pulling

[james watson]

hi all,
       just wondered if anyone has any advice-my 91 260e is pulling to the left-not a dangerous amount just enough to pull slightly on motorways when cruising.Also my car seems to be affected easily by headwinds.Gonna change tyres soon as they're getting pretty low on tread-will new tyres and a tracking adjustment stop the pulling? car is in good nick but has covered 125000 miles

cheers in advance

 

[Merc]

Hi James

I'm getting the same thing on mine now,and also to the left!,well for the last week or so,I went to get the tracking done and they said it was "bang on",and didnt need adjusting.
So now like yourself I'm wandering is it tyres!,mine also is in good nick & about 123k,but I dont have the headwind problem that you have.

regards

 

[Anthony Banos]

James

If you dont rotate wheels often (say every 2k miles) the road camber tends to wear NS tyres and the car wanders to the left. Frequent rotation makes tyres last longer and prevent the left pulling syndrome.

 

[Andy]

Hi all,

1. All (I will qualify that, 107sl's and SLC don't, old 114 don't. Some one 201 & 124 don't)mercs pull to the left. Some of you may be lucky and don't.  You must thinking the man's mad. He's contradicting himself. Well hoping most of you not know run out to the wheel alignment shop. Then this is how it is. Most of em shall we say drift to the left rather than pull. The vehicle follows the camber of the road. They tell me that you don't have the problem on the continent. Due to the road construction. Flat. But we do. My criteria for carrying out any wheel alignment checks.

1. Does the vehicle actually pulls to the left.

2. Has the vehicle got uneven tyre wear.

If so then we will carry out a four wheel steering alignment check. Taking it in to get the "tracking"checked will do no good whatsover. The camber and castor readings need to be checked and adjusted before any track adjustments should be carried out. In the earlier days (123 and 116's) MB told us to bias the camber angles. So negative on the nsf wheel and positive on the osf wheel (If you look on very early posts I have explained what the various angles adjust).  You could also bias the track just a touch.This helped!

With regard to the wind. 124 didn't suffer badly with the wind. But this is the time when I get the most queries about the stabillity of the vehicle. Middle of Jan-Early March is when we get high winds and so. I get the queries. Usually there doing 80-100mph in cross winds. And wonder why the vehicle undulates a little.

You have to take into account the winds, a little play in the steering box (which by the way does adjust satisfactory). Front shockers a little weak. And the driver over compensating. Do we slow down. NOOOO, why when we can battling on through the driving winds. The elements can't touch us, there no match for a man and his MERC (Especially if the force is with you). Well may be not so dramtical. But you get my drift. Don't get me wrong we all do it. But I bet you don't get any stability problems at 60mph.

Regards

Andy @ www.mercedesservicing.com

 

[dave elcome]

Andy.

Many years ago i had a problem with a Granada pulling to the left, everything was spot on, and repeatedly checked, we even swapped wheels from a new vehicle, still no better, eventually i removed the steering wheel, turned it one spline to the left, the out of alignment was so minimal that it was almost unnoticeable, the punter went away very happy, not realising that he weas in fact doing all the compensation subconciously!!

 

[Matt Crooke]

Dave the dodgy dealer!!!

Only kidding!

 

[dave elcome]

I could make your hair stand on end!!