W203 Pulling badly to feft - HELP!!!

[carson218]

Hi,

I've just picked up an '05 C230 Avantgarde Estate, 55k direct from a Merc dealership. On picking it up I noted that it was pulling badly to left, checked tyre pressure but it was ok. I then returned to the dealer and the mechanic came out and test drove the car and agreed that it was pulling badly to the left (within 20mtrs).

As it was I then had to arrange for the car to be taken to another dealer to have the alignment adjusted as they didnt have the correct tools. That was this morning, got the car back (after the mechanics had left) and took it out for a spin.....still pulling to the left!!! I know i'm going to have to take it back and go out again with the mechanic, but would like to suggest potential other issues (if you can suggest anything)

Anyone got an idea of what could be wrong?!?!?!?

Cheers, Nicky.

 

[Xtractorfan]

Hard to diagnose as we dont have the history, car could have been kerbed or even hit a pothole.
My first thots would be that the problem lies with the dealer who gave the car back to you in this condition.. Return it and politely insist that you wont be accepting it back until it is driving correctly

 

[whitenemesis]

It's an age old story of 203 pulling left. Many, many posts on this and no real solution. Tracking , camber, castor etc. If you have one that pulls left it seems it will always pull left...

 

[television]

Hello Nicky, does the car have standard wheels, or wider.

Welcom to the forum

 

[carson218]

Hi Malcolm,

The car has 17" 5 spoke alloys, 225's on the front and 245's at the rear.

Whitenemisis,

Surely there must be something that can be done so as to correct the pulling to the left, my previous car was a '96 Audi A4, drove perfectly??

Nicky.

 

[delboy777]

I would tell the Stealership that if they dont correct the fault, that you will reject the car under the sale of goods act. The more i hear about MB dealerships the more i despair of the shoddy attitude they appear to have, just another symptom of why this country is going down the swanny imho.

 

[whitenemesis]

Hi Malcolm,

The car has 17" 5 spoke alloys, 225's on the front and 245's at the rear.

Whitenemisis,

Surely there must be something that can be done so as to correct the pulling to the left, my previous car was a '96 Audi A4, drove perfectly??

Nicky.

Many 203 owners have complained about their cars pulling left, there has been much posted about alignment problems but it doesn't appear to have much impact on the condition. Even a perfectly aligned car can still pull left.

The wider tyres will accentuate the problem. Castor angles have been suggested as a culprit but again this hasn't improved the handling on many cars.

My 203, similar to yours, has never pulled left. If I release the wheel it will track true but will be influenced by road camber, lorry tracks etc.

I don't want to be a gloom merchant but this pulling left can be very difficult to correct. Perhaps you would be better to follow delboy's advice?

 

[Rory]

I have a late 04 C270CDi estate on 16" wheels.

There's a Mercedes bulletin about this:
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=476027&postcount=8

You're lucky the dealer recognises the problem - my dealer says my car is fine. I would describe mine more as a "roll" to left than a drift. It rolls on more lock as it goes left. I'm pretty sure it is just extreme camber sensitivity in my case. On motorway contraflows it runs right.

My front tyres wore on the outside edge but more on the nearside. Swopping them over made the car run almost perfectly true but I guess that was just the wear cancelling out the roll.

I have recently fitted new tyres and it's still OK, but they are very little worn at the moment - not really using the car much at the moment. The new tyres are Michelin Primacy HP's and they are much more compliant (softer sidewalls) than the originally fitted Bridgestone Turanza's - maybe that helps the situation.

You could get an alignment expert to adjust out the camber sensitivity or even just adjust out the left drift, but I've read horror stories about handling being messed up and wierd tyre wear so I decided to leave mine alone.

 

[duncanh]

W203 pulling to the left

I have had this problem on and off with my W203 over the last 6.5 years.

It appears to be related to the tyres. Mine always pulled slightly to the left, but never a problem. After one change of tyres, it ran fairly straight. After another change of tyres, it pulled quite noticeably to the left. After a puncture, I changed my front nearside tyre, the problem went away.

Most tyre fitters don't seem to know why new tyres have coloured bands on the tread. If they did, they would fit them in a way that matches the two front tyres to minimise runout. It is often a problem if the two front tyres were not fitted as a matched pair. This can cause pulling to one side.

However, the interesting thing is that it seems to affect W203 more that other models, and it always appears to pull to the left, so maybe my theory is complete bunkum.

I do know for sure that my car's "pulling to the left" behaviour is strongly influenced by the tyres.

 

[Bolide]

If it's pulling to the left now, and has been for some time, then the tyres will be worn conically and adjusting the tracking won't help

I suggest you ask the garage to have the car aligned and either swop the tyres around or replace all of them till the problem goes away

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[carson218]

Hi Guys,

Just taken the car out with the mechanic and he agrees that it is pulling badly to the left, although he is not hopeful of the car running in a "perfect" straight line!!! The mechanic advised me that it is a pig of a job to correct the steering.

What would you guys suggest, i've had the car for under 30 days now (although greater than 1k miles) so would be able to use MB exchange policy.....but for another W203 which could potentialy drift to the left.....or do I go back to Audi?? (only joking).

 

[whitenemesis]

You're not happy with the car, take it back. If you keep it you will always have this feeling in the back of your mind.....

 

[MarkCL]

Just a few more things to maybe have checked:

Binding brake on that side
Binding wheel bearing
Worn bushes
Worn/damaged suspension parts/wheel etc

Those are just some generic causes of pull, though it does sound like you're experiencing a known 203 "bug" perhaps from the other replies you've had As to what to suggest, well painful as it may seem - walk away and get a refund. There are most likely plenty of other cars out there you could try until you find one that doesn't have any issues, but at the end of the day it's your money & choice.

Good luck.
Mark

 

[Bryann]

My 270 pulled to left when I purchesed it from MB, didn't like the thought of it being messed about with so left then wife hit a brick--new N/S/F tyre, steering not pulling to left. Have had new tyre on car now for 2 years 6,000 miles just starting to pull, I think its tyre wear possibly caused by roundabouts wearing tyre on ouside edge, just a theory!
Had steering geometry done, all OK so I think it is definitely tyre wear

I took out a new C Class w/end and that also pulled to the left but had much lighter steering than my 270 so not as noticeable

Prefer my 270 to the new Cdi 220 Sport, I am old though

Regards

Bryan

 

[carson218]

Hi Guys,

Had the geometry re checked and the mechanic swapped the front wheels over and touch wood......steering and handling is A ok!!! Looking forward to a couple of hundred K miles happy motoring!!!

Cheers,
Nicky.

 

[Nuclear Bob]

Interestingly my W203 has always drifted to the left, not seriously enough to do anything about it - but after checking the tracking was correct, and over 100000 miles later and several different makes of tyre, the tyres always wear evenly at 30 psi front. Maybe the 203 was built for German roads...

 

[MC#1]

Feel left out now as my 203 doesnt pull to the left altho I do replace both tyres on front axle when changing one and seem to get drop links, roll bar bushes etc done on a regular basis.

None of my work is done by a MB dealer although the garage owner who does the work does have a MB himself so its quite good that he knows off a lot of fixes for these kind of problems

 

[Rappey69]

Has anyone who has a bad pull to the left physically measured the tyre diameter or circumference?
I only ask as i have had a lot of problems with tyre even with same batch number having slightly different diameters,badly affecting the vehicles ability to track straight.These were atv tyres but still made for road use.

 

[Hertfordshire Merx]

A lot of 203's pulled to the left and wore the NSF tyre on its outer edge quite badly. Mercedes released a repair kit which contained new bolts with adjustment grooves on them, washers and new nuts.

A Beissbarth machine MUST be used when carrying out 4 wheel alignment on Mercedes. The bolt kit is still available over the counter.