Avon low profile tyres = pulling with road camber?

[philnewmerc]

How long have you had the car ?

If not long, maybe it's had damage following an accident and the repair job is a bit out of alignment. Are your tyre treads completely evenly worn on each chassis and tyre pressures too?
I've had 2x w212 and neither pulled. Let go of the steering wheel and it straightens. My current 213 because it's all wheel drive has the propensity for the steering wheel to follow the road undulations and with force, so the w212 steering is far better in my experience

About 8 months.
Front left tyre was oddly worn when i bought it (i know).
On the flat it doesn't pull.
Left leaning road (ie most) it pulls left and vice versa.
Alignment perfect (so I'm told)

 

[philnewmerc]

My 212 will run off the camber either way (staggered fit 18inch AMG wheels and lower, stiffer springs as its a Sport)....I try not to drive on the right too much....its usually a short lived and expensive thing to do in this country!......as has EVERY car I've ever had except my SLK R170....you cant beat physics and gravity!......but we are talking a tiny amount.....Id never notice it with my hands on the wheel.....and I try not to drive no handed very often.....accept when eating a Bag Mac, putting my tie on or texting of course. If you think about it, for a car to drive in a straight line whilst on any sort of camber it would actually have to pulling slightly uphill (to the right) to avoid gravity pulling it to the left....something that would feel bad on a flat road and probably cause increased tyre wear.
I think the reason the SLK didn't is because it didn't have rack and pinion steering and after my wife complained about the vague steering this did an alignment and tightened the steering box a little. If anything it was a bit too tight but the car went where you pointed it and went dead straight no matter what the camber. Personally I never liked the R170 steering....lacking any real feel....but my wife does not drive like me and never noticed...so that's fine.
Just my 2 pence worth.

Good to know, thanks.

I too find it difficult to shave, eat porridge and reads the Times with this characteristic.

So, if you're on a typical motorway, with a left leaning camber, and you let go of the wheel, how long before you have to grab it again to avoid the white lines? For me it's about 2 seconds absolute max.

This seems too fast for a 'normal drift' left. But maybe I'm just going mad?

 

[ALFAitalia]

Cant say ive tried to be honest.....probably a bit longer than that as motorways don't have much camber compared to other roads. I'm out the car tomorrow and will post what I find....hopefully not from A & E!

 

[TrueSpirit]

Good to know, thanks.

I too find it difficult to shave, eat porridge and reads the Times with this characteristic.

So, if you're on a typical motorway, with a left leaning camber, and you let go of the wheel, how long before you have to grab it again to avoid the white lines? For me it's about 2 seconds absolute max.

This seems too fast for a 'normal drift' left. But maybe I'm just going mad?

Yeah I'm out of my lane in 2 secs on the motorway too , it's just how fast the car is going and it will usually not be angled perfectly straight in the lane... or not if I use distronic haha, then it keeps going in the lane lol my car really tramlines a lot on the m25 concrete because the front tyres are super wide and powered, changing tyre pressure helped a lot, but your issue is a very different one to that.

When your left tyre was worn and you changed it , I guess you replaced both front axle tyres ? Maybe because there was a period before the alignment was fixed that they tyre treads are now uneven again. During the first alignment fix, did they state that the alignment was off by quite a lot or was it not too bad according to then

 

[philnewmerc]

Yeah I'm out of my lane in 2 secs on the motorway too , it's just how fast the car is going and it will usually not be angled perfectly straight in the lane... or not if I use distronic haha, then it keeps going in the lane lol my car really tramlines a lot on the m25 concrete because the front tyres are super wide and powered, changing tyre pressure helped a lot, but your issue is a very different one to that.

When your left tyre was worn and you changed it , I guess you replaced both front axle tyres ? Maybe because there was a period before the alignment was fixed that they tyre treads are now uneven again. During the first alignment fix, did they state that the alignment was off by quite a lot or was it not too bad according to then

No all 4 tyres new snd quality alignment done. The data sheet in in xn earlier reply but here's the summary:

| Parameter | Left Value | Right Value | Difference (L - R) | Pull Direction Tendency |
|-------------------|------------|-------------|---------------------|-------------------------------------|
| Front Camber (°) | -0.52 | -0.77 | +0.25 | Left (right has more -ve camber) |
| Front Caster (°) | 10.88 | 10.10 | +0.78 | Right (left has more +ve caster) |
| Front Toe (°) | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0 | Neutral |
| Rear Camber (°) | -1.52 | -1.44 | -0.08 | Negligible |
| Rear Toe (°) | 0.16 | 0.11 | +0.05 | Negligible |

Incidentally, the internet says (this obviously could be wrong) that my camber setting will make the car pull left.... The Micheldelver Protyre alignment garage says too much neg on left would be bad. Doesn't make sense to me tbh as roundabouts need neg tyre camber no?

Camber seems to be set to pull left and caster set to pull right... Can anyone suggest why

 

[philnewmerc]

This is my summary of my tyre data. I wonder if someone who knows what they're doing can comment if I'm right/wrong ?

Camber imbalance causing a left pull.

Caster imbalance causing a right pull.

(Hence it tracks straight on the flat.)

 

[philnewmerc]

Hi all. Just an update in case anyone else has this issue (surely I cannot be alone?!)

Driving a lot in France I noticed the car pulls right, so it is just a road camber thing, not just pulling left (most roads are cambered left obvuiously).

However, it is soooooo sensitive to road camber I just don't understand why or how to reduce it (Micheldelver did a lot of work and it is basically the same)

Any ideas?

Things I know it is not:
It's not because mercs are built so brilliantly.
Not because they're setup for right hand drive.
Its not 'normal' to drift so easily with road crown camber.

So what the hell is it?

Loads of online complaints from back in the day, but I guess MB must have changed something as no one moans about it now.

Odd.

 

[rf065]

Hi all. Just an update in case anyone else has this issue (surely I cannot be alone?!)

Any ideas?

So what the hell is it?

Loads of online complaints from back in the day, but I guess MB must have changed something as no one moans about it now.

Odd.

I'm surprised you haven't been pointed in the direction of this yet?

Thread 'Definative explination.... Pull left'

Oct 31, 2010

I would like to give a definitive explanation for the historic "pulling left" complaint.

We've all read, heard, experienced this condition, concluding with an official explanation from MB UK it's a "safety feature". It's not.

My field is the chassis but trust me i'm not God in this field nor do i confess to know everything, but with 30yrs in chassis calibration i can recognise a problem and offer a solution.

To the point
The reason most/ some MB's pull/ drift is the build is to perfect?? WTF most are thinking now, and what am i going on about!!

The MB chassis build is...

• wheels-inmotion
• definative explination left pull
• Replies: 165
• Forum: Wheels, Tyres, Brakes & Suspension

• 

 

[philnewmerc]

I have, but that doesn't explain it. It only explains the fudge solution, which is to stagger the caster on each side so that it pulls right more than left, which then helos to cancel the pulling left. Hardly ideal.

The vast majority of cars, and mercs, do not require this odd setup, unless they're running on a banked circular track. So what's different about the w204 sport? (This is the model that i think has the majority of complaints when searching online).

I've also been to Micheldelver tyres, who are well known and respected on here, and they staggered the caster angles on each side!... Made hardly any difference.