I'm a former ASE Master Tech who's now an executive in the auto industry. Back in May I posted a concern about the alignment on my E430 Sport. In short, it tracked and handled fine, no tire wear, etc., but being the anal type that I am, I asked my (usually very competent) dealer to check it as part of the cars first "A" service at 12k miles. They returned the car with the steering wheel offset to the left when driving dead ahead, and a pronounced tendency to pull right. They re-alignmed it immediately, but now only 1500 miles later the left front tire shows significant wear and cupping on the outer edge of the tread (the right side is beginning to show the same wear as well, but far less pronounced). To me they've either set too much positive camber or too much toe-in. Any other ideas on what they've set improperly? Is there any key info I can suggest to them?

This car has no eccentric bolts to adjust the camber and castor. Ethier the tech that did the align did not get the wheel straight or he did not use the offset bolt set to properly set the camber and castor.

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Benzmac:
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
SERVICE MANAGER FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM

According to the work orders they installed the bolt sets on both sides. The shop forman confirmed this when I spoke with him on Friday. The wear appears to be consistent with excessive toe in and / or too much positive camber.

I have had my 1998 E430 aligned 4 times in it's first year. It never seems right even fresh out of the alignment bay. It always pulls to the right and the steering wheels is either to the left or to the right of center while on straight and flat roads. This is very annoying! One MBZ tech told me the W210 E-Class has a tendency to pull right. I upgraded OEM wheels to Carlsson 1/6 with Sport Package size wheels (235/45/17). After my last alignment and rotate & balance the mechanic writes "tires are over sized for vehicle" on repari invoice.

Hmph, I must have had the only two W210s that didn't pull right, my '97 E320 AFTER it was aligned by the dealer, my '98 E430 Sport BEFORE it was aligned by the same dealer. ;-)

Most dealers should be able to give you a print-out of the alignment vs. the factory specs. Even good indenpendant shops can do this alignment w/o too much trouble. As Benzmac said there isn't much adjustment because of the design to replace the "bolt kits" instead of cams. Very hard to over-adjust anything but "toe".

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MERCEDES BENZ MASTER GUILD TECHNICIAN
ASE MASTER TECHNICIAN
27 YEARS M.B. TECH

M.B. Doc, would you (or anyone out there) happen to have the factory alignment specs for this car? Would really help in my discussions with the dealer.

align specs. camber= -0.6deg +- 0.4deg
FRONT
caster= 5.3deg +- 0.5deg
toe-in= 0.2deg or 3mm

REAR specs

camber= -1.2deg +- 0.4deg
toe-in= 0.35 deg or 5mm

M.B.Doc, thanks very much. I'll let you know where we are after they recheck everything. (Hope the front tires last that long!)