W211 Pulling, both steering and hair

[Defaultsv8]

Hi,

So in short my car is pulling to the left, varing amounts depending on road camber.

All suspension compoants are new, alightment is fine despite no independant alignment shops having the correct mb tools to preload, notthat you would expect them too to be fair.
When you explain to them it needs to be aligned slightly out of spec to comepsate for the lack of preload there heads melt and gloss over as they dont want to admit they dont know about this.

Now with the spec on toe slightly adjusted yesterday i thought being as i have option 213 electric/hydro steering with a steering angle sensor, could anything to do with this be causing the pull?

Everything says youshould reset the sas but others say you dont after alignment, the garage shrugged (again)

With the steering wheel straight and driving straight ahead, might the lekky bits be trying to turn the car slightly? Is it possible the lekky assistance is fighting me?

Does anyone have any genuine knolage of these systems, im no expert but i dont need to check my camber or whatever before i get asked haha.

That said ifsomeone has had this and pulled all their hair before getting it sorted please enlighten me, its ruining a great car for me.

If i havnt explained the issue well please let me know and il try again, any help would be appreciated.

 

[LostKiwi]

Well known issue caused by the design being intended for LHD instead of RHD.
The way to fix it is to tweak the caster angle slightly and run less one side than the other.
You're in Devon so not a million miles from @Steve@Avantgarde near Bristol. Steve is very well aware of how to tweak these correctly and is a highly regarded MB specialist.

Wheels in Motion near Aylesbury are another that understand this issue.

 

[Defaultsv8]

Hi, ok thanks for the insight. What really winds me up is that even merc here have told me "they all do that theres not much you can do about it.

So in your opinion thia guy in bristol will be able to sort it? I ha e a set of the caster camber bolts only one was used last time, they do t offer infinate ajustment i thought just plus or minus a set amount, i take it thats all thats needed?

 

[Defaultsv8]

Also... did you notice along with the pulling, as the road changed the steering wheel compared to road wheel seemed to change their relationship?

 

[M80]

For short term compensation you might try reducing pressure in the fr o/s by 1psi or so.

Thought,
for lower profile tyres the result may well be insignificant.

 

[Defaultsv8]

Interesting idea, would work in principle i guess, see how long it takes to get an appointment.

Weirdest thing i find is that its like the steering column is made of rubber and seems to change its position as the road does in relation to the wheels, driving me mad pardon the pun

 

[LostKiwi]

Hi, ok thanks for the insight. What really winds me up is that even merc here have told me "they all do that theres not much you can do about it.

So in your opinion thia guy in bristol will be able to sort it? I ha e a set of the caster camber bolts only one was used last time, they do t offer infinate ajustment i thought just plus or minus a set amount, i take it thats all thats needed?

Yes it should be just a matter of tweaking the caster to suit.

Steve is an expert on Mercedes so will know what to do.

 

[00slk]

OMG, that's one thing the Money Pit is fantastic at, doesn't pull left or right, most of the Merc's I've had have pulled slightly to the left, Money Pit drives in a straight line regardless of what side of the road I'm on. Money Pit is such a cool car

 

[Defaultsv8]

So after a couple of calls, one of which to the recomended its been suggested that unless every suspention part changed has been OE i may not get rid of the pull due to tiny discrepancies in spec
So the grand and a bit spent on the front end seems a waste of money, being as i was recomended the parts by the garage im not impressed.
Not worth driving an hour and the alignment cost to not get anywhere. Protyre near me again gave it a go, then guess what, on asking they had put US spec standard suspention into the machine.
What is wrong with the garage industry, you take advice thats **** in good faith waste money and even if you go OE the monkeys you ask to get things straight cant even get the specs right.

Anyone wana buy an otherwise nice little e320? So fed up with this car.

 

[brandwooddixon]

Protyre near me again gave it a go, then guess what, on asking they had put US spec standard suspention into the machine.
What is wrong with the garage industry, you take advice thats **** in good faith waste money and even if you go OE the monkeys you ask to get things straight cant even get the specs right.

Does this mean that you've had it redone with UK spec and its all fixed?

 

[Rory]

I just got rid of my S203 and one of the things I don't miss is the "drift" (actually the way it adds left lock so if there was enough space it would eventually end up in a full left lock circle) to the left.

I went to a very ordinary tyre place a couple of days ago to get the summer wheels and tyres put back on wife's Tiguan (bit late as we're out of our house at the moment due to building work) and the fitter there said he's aware they're supposed to weight Mercs and use a spreader bar, but in practice they don't have them. He did say he sometimes has to adjust them out of spec. I've mentioned these things to alignment places and been met with blank looks.

I'm so sensitive to alignment now that I'm convinced the alignment has gone out on the Tiguan after the rear shocks were changed a few weeks ago. Apparently it's impossible that changing them could have affected alignment.

 

[Botus]

I believe the UK road camber is a greater amount than that used by most Johnnie foreigners - so even if they pretend to care about driving on the correct side of the road - they wouldn't fix it enough

two reason to have it, make cars naturally go away from each other, and allows rain to fall off and not leave as much risk of standing water...

wheels in motion pretend they know what they are doing - and talk a very thorough job - but I had to explain to the expert why he needs to put weight on my car before he does up the arm he just changed the camber on - so its tightened in the correct mid laden position...

it still pulled left - but was less awful - after correcting mecedes sabby build quality, where the car's often don't meet spec regardless of which side you drive on.