All,

Last weekend I took a long road trip and my car (91 300D) was all over the road. I can only imagine what the drivers behind me were thinking... “Look at this arss, he's probably wasted.” At any rate, I recently had an alignment done at my local sears and the problem arose after that. Sears rechecked the alignment and said everything checked out OK and only offered some bs about how the tires can influence the alignment. I didn't buy that explanation at all. I’ve never had this issue with Michelin tires. I questioned whether or not they didn’t tighten everything back up properly or are not making me aware of a bad ball joint. Again, the sales dude used the lame tire explanation. So could it be that my power steering is going or that my steering dampener is shot? I replace all the tie rods two years ago so I really don’t think of them being the culprit.

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1991 300d 2.5

What were the specs? I've read here frequently that Mercedes has been the only reliable source from which to get a good alignment done. My car (1982 240d) wanders as well, and I see in the records that someone did a "rear thrust alignment" at some point in the past. Makes me wonder since the rear is supposed to be non-adjustable factory stock. There are bushings for that, but I dunno if I have them installed or not. Someday I'm going to tear apart the rear and find out what's going on back there, installing new bushings, springs, shocks, subframe connectors and diff mount.

Find an alignment shop that knows how to align that particular car. The alignment machines have a lot of models specs loaded into them (124.xxx). I had an alignment done one time on the E300 that they had entered the wrong model into and the car was all over the road. It was scary on wet roads. I took it to a friends tire shop and the alignment tech nailed it as soon as he had the correct model specs of the car. Sounds like they used the wrong specs at Sears.

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Jim

I performed a wonder at high speed once: I dodged a deer while I was doing about 110mph on I-5 somewhere in southern Oregon and didn't even wake my passengers, but that car didn't wander...

There is a ton of info cataloged in the DIY section. It may take some reading, but its your best bet to figure out what your problem is - you know how the problem feels.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/forumdisplay.php?f=82

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'82 300SD - Somewhere over 220k - Becoming reliable...

Just knowing Sears got caught in a nationwide sting where they were scamming innocent people into buying front end parts they didn't need is enough to avoid them. If you can't find a good Indy that has experience with Mercedes go to the dealer, this is one service they generally tend to be good at but, as always, YMMV

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

anyway, it has been my experience that tires can cause a lot of problems with steering and wandering.
throw those michelins in the trash and go get some good tires like Yokohama or Toyo.
mi dos centavos
robert

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1985 300SD
1998 Jetta TDI
Previous: lots of diesel VW's, MB's, KW's, Pete, Freightliner


Walking isn't a lost art: one must, by some means, get to the garage.

I have opted for Firestone's lifetime alignment on vehicles that I intend to keep. I haven't found any competent alignment shops so at least I have unlimited access to Firestone's machine. This is really helpful with the Diesel Ram's horrible front end and helps with the 85SD. Perhaps the dealer would get it right but it is an hour drive and the stealer is expensive and not working on old cars very much.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

If it wasn't doing it before the alignment, I would take it back and ***** a bit. At least get a refund. I keep hearing the dealer for $100 is the best for alignments

If it's the tires it will usually be one bad tire causing issues. "Tracking" is common on low profile and high performance tires . My BMW would wander or "track". A Different set of tires fixed it. I don't think it's the problem in your case.

You could always put the front on the rear, and visa versa, to test a little

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1987 300TD 147,000 miles- Palomino leather interior, 1995 facelift and body cladding, E350 wheels, Rebuilt suspension and sport springs, rebuilt turbo, New Monarch injection pump and injectors....and the list goes on and on...

Did you get new tires at the time of the alignment, or just an alignment. If it's the latter, I can almost guarantee the alignment is your problem.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

If you didn't put good brand tie rods in, check them again. I put Uro's in and were shot after about a year. It took me 18 months to get over the "it can be tie rods again" thing, checked again, and shot.

However these should have showed up in the alignment inspection.

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D

I got an alignment last year around this time with the purchase of the new Michelins.

I’ve had the tires rotated in between then and the last alignment. Since then (and that original alignment), the car tracked fine and didn’t pull or wander.

I figured I’d bring the car in for a rotation/alignment even though the alignment felt fine and I didn’t observe any uneven wear.

I'll dig up the alignment report and see if that reveals the correct model specs.

I’d avoid the stealership at all cost, but do know of a few garages that I’ve had successful alignments.

I was able to locate the alignment report (attached) and the report does reference the correct model. Anyone able to make any sense of the numbers? Everything looks legit to me.

Attached Files

20110727100146390.pdf (460.1 KB, 146 views)

Your problem is in the rear end not the front. Check all the bushings.

[edit]

An interesting note. My shop did the alignment with me in the car. Probably not going to find alot of shops willing to do that. My rear end shifts a whole 1/2 degreee in camber when my rear end is in the car.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

How are you able to determine a problem in the rear as the camber only changed a tenth of a degree?

I don't know for sure whether this will help - but apparently for some of these fancy NASA spec lasers coming out their arses alignment machines you need to spin the front wheels on the plates before taking a reading.

There was a thread about it - it was a chap with a W123 - but it was a machine fault... I'll see if I can dig it out.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!