Alignment before new tires? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

#1 04-25-2003, 03:48 PM

I've got my just-bought 300DT in the shop for a general lookover and was told the alignment needs to be done. I planned on getting new tires next month. So, do I wait for new tires to get the alignment done or is it OK to do it now? I believe when the alignment's done they are obviously doing it to the whole hub/rotor unit, not the actual tire, so it shouldn't matter. No? Thanks.

Chiragp · #2 04-25-2003, 04:40 PM

If the alingments isn't terribly off, I would say save your money and do it with the new tires.

#3 04-25-2003, 05:16 PM

It's somewhat bad. I don't think the PO ever had it done. It definitely needs it. I've heard that you should only do it when buying new tires, but I've also heard that it doesn't matter.

manny · #4 04-25-2003, 08:44 PM

If you suspect, or in your case know, the alignment is bad, I would get it done asap.

#5 04-26-2003, 08:45 PM

I decided to get it done, but new tires will be pro'lly next month. Thanks guys.

Benzwood · #6 06-03-2003, 04:12 PM

I'm in a similar situation... I have new rims/tires on the way from TireRack, and want to have my car aligned as a preventative measure.

A couple questions:

- Can any decent tire shop align an MB correctly, or is there anything weird about it? There are no MB dealers in my town, and very few MBs at all actually.

- Can I take it in with the old wheels and have it correctly aligned, i.e. do they remove the wheels when aligning? I'd rather not take a chance that my brand new rims get messed up by a careless mechanic.

Thanks in advance!

#7 06-03-2003, 11:17 PM

I've since learned that alignment is done to the wheel/hub, and yes, you can have your car done before getting new tires. I had my alignment done, then bought new tires three weeks later. No problems. She rides straight and true. I think any decent shop -should- be able to align any car.

Benzwood · #8 06-04-2003, 03:34 AM

Thanks Tony, just so I'm clear, you mean it is done with the wheels (tires and rims) completely off the car, i.e. directly on the hub?

#9 06-04-2003, 02:24 PM

Why do they say that it needs alignment? Do they have calibrated eyeballs?

Alignment is probably the auto service job that is sold more than any other in cases where it is not needed. Unless you are having irregular tire wear problems, or strange driving characteristics, you don't know if it needs it until it is on the machine getting it.

Good luck,

Benzwood · #10 06-04-2003, 03:29 PM

Answering my own question about how they're aligned... local tech said they are aligned by the rims, not the hubs. So the rims remain mounted.

Also he said the camber adjustment might vary slightly with new rims (that sound right?) so recommended waiting until then. I'll have to hover over them to make sure they don't scratch 'em.

Larry, actually nobody said it needed alignment, it is just my paranoia... $50 to make sure the alignment was perfect seemed like good insurance on $400+ of new tires.

I did look at my old tires and they have slightly uneven wear comparing the inner edge to the outer edge, but the tires are near the end of their life so that may be within tolerance, and/or is that normal?

Benzwood · #11 06-09-2003, 10:30 PM

Well... got my car back from being "aligned". The before/after readings on the computer printout, however, do not show an improvement.

Some of the before readings were indeed out of spec. But now some different readings are out of spec.

The tech who worked on it was gone for the day when I picked it up, but another guy told me that the difficulty is there are two eccentric bolt adjustments, and moving one affects the other, and that to get it perfect would require hours of work, so they basically just took a stab at it, took it for a drive, and called it good.

I chose this shop for alignment based on them having the fancy tire balancer that everyone recommends here, thinking they'd have good alignment equipment too. I also made sure they had a tech who knew how to work on MB's beforehand, and supposedly they did. MB's are rare where I live though (no dealer in town), so I remain skeptical.

Unfortunately I had already paid for the service before this mumbo-jumbo, but will get them to refund me or dispute the credit card charge if they can't fix it or at least provide a better answer. I'm not sure why they would bother to mess with it at all if they didn't think they could improve it.

Anybody shed any light on this for me? Do I need to take it to an MB dealer to get it right?

manny · #12 06-10-2003, 07:50 AM

Benzwood

It may help, if you could post the " before " & " after " numbers for us.

Benzwood · #13 06-10-2003, 01:14 PM

Here are the Before/After numbers ("Actual" is "After").

I've hilited in red the numbers that are out of spec.

Yellow are the numbers that are of concern because of unknown spec or unknown reading. I wasn't able to get an answer yet as to why some readings are unknown (tech is out until tomorrow).

Any enlightenment much appreciated.

Flash Gordon · #14 06-10-2003, 03:32 PM

I agree with Larry Bible about alignment. There are too many service shops want to sell the alignment. You only need alignment if you have excessive and uneven wear, car pulls to left or right. If you don't experience these, you do not need it.

By looking at the before and after results, I would say they did nothing to improve it because I don't think you needed it

Benzwood · #15 06-10-2003, 03:51 PM

Yeah, it's pretty clear they did nothing to improve it.

I was not experiencing any pulling with my old tires, but I did notice uneven wear, particularly after I took the old wheels off. One tire in particular was bad, the inside edge worn significantly more. I didn't record which position that tire was in, unfortunately.

So the $400 question is whether the current out-of-spec state is ok.