Highway wander after alignment
 

My E300D has felt glued to the road and was a great highway car.
I noticed that the boots on the tie rods were ripped and I decieded to change them, bought german aftermarket parts and installed them myself, no problem.
Took the car to get aligned and the tech said he had alot of trouble getting it into spec. Everything is in spec except for the right front caster that is at 11.1 degree which should be between 9.7-10.7.

My problem is that now the car wanders all over the road and needs constant little corrections to mantain a straight path. It seems like it has lost all directional stability. I can't tell if it was the alignment or the tie rods because I got it aligned the same day as I put them on. I brought it back to them and they said it's within spec and they can't help. Should I get a new alignment?

Where on the Island did you take the car? A 124 should be cake for someone that knows what they are doing.. If you are in a pinch I can make some calls to some old friends up your way and see where The place to go is.

Jonathan

I have heard others on here saying that the 124s in particular will wander and render alignment impossible when the rear subframe bushings are worn.

At 12+ years, I'd say they're suspect

since it did not wander before the alignment i would suspect he used the wrong specs.

i watched a fellow align my mb once and thought, gee he is making a huge adjustment on the track bars....but i knew his father and the father always knew what he was doing so i forgot about it. i think he put an american spec on it with almost no caster. that will make the car very unstable compared to what a benz should be.

also for a few years the new benzes used an alignment that made the steering lighter like a lexus involving a lot less caster but went back to a more benzlike setting. maybe he put the lexus like benz alignment spec on it.

for stability on the highway you want a lot of caster....9 degrees or so.

tom W

The caster measures fine, and the car was fine before the tie rods and alignment. I was thinking of putting a little "toe in" into the front. With my race car that usually help's high speed stability but makes turn in slower. Since it's not a race car, and I don't care about turn in, it might help. My only other thought is that the shocks are going bad.

Any

I would say that you should get it realigned somewhere else and ask what spec they are using first. OEM vs aftermarket parts is not typically going to have anything to do with function or operation, just longevity and maybe reliability. The w124 tie rod is a basic part used on many many different models and years. It isnt like it is specific to one year and they got the wrong one.
I would agree that the alignment was not done correctly is most likely.

more toe typically makes the car tram line even harder..

Jonathan

Did you ever get this sorted?

Regards Inspector.