Hi guys. Just wanted to post my experience and share with you guys how difficult it was to get my car aligned properly. I know there are some threads on alignment and the bolts required but I wanted to post in case others have not seen those threads and may be going through the same thing.

I bought my car last month and negociated new tires. When the new tires were installed I asked the shop to do an alignment cause the car was pulling to the right (at this time I did not know that special bolts were required, nor did the shop.). I pick up my car and the car is still pulling to the right and now the wheel is off-center, to the left when going straight. This drives me nuts. I bring the car back to the same shop (attempt #2) to have these items fixed. They sort of fix te wheel (it's still to the left a little) and tell me the car pulling to the right is a tire defect...... I'm thinking

A week later I bring the car to my local body shop to have the grill painted black and tell him that I can't get the alignment properly. They tell me there is a guy next door with a brand new hunter machine that can align cars perfectly. I give it a shot (attempt #3)...... no good.... they make it worse, but they do thell me about special adjustable bolts.

At this point, I search the board and confirm the adj bolts are required. I call MB for an appointment and bring the car in this past Monday (attempt #4). Car is ready in the afternoon, I pick it up and while driving home, still not 100%...... car is driving straight (tire defect, yeah right!!!) but the wheel is 1/2 inch to the left. Not wanting to go back to the dealer, I can live with it, that is until I hear this god aweful noise. I stop the car and look under and see that the tech did not secure the under pan properly and its hanging down and scraping the ground......

Today finally they fixed the alignment 100% and the pan is secure...... The moral of the story is I'm an idiot for not searching the board first and finding out about the special bolts to adj caster/camber.......

 

How much did Mercedes charge for the alignment?

 

My car is also pulling a little to the right... the wheel is centered, though. I did the alignment at a dealer... and they had to do it twice to get to what I feel right now.

I've read numerous alignment issues in this board. This makes me really wonder whether aligning our cars is that difficult. I will give another attempt when I have a chance.

 

$199 all in with bolts/labor

 

Same here...these cars can be a pain to align it seems.

 

Add to that many techs that claim "know how" in reality don't know.
The W211 is set up to pull right from factory, the best you can expect with factory alignment specs is for the car to track straight and true only on the left side of the road / crown. The minute you go back to the right hand side of the road / crown the pull right will be back. If you are lucky enough to find a real pro to do your alignment these cars can be hands off wheel at 140.