I am looking to buy a 2020 S560 with 3000 miles at a MB dealership. Carfax states that at 1300 miles the car had a 4 wheel alignment performed. Here is my question...why need a car with this low mileage a wheel alignment? Is this a red flag for a potential problem?
I had many Mercedes models but never was a wheel alignment needed. Any help or ideas would be great.
Thanks all

 

Might be relatively common but a lot of owners do not have the alignment checked. Both my W222 S65 and W213 E63S alignments were way off as delivered from the factory. The R231 SL65 was right on.

 

The most likely reason is that the alignment was off from the factory. The PO pay have hit a pothole or curb, but much less likely than it initially being off. I would not consider any of those things a red flag.

 

Whenever I swap my winter and summer tires (using the same wheels) the dealership suggests an alignment after the seasonal tires are installed. I usually decline, but wondering if it's a good idea or just another effort by the dealership to sell me something I don't need. Thoughts?

 

Unless the takeoffs have an odd wear pattern, decline.

 

How does the car drive, how does it feel. It should track with very little effort or corrections. Is the steering wheel perfectly straight. If you can take it on the highway, take it up as high as you can and should have no adverse reactions. My S drives the same at 100 as it does at 50, straight as an arrow. My experience with MB dealership alignment specialists have been very good, usually 1 specific mechanic does them exclusively and is very courteous to his customers, listening to there input about there concerns and questions. These are strong, well built cars. Like someone else said, unless they hit a curb or a really bad pot hole, you should be good. Check the inside and outside edges of the front tires, a Little feathering on the outside is acceptable...shows proper Tow In.

 

I stopped doing wheel alignments years ago, other than when front end parts are replaced, and I've never had a problem (with erratic tire wear, etc.). I had a '91 Lincoln and I think I did 1 alignment in 250k miles. I have an '11 Lexus LS460 that I've put 55k miles and no wheel alignments. When you buy tires, they always want to do it. Waste of $ in my estimation. I've only put 6k miles on my current MB '16 S coupe.

The only car I've had they really needed alignments was a '73 Chevy Vega (UGH). It seemed like that if you ran the car over any kind of road roughness, it threw the alignment off.

Just my 2 cents...

 

I normally get an alignment check every 6 months, and where needed get it set back to specs. The roads here in the mid-Atlantic are less to be desired. So my toe may be out a degree or so, the alignments have helped with my tire life running staggered fit. I think I get an additional year or so out of tires before replacing them.

 

I live in Fl where the roads are generally in much better shape than up north. You probably need alignments where you are.

 

Thanks for your advise, I will test drive the car on Monday this week. My 2020 SL550 tracks perfect so I know how it should feel like.

 

I drove the car and it tracks perfect even when braking, so I bought this very nice S560.
Again thanks to all for your input it's greatly appreciated.

 

Remember, the only thing adjustable in the suspension is the front toe angle. Everything else (caster & camber) are fixed at the factory and only change if a suspension component is bent or damaged.

As mentioned before, if you tires wear evenly and you don't notice the car drifting or pulling it's unlikely it needs to be aligned.

 

I take that as a sign of well maintained vehicle. On my vehicles, I have always had the alignment checked after replacing any steering or suspension item or when 4 new tires are mounted. So it could have coincided with a repair or replacement of another component.

Or the PO could have driven over a road hazard that caused vibration which led to tire service or re-balance and an alignment just to make sure all was within spec.

 

Seems like older cars had more things to adjust and thus could get out of alignment. My 1984 300ZX has probably had 5 alignments in the 175k since I bought, 1 was after I hit a curb (hey i was 24) and the others were from potholes or poor tire wear. My 05' X-Terra has had 1 alignment in 100k and I have owned 3 Nissan Leaf's and non never required one.

 

My 928 is fully adjustable ... what an experience when someone tries to align it, a guy can spend half a day fiddling with all the angles and still not get it right!

 

My Ferrari F355 is fully adjustable, including ride height, you get this thing dialed in correctly, you can put a set of tires on it, drive for 10,000 miles and all 4 tires become slicks within 100 miles of each other--slick evenly across the whole tread--even with occasional race track use (HPDE)--and without tire rotations. The only time I do tire rotations is when I am at MSR Cresson because the track is primarily counter clockwise, so flipping the tires L<->R at mid day balances out the wear.

It was corner-weighted so that each corner carries the same weight as the opposite side corner (within 12 pounds), ride height adjusted so that the roll axis inclination is the same as factory spec (with different sized tires on it) and drives like a dream........

On the other hand, 2 PSI off in one tire and the car is basically uncontrollable*--it is that sensitive....... (*) not really uncontrollable, but easily sensed at the steering wheel or under throttle or brakes.

 

I just rebuilt the whole rear end on my 07’ E63 starting with the Rear Main Seal, drive shaft Discs, every bushing in the rear end, including the Subframe and the Carrier, changed from 2.82 to 3.06 Ring and Pinion etc. I set out doing this marathon build at the dawn of Covid (CCP-V!), so when I got it back on then road with new Michelins I tried to get the Alignment done since I changed every bushing in the rear with standard K-Mack poly’s. Lo and behold, I went to 3 alignment shops and not one of them would take the time to adjust the Caster to correct the slight pull to the right! The last shop even tried to convince me that the last method to correct the supposed “Thrust pull” (which it wasn’t but since the guy only drive it on side streets he couldn’t experience what I did on the Highway!) was to adjust for more toe on the Driver side rear, as was done without the right tools on my now marred UPD Rear Toe Arms!

So I ended up trying to do it myself using a Magnetic digital Angle gauge (to measure Camber, as I have Adjustable front Camber Arms), 4 Jack stands to wrap string around at the corners measured the same distance away from the Hubcaps on each Rear Side and adding 4.5mm to each side away on the fronts to take into account the 9mm difference in Track Width. I took these measurements to get a baseline from which to realize what changes I would be making and by how much. Moreover, I measured with Calipers the distance of the front and rear of the wheel rims from the thread as well.

So I started by setting everything to zero by removing all the camber bolts, since the manner in which they were installed were not working! During the process I came to the realization that my front Airspring arms were both adjusted inwards (ie-less negative OEM Camber) even though I had F1 Fab’s adjustable upper arms? So I removed the “Crash Bolts” and installed new “normal” ones. Moreover both the front Torque (Caster) arms were pulled forward (ie-more Caster) which, when that setting combined with the AirSprings being drawn inwards, according to every sample OEM chart I’ve seen of the amounts each of the Crash Bolts adjust for, is the only combination that Mercedes intentionally DOES NOT provide a result for! Specifically, your not supposed to use that combo!

So after setting all to Zero and the Camber close to -1 Degree each side, I still had the pull right. First thing I did was to correct the Rear Driver Toe to equal the Passenger side. Then I proceeded to add more negative Camber on the Passenger side to about -1.25 after setting toe I test drove it with failed result. I spent an inordinate amount of time messing with the Camber since it was easily adjustable, but no matter what I couldn’t correct it. So, I then added a Crash bolt to the Passenger Torque Arm and pulled the wheel forward (ie-more Caster) and set the bolt, adjusted toe, test drove, a little better but still an issue. At this point, because pulling the Passenger wheel forward adds Caster but also slightly adds positive Camber, the Camber changed to around -1.15.

Next up was to add a Crash Bolt to the Driver Torque Arm and push the wheel rearward (ie-Less Caster). It goes without saying that the front adjustments were done with the Airmatic System deflated entirely with front up on Jack stands! So, alas, since pushing the Driver wheel rearward decreased Caster, it also caused for the Camber to be slightly more negative (ie-adjusted from -1 to -1.11!!!). So in the end each sides Camber was within 0.04 degrees of each other! I set toe on the driver side, test drove next day and was blown away, I nailed it! Absolutely Perfect! The car drifts right when it should and left when it should and tracks straight on the crown of the highway, As It Should!!! My only slight beef is that the toe might be too close to 0 making the steering very very touchy. But the response is instantaneous almost to a fault, but I really am afraid if I mess with it, it could take many hours of adjusting, yet again, to get that tracking resistance just right! I’m sure I’l mess with it sooner or later, but right now, after 3 years of ownership, I’m in driver bliss!