1983 300D - 257000. miles.

Front tires were wearing on the inside. Replaced LH and RH Upper Control Arm and LH Tie rod due to obvious wear. The Front RH Tire continued to wear on the inside so I took it to a local (Spring, Texas) Firestone Shop which other MB/Import shops use.

The shop told me that there some worn parts - didn't say what - byt they would align it as cloose as they could.

After getting the car back the steering and front suspension is very sloppy and loose feeling, steering wheel play seems excessive, the car pulls to the left with braking and jerks the steering wheel when bumps are encountered. Also the front tires seem to lean in at the top excessively and the steering wheel points to 10:00 for straight ahead. I noticed that the specs he used (which I will try to attach) were for a 300E.

My questions are, can a greater degree of control be dialed in or is this problem common when aligning old MB's? Are 300D and 300E specs the same? Do the specs he gave me look right? If the shop is the problem - Can anybody recommend another shop in the Houston I-45 Rayford road areas?

Thanks - Ken

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Kenny
'83 300D
363333 Miles
'83 300D
284000 Miles

A few things.

1. 300E's for the united states were 86 and newer, W124 Chassis, so if they used that spec, then the alignment is all fubar'ed. Go and get your money back. Your scan shows 77-85 E Class, so that would be all W123s.

2. Firestone does not have the correct spreader bar that is necessary to align your W123 Mercedes Benz. In Houston, SW Wheel Alignment on Richmond, and Euro Wheel are the 2 places for a good honest proper alignment.

3. After Upper Control arm replacement, the car MUST be aligned. Did you replace the sway bar bushings as well?

4. Taking your car to a proper shop can have them check the front end before continuing to to align the car with Bad Parts

Things to check on your W123 car:

Lower Ball Joints
Caster ROd Mounts
Tie Rods
Steering Stabilizer
Drag Link
Idler Bushings

If you're around tomorrow, I may be going to the woodlands to visit family, near 45 and 1960, I can meet with you and drive your car and tell you what I think.

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

From the attached sheet, they hosed that alignment up. Camber is good, but they are way off on caster and toe. These cars can be aligned without the reccommended spreader bar, but it's quite difficult to get right.

They also should have told you which parts are worn, and how badly. Depending on the condition of the other parts, the car may not be alignable without replacing some parts.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Can anybody recommend a shop on the North Side of Houston?
Thanks.

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Kenny
'83 300D
363333 Miles
'83 300D
284000 Miles

Tell them to set everything to zero .....camber, toe in .....all of it.

These types of shops always mess up.

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Wie lange wird Ihr Auto leben?

Almost. I think the specs are 0 camber + or - .3 degrees (basically 0 camber), about 1/4 degree of toe in per side and about 8 degrees of castor. I'm going off of memory here.

Scott

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Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)

What the heck? The toe is messed up pretty badly. I dont know how they missed that. That is the reason why your steering kicks back when you go over bumps.

They aren't really going to be able to play with the camber much unless the lower control arm bushings have been replaced somewhat recently.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Spreader bar? My mechanic got it spot on with alignment jigs and measuring tape! Aint rocket science folks.

It sounds like that shop just did a real incompetent job of it, even though they probably have sophisticated equipment.

Do a Google search for DIY wheel alignment. You'll find various methods described. I've done my own alignments many times using about $40 worth of stuff from Home Depot. If you take your time and pay attention to the details you can get it very close. Certainly close enough that it won't be pulling to one side or wearing the tires unevenly.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

I have taken my cars to a place that specializes in installing springs (whether heavier duty or lowering springs) and they did a good job, you have to know how to do an alignment after lowering or raising a car.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Thanks folks, I am going to try Dieselkraut23's suggestion of having them set everything to zero and see what happens from there

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Kenny
'83 300D
363333 Miles
'83 300D
284000 Miles

Using Firestone was your first mistake IMHO...Take the car to a competent shop as instructed.

Firestone managed to warp wheels on my old chevy truck by tightening in a circle instead of criss-cross. A friend of mine had them sieze up an engine, by draining and not refilling the oil during an oil change. Gasser tune up? that is a joke too...

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K