Recently replaced all my tie rods and took my car to the dealer for an alignment.

Before touching the suspension the car drove completely straight.

After replacing the tie rods it had a slight pull to the right.

Now the car has a pull to the right after alignment which the MB dealer claims in a radial pull.

Here are the spec sheets..

thoughts?

Basically everything in the front end is new with the exception of the lower control arm bushings.

This might be helpful:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=12

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The after numbers look good. Why was the car aligned? Did you change front end parts?

Does the pull change to left on various road surfaces? If you hold the wheel straight does the car veer to the right? If you remove hands from wheel the wheel turns to right, it so how much wheel rotation?

If the tires are worn on one edge, you will get camber pull for the rest of the tires life.

Move the front tires left to right and test. Have a look at the rears as well. Also look for a sticking brake, press the brake hard, release then immediately try to rotate each wheel.

Also, what is the history of this car? The before settings will cause the car to pull to the left masking any previous tire problems.

Car was aligned due to me replacing both tie rods.

The pull does not change, but I would say it drives nice and straight on the opposite side of a crowned road.

Wheel rotation is just a few degrees if I remove my hands from it.

Brakes are all fresh and none of the calipers drag.

I'll try swapping with another set of wheels and tires that I have tomorrow and see what happens.

Changing tie rod ends / toe, won't make the car pull. The old settings would make the car pull left, this was probably done to counter a right pull.


Swap the existing tires left to right so you don't introduce new factors into the diagnosis.

Most two lane roads in my experience are crowned significantly to run water off. With the large caster angle called for in a benz this will cause a stong pull to the right. If on a four lane the left lane is often crowned less so it will pull to the left less as well. If all is well you should be able to strattle the center line and have no pull in either direction.

BTW what is a radial pull? ..from radial tires?

It sounds to me as if it might be ok as is.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

They might be talking about one side wall being stiffer than the other This would tend to make the car pull in one direction. This is sort of the same as a tire with camber wear causing a pull.

Rumor has it that the road drowns only if the water doesn't run off.

DEFECTIVE radial tires.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

Yeah, crowned.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Okay, so just to update this I swapped the tires from side to side today and the car now pulls to the other side.

So I can conclude it is the tires.

Will it harm anything to continue using them? The are fairly new and have excellent tread depth.

Thanks for the update, there are lots of threads out there without closure.

No harm in running them like this. A few things that might minimize the pull.

Move the fronts to the rear. This only works if the rears are not badly camber worn / have sidewall stiffness issues.

Measure tread depth across all 4 tires. If you are running black walls / non directional tires, flip the tires on the wheel so the most worn portion is on the inside for the front pair. This will tend to counter act pull due to camber wear.

As for flipping tires in the rear, I'd need to see what edge of the tread tends to wear more. Basically, you want the most worn portion on the side that wears the least. Your front camber settings are 0 is there will be a slight tendency to wear out the outside. If the rear has negative camber, put the most worn portion on the outside.

I very much appreciate you posting pre / post alignment details and the " I need help " tone of the post Vs the " They are ripping me off those evil ( derogatory spelling of dealer ) " tone that sometimes pervades the diesel side of this forum.

Nice. Thanks for follow up.

I had a pull that seemed to be from road crown. My 300d was super sensitive to any draft angle on the road. Turned out my caster was way out.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

In some cases if you drive the car a thousand miles or so you will gradually see the pull disappear.

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79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
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300D (2) sold
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