W124 320 sportline coupe pulling left

Mercky

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96 W124 320 Coupe
Hi, Have a 94 sportline 320 coupe which has a tendency to pull / drift left. The car appears to be very sensitive to camber and will noticably pull/follow the camber but appears to be more fond of the left, I've read all the theorys about been a safety feature etc!! Are sportlines much more prone to this due to harder suspension? Any other sportline owners out there have similar experiences?? Thanks.
 

LNM

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mine does vaguely, but nothing drastic; like you can get away with quite extended periods of not holding the wheel on a motorway.
 
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My 94 W124 estate also has a slight l/h pull, I suspected all the usual susects at first; tyres, tracking/or bearing alignment, or previous owner clobbering something but have been assured by 2 independant MB specialists 'many seem to do this' so I'm happy to live with this!
 

Spike

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1999 SL500
They all pull to the left a little..... if it concerns you or if the vehicle has been lowered it might be worth getting your 4 wheel alignment checked out - I think Micheldivers has been recommended before.
 

Bolide

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BMW 525 Diesel Touring
Pulling to the left

All W124s follow cambers, so on a normal road a W124 will pull to the left. On an airfield (flat) or on the crown of a dual-carriageway (straddling the white line) it should run 100% straight

Saying it should run 100% straight is easy, getting it to run straight is another matter altogether. The procedure goes something like this:

* road test
* check tyre pressures
* check tyre wear pattern, replace conical or worn tyres
* road test
* check rear suspension for wear, replace worn parts, set tracking
* check front suspension for wear, replace worn parts
* check car isn't crash-damaged
* find centre of steering rack
* slacken off track rod ends (easier said than done)
* centre rack, centre steering wheel, rough-adjust TREs
* road test
* adjust TRE
* repeat until car tracks straight

Normally pulling is caused by bad tracking at the front and by worn tyres but the causes are many and varied. 4-wheel alignment will help but altering tracking will only help if underlying faults are cured first. See above


Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 
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Mercky

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96 W124 320 Coupe
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W124 pulling left

Thanks for that Nick, I've driven standard 320 coupes and they're not half has sensitive to the camber pull as my sportline...do you think the harder suspension contributes to the pull / tramlining effect? Anyway I will have those points checked out (if I can find an airfield!!!)
 

Bolide

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BMW 525 Diesel Touring
Sportline

Re Sportline:

IMHO Mercedes didn't do a particularly good job with Sportline. The usual superb compliance / comfort / bodyroll compromise seems to have disappeared to be replaced by a suspension that lacks travel and bottoms out on bumps

This is my experience with two Sportline estates - not a representative sample, I admit, so other cars will be better

I think that because Sportline is lower, and apparently has less suspension travel, it will exacerbate problems like pulling / camber following. If you're running 205 tyres I don't think they'll contribute to the problem much but anything wider will make things worse. Non-standard wheel widths & offsets will change the geometry and will always be worse then the original spec

You've got a big old 6-cylinder engine up the front there so the front springs and shockers may be a little tired. They are on my 250TD but I like the front springs soft!

I'd check the tracking, tyres and general suspension condition, make sure the front ARB bushes are OK, then play with tyre pressures

When doing the tracking, if you / the garage has problems adjusting the front track rod ends, remove the whole track rod from the car and put it in a vice. It's then much easier to free off the TREs. Once they're free, refit the TRE and adjust it up. If the mechanic's canny he'll have marked the old position, or counted turns as he changed it, so he can get the TRE back to the old position having freed it off. It's easy to say "you need new TREs" if they're frozen but often they can be freed up off the car

Other faults you may find include worn lower swivels or broken springs. A good MOT tester should find the former and even those with white sticks with find the latter!

Be prepared to spend some time and money on this. I sometimes have to do this with cars I sell. 3-4 hours labour costs money but it does make a big difference to the way the car drives


Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 

pascal

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sl320/1999/3.2
My standard 300ce was pulling left.

Brought it into a tyre specialist (knew the manager) for full laser track.
Still pulled a little on cambered roads
Brought it back to specialist.
Senior fitter re-tracked (they spent well over an hour)
Watched them do it. Amazing equipment. Big colour screen they can read as they
are adjusting. They adjust everything: track, camber, Centre of lock R/L lock.
S. wheel centre, wheelbase. The adjusting seemed very hard to do.

Result: Like a different car to drive. Price: 100euro (£75)

PS: Only paid 50euro (knew the manager)

Pascal
 
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Mercky

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96 W124 320 Coupe
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W124 pulling left

Thanks guys, Pascal....small world ....I'm in Dublin also in case you dident notice!! perhaps you'd be so kind to forward name/number of the specialist you mentioned and the contact name? I'd be very keen to get it checked out particularly if you say it transformed your car...cheers.
 

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