My wife is a slow and very "careful" driver, and I noticed that her C280's front tires are nearly bald at the outer shoulders. I don't believe she peels around corners so could this be due to poor alignment and need the camber adjusted? A friend's C280 of similar age had bald inside & outside shoulders, but this could be from underinflation. Whatever the reason, would placing negative camber on C280 improve it's cornering, and how else will that affect the cars handling? Thank again.

Jim

Adding negative camber to any vehicle will improve the turn in. The more camber you use the more stress you will place on the inside shoulder under normal conditions. Unless you drive more aggressivly, enough of the time to balance that out, you will get MORE unever tire wear. The factory alignment specs are fairly conservative. If the outer shoulders are wearing out under normal conditions I would think that you are having a problem with positive camber. Or at least positive camber under load... MB DOC is the guru of MB suspension tuning...I would recommend having it checked and aligned to factory specs. Unless you have sportier plans stick with stock.

Best of Luck...Lee

Tire rotation is one of the most neglected maintence items. Mercedes doesn't include tire rotation in their service schedule, & that isn't a good idea. Tires need to be rotated about 6-8k miles. Out side tire wear comes from excessive "toe-in", & not enough negative camber. Have the alignment checked & set to the SPORT MODEL setting.