I would appreciate some help translating an alignment report into a parts list, please. Or at least a plausible problem description.

Car: 1982 300SD.

Tires that came off were Michelin Harmony (which have given me excellent wear in the past). Rotated faithfully every 5,000 miles. On my 240D and on my 300SDL, that same tire typically yields ~35,000-40,000 miles to a set. On THIS car, the tires were installed in 2011 and had at most 20,000 miles on when they failed. The fronts were worn down to the cord on the INSIDE (both left and right, worn to the inside) and the outside was somewhat close to the wear bars but not quite down to them. The rears were intact, but also worn down further than I expected in so short a time and so few miles.

When that set of Michelins was put on, the car was computer aligned. At that time they told me that they were unable to put the rear 100% as it needed to be because the rear springs were sagged too low. At that time, I didn't do anything to correct the situation. So, it could be that the rear springs really did kill these tires just like they predicted. I can't rule that out, but at the same time I'd like some other opinions. Merchant's Tire did the alignment previously.

I just had a new set of tires put on and got the car aligned again (different shop this time) after replacing those Michelins that wore down to the cord too soon. Here is the report. I have boldfaced the numbers that concern me, and made all negatives red.

FRONT
CAMBER specification minimum: -0.33deg. maximum: 0.17deg.
LEFT initial: -0.45deg. RIGHT initial: -0.42deg.
LEFT final: -0.47 deg. RIGHT final: -0.49deg.

TOE specification minimum: 0.14deg. maximum: 0.30deg.
LEFT initial: 0.17deg. RIGHT initial: -0.74deg.
LEFT final: 0.15deg. RIGHT final: 0.18deg.

REAR
CAMBER specification minimum: -2.25deg. maximum: -1.25deg.
LEFT initial: -0.19deg. RIGHT initial: -0.19deg.
LEFT final: -0.22deg. RIGHT final: -0.16deg.

TOE specification minimum: -0.08deg. maximum: 0.75 deg.
LEFT initial: 0.31deg. RIGHT initial: 0.35deg.
LEFT final: 0.28deg. RIGHT final: 0.32deg.


~~~

So basically, the problems are as follows:
Right front toe was dramatically wrong; however, I want to note that the cord wear showed up on both front tires during the same long road trip. So I don't tend to think it caused this specific issue BECAUSE A) it affected the left side too, which was not out of spec, and B) the alignment shop was able to correct it, which tells me nothing is "too bad" wrong up there or else they wouldn't have been able to get it back where it belonged.

Front camber is too negative, by .1-.2 degrees. This was true both before and after this latest alignment.

Rear camber is slightly negative where it needs to be MORE negative. It isn't positive, but it isn't negative enough. The problem there is more on the order of 1-1.5 full degrees.

In reading forum posts, I've seen three things mentioned most frequently: sagging springs (which is what the first alignment shop told me two years ago), upper control arm bushings, and lower control arm bushings. Can anybody point me, based on these results and my experience with those tires, towards the most likely suspect and how to test for it?

The car has 180,000 miles (approximately) on the clock. Rebuilding the "whole thing" is really, really not an option financially. It was over $1700 to have a shop do that on the first 300SDL I had and the car just probably won't even be around long enough to justify doing that again. Springs are affordable and do-able; some of that front end stuff is more difficult and more expensive to say the least. If I can isolate and replace a bad component, that's one thing, but I'd really like something more specific to check than just "it's all shot". How do I prove which parts are shot and which aren't?

Thanks for any advice.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL