a lot of toe-in especially for factory setting that could of caused the feathering outside of the tires.

I had them readjust it to .5 mm toe in each front wheels and 1 mm toe-in each rear wheels so that my tires don't feather more and my new set of Michelins will not wear like this when I put them on next month. I also had them decrease my camber a bit at each wheel within Mercedes spec.

Does anyone have any issues with fast tire wear and noisy ride due to tires wearing unevenly?

GregGebhardt

At near 10k my Scorpions and wearing pretty even. Wanted to rotate at 5k but dealer said wait till 10k.

If I were you, I would be going after the dealer for compensation if your tires feathered like that, it is a sign that the alignment is not correct.

After all I have heard, I am getting apprehensive about taking my ML350 BT in for its Service A!

DUTCH

15k on the factory Continentals. Did a 5 tire cross rotation (SP->RF->RR->LF->LR->SP) at 5k miles and again just now at 15k miles. Nice even and uniform wear.

PS - If I didn't have the full sized spare, the cross rotation pattern would have been the same without the SP position.

EricM

Does a full sized spare fit in the spare tire well?

K-Mac

Keep in mind that since the mid 1990’s dealers and alignment shops “full 4 wheel alignment” is now only front and rear Toe adjustment!

There is no front Camber and Caster or rear Camber adjustment facilities.

Excess adjustment of front and rear “Toe” to reduce edge wear only increases the overall wear rate.

At K-MAC we saw the need therefore to reinstate the precise ongoing adjustment capability which was OEM to the 1990’s.

You can purchase one position offset bolts but these are inaccurate and only allow a minimal 0.3 of one degree (3mm or 1/8”). The unique K-MAC patented design kits are precise single wrench adjustment on car (accurately under load direct on alignment turntable).

Allowing to return vehicle to factory specs after altering height, fitting wide profile tires/rims, load carrying, curb knock damage or to change, fine tune specs on track days.

Resolving premature edge tire wear, and improving traction with the front Caster adjustment feature also fixing steering pull and allowing reduced dive/lift under brake and acceleration with more straight line directional control – less wander at high speeds.

The bushes have twice the load bearing area of OEM and 2 axis movement is also maintained without the use of air voids allowing improved traction under braking and better steering response.

DUTCH

No. It was purchased for a trip to Alaska on the Alaska Highway, where there are long stretches of road with no services; and was carried on a roof rack. Never had to use it, but did not want the possibility of having to drive a long distance on the Alaska Highway on the donut spare pulling a heavy camper trailer. Expensive "insurance", but well worth it.

Baloo588

Back on topic,

The problem is that the dealership aligned the car too aggressively within the mercedes spec so really I cannot get any reimbursement for that since its "in spec." The alignment was also done more then 1 year ago and with all the potholes and bad winter we had, the alignment is effected more so I cannot go after the dealership. The independent mechanic is so good that I am happy with the new alignment settings and will get the Michelin Latitude tour prorated for premature wear and use it towards a new set this month. Thank guys.

Kaasmann

I have that feathering noise, its so awful that I open the roof window for fresh air.

Baloo588

What tires do you have? Are they wearing evening on the outside and inside shoulders? Do you have airmatic suspension btw?

Kaasmann

I have R20 all-season Contentals and airmatic suspension. There is no apparrent excessive wear on either shoulder on the front, however there is outside shoulder wear on the rear tires.

Baloo588

Your rear wheel toe-in is probably too much like mines. Previous I had about 3.5 mm toe in each rear wheel which is almost 2x more then my other cars and the fronts being 2.5 mm each. Usually its half that for better wear.

I wonder if the Airmatic suspension ML class has more aggressive alignment spec compared to the standard suspension ML?? Our 2010 Ml350 with regular suspension had same rim size and same spec Mcihelin tires with even wear on all 4 wheels. I had the dealer do alignment one time on the older Ml350 because of pulling but otherwise not a single set of tire feathered like this 2013 Ml350 with 2 set of tires feathered and ruined. I don't have the alignment spec from the older one for comparisons.

Joenmina1

AWESOME! any details or trip report on the Alaska adventure?

DUTCH

See here: https://mbworld.org/forums/new-m-cla...oto-album.html

Circa1

Tire feathering at 25,000 km. should start a class action suit


UOTE=Baloo588;6152905]I finally have 29k miles on my Michelin Latitude Tour since last year summer and the tires are very noisy despite rotations and good balancing. The tires are feathering with increase wear on the outside shoulders.

I did do a properly alignment last year at my Mercedes dealership when mounting these tires after burning through a set of Pirelli Scorpion Verde in 19k miles that led to feathering and noisy ride.

I went to my independent mechanic to re-do the 4WD alignment and they found that all 4 of my toe-in were excessive end of the Mercedes alignment spec. Front left and right were around 2mm toe-in and the rears were around 4 mm toe in each. That's a lot of toe-in especially for factory setting that could of caused the feathering outside of the tires.

I had them readjust it to .5 mm toe in each front wheels and 1 mm toe-in each rear wheels so that my tires don't feather more and my new set of Michelins will not wear like this when I put them on next month. I also had them decrease my camber a bit at each wheel within Mercedes spec.

Does anyone have any issues with fast tire wear and noisy ride due to tires wearing unevenly?[/QUOTE]

Circa1

I think we all should file a class action suit on mercedes for faulty engineering
Causing feathering of tires

GregGebhardt

The lawyers would love this!