I just have my 89 300E aligned today, the car was lowered with H&R 6 months ago. apparently it is off the spec. but does anyone know how bad is it?
Front camber: L/-0.60, R/-0.81; spec: -0.31(min), 0.19(max)
Rear Camber: L/-2.21, R/-2.50; No spec. specified.
Thanks

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!

The front isn't a problem at all! Less than -1 deg won't create any abnormal tire wear.
However more than -1.6 on the rear will cause tire wear on the rear. IF you don't want to replace the tires every 15k-20k miles then you should have cams OR off-set bushings installed.

Caster is the adjustment for pulling! IF the roads have a large crown then upto a half degree more on the right side will help pulling on htis type of road.

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Thank you for you guys informative response. I am going to put a new set of tires this weekend and keep my eye on it for a while and see what I need to do, maybe an "expensive" camber kit. And I just notice right side of my car is 1/4 - 1/2 inch lower than the left side, which might be the reason that camber at the right side is worse, does this look normal to you?
By the way, MB Doc, what is the cam and offset bushing?

I'm glad you guys brought this topic up. I am in the middle of doing an alignment. My W126 has camber specifications of 0 degrees, plus or minus 10 minutes, and caster of 9 degrees, 15 minutes to 10 degrees 15 minutes.

I have set my caster as positive as possible, with the left being less positive. My camber on the right is -.25 degrees and left is +.25 degrees.

I am trying to get the car to stop pulling to the right so much, and wearing the outer edges of the tires. The previous owner had the left caster set as negative as possible, but the camber was off by 1 degree, and I could not get the camber close to specificions. So, I turned the left caster out 12 turns, nearly maxing out caster. I also maxed out the right caster, until I could not correct camber. This eliminated about 75 percent of the pull. I plan to reduce the left caster by 1 turn.

What do you guys think of my adjustments?

Mercedes Man,

From what you have said about your alignment, I would say 3 things, one- you have something bent (Spindle, Upper Control Arm), two- suspension parts are worn and need to be replaced, and three- you have a bad tire which is causing the pull and the alignment shop that did the alignment compensated for the tire pull by adding alot of caster to one side of the vehicle.

I was thinking about lowering my W210 as well.

I was wondering, do you wait until the springs have settled down before you get a wheel alignment or do you normally do one right after you install shocks and springs?

Mercedes Tuner,


Thanks for the help. The wheel base specifications for the W126 is 115.6 inches. The car has a wheel base of 116 for the left and 114 for the right. Would this account for the pulling? Is it necessary to adjust the wheel base and how would it be done?