Front-End Loose? 1995 E320 Wagon
 

When driving especially at speed (50+) the front end steering of the car seems almost loose! The car also pulls to the right if you take your hands off the wheel. The car has new tires all the way around, correct pressures, etc, and a recent 4-wheel align. Can it be the steering damper like on a Land Rover? I also can see 4 ball joints between the front wheels. Jacking the car and trying for wheel looseness results in extremely minimal vertical wheel looseness, and side to side seems to be able to turn the whole steering rack. What can cause steering looseness on a 124 Benz?

The damper is to reduce side-to-side oscillations (shimmy). It won't make the car pull. Try feeling for a difference between throttle on and throttle off. That would point you toward the rear end; thrust links or camber links.

Could it just be the crown of the road, giving you a pull to the right? Try it on different types of roads. Also, if the alignment shop isn't familiar with MB, there are some special things :eek: for MB alignments. What's new?

Best of luck,

The pull is constant, regardless of the throttle. Car does not have ASR / ASD. Believe rear diff is fine. Will check the others. The alignment shop is very familiar with MB ; referred there by MB Master Tech.

Thanks

I don't know if this will work for you, but try cross-rotating the front tyres. My 124 pulled to the right even after a 4-wheel align and swapping the fronts around completely cured it.

Unless something is loose or you hit a curb, look at the following:

upper strut mount. any cracks in the rubber, they need to be replaced and you will then need another alignment.

Rear links -- look for out of center bushings or signs of torn rubber. Another test is to jack the rear wheel free of the ground and set the parking brake, they apply torque to a lug bol. If the wheel moves back and forth with torque on the lug bolt, the links need replacing.

Rotate tires, if the pull follows a tire, replace it, the belt is loose.

Peter