Or can I skip it and safely monitor for wear over the next few miles?

Situation is......car was just aligned less than 2 months ago, but as my old tires were just too unevenly worn (many suspension issues fixed over the life of those tires, and they lived on 2 different cars over 4 years), I bought new tires and went back to OEM wheels last week.

It was aligned on 225/45/17s and AMG 17x7.5 Monoblocs, and the speedo on my SL was always about 3mph too optimistic at 60mph. Now it's on OEM wheels and tires, speedo correct.

Does this necessarily mean an alignment is a must? The rolling diameter (height) has obviously changed, but that's all I can state for a fact

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL

If you are not concerned with getting the best life out of the new tires then run it as is. For best tire wear and life it's always advisable to get an alignment whenever you get new tires and especially if you change sizes.

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Mercedes Benz Master Tech - Retired

Was it a 4 wheel MB alignment by dealer or well equipped indie? If not I'd get it properly aligned for safety as well as tire wear.

You might try checking with the owner of the shop that did the alignment. They may cut you a 'deal' on realignment for customer goodwill.

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Good luck.






1998 E320 Wagon

i'd paint the tread,and drive enough to wear paint,making sure even wear

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

Will, maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see how changing wheels/tires has any effect on the alignment. If the alignment was done properly 2 months ago and you didn't hit a large pothole, etc. to affect the alignment, then it should be fine.

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Fred Hoelzle

Customer good will? Just what did the shop do wrong?

In general changing tires isn't a reason to realign even if the tire diameter changes on all 4 wheels by the same amount. If the front to rear diameter changes dramatically, the caster angle will change. On large trucks the frame angle is measured and input to a chart to determine the correct caster angle to be used.

Now, if the old tires had camber wear and the alignment was altered to compensate for drift / pull, tire with flat tread may cause the car to drift. This isn't the fault of the shop and is why some shops refuse to align cars with unevenly worn tires.

Good will doesn't mean liability or damage. Many small business owners recognize the value of maintaining a business relationship which leads to long term sales.

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Good luck.






1998 E320 Wagon

Around us, there is a chain tire store called Big Brand Tire (no affiliation). They do alignment checks for free. It is a computerized alignment, and they give you a printout of all the key parameters (with the allowable ranges). If it is bad, you can then pay them to fix it. Or you can walk away with no harm done. Perhaps there is a similar chain with you, which could answer your question for you. If you do get it fixed, they charge $70 for a 2 -wheel, and $90 for a 4-wheel alignment.

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1968 220D, w115, /8, OM615, Automatic transmission.
My 1987 300TD wagon was sold and my 2003 W210 E320 wagon was totaled (sheds tear).