how much does a dealer charge for an alignment (give or take)?

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Current Mercedes
1979 maple yellow 240D 4-speed

Gone and fondly remembered:
1980 orient red 240D 4-speed

Gone and NOT fondly remembered:
1982 Chna Blue 300TD

Other car in the stable:
2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI / 6-speed MT

About $100 to $125 at the dealer.

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Len
'59 220S Cabriolet-SOLD and living happily in Malta
'83 240D 351,500 miles original owner-SOLD
'88 560SL 41,000 miles - totaled and parted out
https://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home
'99 E300 turbo 227,500 miles
'03 SLK320 40,000 miles - gave to my daughter
'14 Smart electric coupe 28,500 miles
'14 Smart electric cabriolet 28,500 miles
'15 Smart electric coupe 28,000 miles

My dealer wouldn't do it until every rubber bushing was replaced. I took it to a regular alignment shop without a spreader bar and left 100 dollars richer with a good alignment.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I agree with Ken, the tires indicate excessive toe-in which will make it handle more like a boat than a car.

The 124 chassis is easy to align if bushings are tight, a regular shop sould be able to give you a very good alignment. The tire-wear is an indication however that someone doesn't know what they're doing, choose another shop or at least a different technician.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Usualy $125, but I have seen them on special for $99.99, and you can use a 10% off coupon on that. Ask me how I know.

I whipped out the coupon and said to the service advisor I'm going to be cheap and use it, he was like most MB owners are.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Are both front tires worn the same? Your tire wear sounds like too much toe in, but wander is a symptom of too little toe in, not too much.
Any chance tie rods etc, are bent?

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1984 300TD

Both front tires are worn the same, but both tie rods are new and were purchased with complete with tie rod ends. This is like a chinese puzzle...

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87 300d w/ Greasecar kit 214k
94 chevy 6.5
95 chevy suburban 6.5
96 ford e350 van
3 years - no petroleum, all SVO
Bozeman, MT

If you're in bozeman I'm curious where you have a dealer that is within 200 miles..when I lived in Sheridan Wy the closest dealer and shop I could find was Ft Collins Colorado. The nearest shop I could find that would touch our 190 was in Gillette. While I do what work I'm always on the lookout for the nearest dealer. We've got a shop here in Kalispell that does quite a bit of work on Mercedes but I've never dealt with them and wouldn't swear to their competency. Other wise we just try to ge in to one of the dealers when we are out in Seattle.

Jim

Missoula has a dealer. 406 721-4000. I called and they say they have a special benz machine to do the alignment and they do do them in-house. Sounds like a trip to Missoula is in my future. I'm trying to get the official alignment specs from them to compare with what I've got. If they're different I'll first try having my local shop use those specs.

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87 300d w/ Greasecar kit 214k
94 chevy 6.5
95 chevy suburban 6.5
96 ford e350 van
3 years - no petroleum, all SVO
Bozeman, MT

If your shop doenst have the spreader bar...

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Possible progress... and to report:
the dealer actually let me talk to the mechanic who aligns these cars. He said my specs (which I have from my local shop) sounded in the ballpark but he seemed reluctant to give me the mercedes specs. He claimed they need to drive the car and adjust them all individually so they don't have a rigid set of specs. Sounded suspicious but I couldn't twist his arm over the phone.

My specs are:
FRONT (we didn't go over the rear end)
Caster L 10.2 degrees, R 11.0
Camber L 0.0 degrees, R 0.2
Toe L 0 inches, R 1/16

After describing how it drives, he said the steering sounded stiff and to losen the set screw on the gear box, which I did and it loosened up a little. It still feels like it's hard to turn, so maybe the steering damper has yet to break in or something, he suggested to check the steering idle arm. By the way, the set screw for the steering box is reverse of american stuff - counter clockwise tightens it. He also said there really isn't anything special about aligning these cars and that basically any shop should be able to do it. That was a surprise and I don't know what to think of that.

The test drive produced more managable car, but it still jumps around in crosswind a little. At least it's better so maybe my whole problem is in the steering. I didn't notice much movement in the rear wheel positioning in the load test. I'll drive it some more and try not to make it handle better just out of sheer will power!

I really appreciate all the help from the forum. I posted the same question over in the gas engine side at this link if you want to see what they came up with: 87 300 Impossible to Align!

Paul

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87 300d w/ Greasecar kit 214k
94 chevy 6.5
95 chevy suburban 6.5
96 ford e350 van
3 years - no petroleum, all SVO
Bozeman, MT