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Old 07-07-2002, 11:46 PM
Mercedes Tuner Mercedes Tuner is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Westchester Co. , New York
Posts: 27
By lowering the car, you changed the ride height of the vehicle, which changes the alignment on the vehicle.

The Rear of the car only has a toe adjustment which can be changed. The Camber of the rear can't be changed, unless you install threaded rods from-http://www.delsingmotorsport.com/ then you can adjust the camber.

The Front of the car has 2 Eccentric adjustments for Camber and Caster, and a toe adjustment. Once a car is lowered, usually you have to turn the eccentrics to the minimum position just to get close to specification, sometimes it will come within specs, other times, it will be pretty far out. When you get to that point, you basically just set it equal from one side to the other, and that's it, just do the best you can.

Usually Alignment Specifications are done in Degrees and Minutes.
I.E.- 60minutes = 1.00 degree. From what you have posted, they use the decimal system, which is an easier way to read it. And 1.00=1.00 degree

The Measurements that you are showing here aren't off by much, but the camber is off from one side to the other by more then it should be. Usually for USA Specifications, they will add more negative camber to the right side of the car to help with the road crown that most USA Streets have. If you like to take corners at high speed and push the car a little around turns these measurements will help to some degree. It is possible to have premature tire wear, but it won't be effected too much by the way the specs are. Usually when I do alignments, I will increase negative camber towards the negative edge of specs. Due to the speeds that most people drive, and how they drive, it usually helps make the cars more stable in turns, and at high speeds. I believe that the 124 400E and 500E use about -1.25 degrees of Camber in the Front, and about -2.3 degrees of camber in the rear. To me, I don't think you have too much to worry about!

On my Mercedes I have -2.5 degrees of Camber on all 4 corners of the car, and added as much Caster as it would allow. I usually drive about 7,000miles a year, and do autocrosses with the car, and the street tires seem to last about a year and a half to 2 years for a set of tires, but really wear pretty badly on the inner edge of the tire. But that's the price I have to pay for the Performance I demand!
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