W126 Alignment issue

[JohninFla]

The subject car is a 1989 560SEL, 171,000 miles. Car was wearing front times on the outer edges, and new Michelin Pilots were mounted and balanced, and I took the car in for an alignment.

Initial alignment readings showed out of specification on the passenger side camber/caster. Mechanic installed the bar to provide pre load on the toe setting, adjusted eccentrics and threaded rod at reaction joint. Final settings were in specification, except for 0.5 degree delta was 0.6. Mechanic had a difficult time, as "this is the first Mercedes I ever aligned"

About 60 miles later, (next day), I noticed the steering wheel was turned to the left when I was driving straight ahead. As I continued, this became worse. I drove back to the shop and asked them to take a look. I believed something must not have been tightened properly.

Car was placed back on alignment rack. Suddenly, the car "could not be aligned. Has this car been in a wreck?" Other statement of "the whole cradle must have shifted" I reminded them the car was in only the day before, and no visible damage on the suspension or anywhere else. I was told to wait in the customer waiting area and not watch the work, (as I had done the day before.)

After two short hours, I was told the suspension was "fully adjusted", and the car was "barely in spec" I was shown the passenger side adjustment at the braking reaction joint was tightened all the way to the nut, and both eccentrics were adjusted "fully out" I asked why there were "new" painted American standard thread bolts in the threaded adjusting sleeves, and why the nuts holding the reaction joint ball joints in the housing were all marked as if they had been tightened, and noticed the "vise grip" marks all over the threaded adjusting sleeves.

Any ideas? The car does track straight down the road, and no pulling or other drivability issues are present. Should I take another shot at a different alignment shop? Thanks for the advice.

[jbaj007]

"Should I take another shot at a different alignment shop? Thanks for the advice."

You KNOW the answer to this is YESSSSS.

I'd say this is an area where the dealer has the experience (and correct hardware ) to do it right.

Continental Imports (Independent) in Gainesville (if you're anywhere nearby) would be my first choice since Steve Brotherton has a stated interest (and known expertise!) in just this type of alignment.

[Kebowers]

Having owned 3 - 126 series cars (83-380 SE AMG, 84 500SEL, 89 560SEL) , an being very familiar with the front end, I am amazed at the alignment shop. The car is VERY easy to properly align.

[wbain5280]

Originally posted by Kebowers
Having owned 3 - 126 series cars (83-380 SE AMG, 84 500SEL, 89 560SEL) , an being very familiar with the front end, I am amazed at the alignment shop. The car is VERY easy to properly align.

Most alignment shops only deal witn toe-in. I took mine locally, after the FE rebuild earlier, and the counter guy said that only toe in can be adjusted. I told him no that it it fully adjustable and left it at that. It's close to spec but needs a dealer alignment. Aftermarket won't do.

As for JohninFla, vice grips? get your money back because they butchered your car. IMHO.

[JohninFla]

Further information: here are the resulting alignment readings from my last trip to the shop.
Camber left (-0.33deg), Right (-0.30deg),
Cross camber (-0.04deg)
Caster Left (9.84 deg) right (10.43deg)
Cross caster (-0.59deg)
toe left (0.19deg), right (0.26deg)
total toe (0.45deg)

This is with the passenger side reaction ball joint all the way to it's limit. Any insight? Thanks!

[stevebfl]

The toe is slightly too toed in, the camber is mildly too negative. And the caster is set to oppose a right hand drift. Without seeing the camber cam orientation I can't say whether a prefered position could be had.

Those numbers will probaly do just fine, but what matters is whether they work. If I had just driven the car I would have a specific answer what to do with the numbers. What is most important about the numbers is that they WORK.

There are many considerations for the best alignment. The specs have tolerances and within the toleances are the makings of real quality alignments.

For example the left camber is more negative than the right by a smidge. That is not the convention. Convention says that one should make the left side slightly more positive than the right due to the general crown of most roads. If in your case the left side is as positive as it will go which is a real common occurance as the springs and bushings sag that way, then one would not want to place the right side much more positive even if it can. If I had my preference I would place 10-20 minutes more camber on the left side and totally dependant on the prior test drive I would use up to .75 deg to trim the state of drift to the right. That is beyond the cross caster spec but one must do what one must do to make it handle. Cross caster is not going to wear tires. in large amounts it can change the driveability during braking but that won't be the case here or even up to .75 deg. or so.

[Benz300]

do yourself a favor, do a search on alignment and read the horor stories. I've learnt the hard way as well. Don't waste anymore time and money on these alignment shops. go to the dealer. they charge around a 100 dollars. and get it done correctly. there you wont have to deal with the answers like "this is my first mercedes ever that i aligned".
but then again some think that we're 'pro mercedes dealer' here and therefore will recommend going to the dealer. but from personal experience, this is one thing you should get done at the dealer.
and to my surprise the dealer in NJ did the alignment for 10 bucks less than sears ! and sears is the one who screwed up my front end while trying to re-align a perfectly aligned car to begin with.
they wanted to be proactive. lesson learned: never ever deal with sears unles you're buying tires. even then don't have them balance the tires because their machines are not calliberated ! so have them install the tires and get them balanced at another tire specialty shop.
that's all what sears is good for. tire.. even at that point they end up trying to cheat you out of money. so make sure you shop around for the prices first. they now beat the tirerack prices by addiing the shipping charges to their price. fyi.
good luck and keep us posted.

[Sackett]

Hey. I do alignments at Sears. I'm not going to try to defend the company here...only myself. You never know what you are going to get when you go to a Sears. In my area the job market sucks so we have several over-qualified technicians in our shop. Also, equipment differs from store to store. Our balancers are old and not the best but we have excellent alignment machines. Several people bring me their Mercedes (mostly 123s and 124s) and I even just got a new toe spreader last week.

John,
2 hours, a return trip, some new bolts and some lies = wrong shop.

[Kebowers]

The 126 front end is very easy to properly align. Any NTB shop can do it. Also have the rear alignment checked at the same time.

If springs and bushings have settled, it may not be possible to get back to preferred settings. Not being able to get castor right on is suspicious--there is generally tons of adjustment left.

Check the upper control arm, and particularly the rubber joints from the 'sway bar'.