C class drifting to the left??

[jonm]

A bit lazy I know (as there may already be a thread on this..but).
I'm currently in the market for a nearly new C-class estate.
Got close to parting with cash, but got scared off when the car continued to drift to the left which couldn't be resolved. On the same road my tired old car doesn't, don't remember the last car doing it either (or any other car for that matter, apart from some of the poor example that got mistreted in my long distant youth.....).

Anyway, been to anotehr delear who claims that this is pretty much 'designed in' and it characteristic of a RWD car.. In fact, took out 2 cars straight off the forcourt... sure enough both did exactly the same

Can anyone explain...

Cheers

 

[jimmy]

The official line is that it they are 'designed' to drift to the left in case you doze off at the wheel, in which case the car will head away from the path of on-coming traffic. Would be interesting to hear if LHD MB's drift to the right?

Evidently it can be cured, but the dealers may not be willing to help, (MB dealers are not always very helpful!!). My last C-Class estate pulled quite bad to the left, my current one does not, dont know why.

 

[mark.t]

left

the idear is to save your skin and your passengers not the pedestrian, cleaver very cleaver don;t you think

 

[First_Benz]

C200 K 2001 Model going straight !!

I test drove my purchase of a used 2001 C200 Komp...
During the test drive, I let go of the steering and the car went straight... both under no acceleration and with acelleration...

So I guess the tracking may be out ... but don't take my work for it,... have the tracking checked as a first instance... I am not mechanic so what my 2 pennies are worth..

Good luck and like us all, Enjoy the Badge on the front of the Bonnet !!!!

 

[Sp!ke]

I test drove my purchase of a used 2001 C200 Komp...
During the test drive, I let go of the steering and the car went straight... both under no acceleration and with acelleration...

My two penneth worth on this.... MB's generally seem to be very camber sensitive. My W124 pulls to the left (mostly) whilst in the UK but on the continent, it pulled to the right.

You get used to it after a while, and nowadays, I dont even notice.

 

[portzy]

Jonm,

As you can see I have a C Class, albeit the Coupe, mine did exactly what you are describing and it can be pretty much erradiacted. If the car you are fancying is still under warranty and the Dealer is obliging enough then its a matter of re-setting the tracking/camber/castor angles and geometry.

This was done to mine after horrendous pulling left problems at the beginning. Its arrow arrow straight now so dont be put off. Its not something I would trust to tyre fitting places as it needs special tools and adjustment bolts from MB. Dont be foobed off it can be cured.

Portzy.

 

[Robbo]

Mine doesnt pull at all and goes dead straight.

 

[jonm]

Hmmmmm...

I've challenged the dealer on the possibility of adjusting the drift out, and the answer was something along the lines of:

'yes, we can do this but it would result in adverse tyre wear'..is this standard MB dealer patter??

My main concern was that the car had been clonked, sounds like this is more likely a 'characteristic' of the c-class.

Thanks for the help
Jonm

 

[portzy]

Jonm. Its the standard dealer patter that tyre wear will be an issue. Think about it. Afer the adjustments the car will do for itself what you will be doing, all the time, yourself, with your hands. That is keeping it straight. The car will be pulling left, you will be easing right, the car will be pulling left, you will be easing ri...., and so on. The tyre wear issue is to put you off so you are reluctant to return if you have the tweaking done etc. My tyres show no un-even wear on the fronts and I check the visually and with a vernier gauge often. The rears are new by the way of a mod but, the fronts are perfect

Portzy.

Edit. BTW, I found things were further improved by experimenting with the tyre pressures as well, after the mod to offset. However the initial tweaking, 14 months ago killed the problem stone dead

 

[First_Benz]

Drifters....

Hi,

I have spoken to 6 people, Benz included and they all are saying that the car should lean to the left (right hand drive that is).... this is a safety feature...

Surprising really, considering that I test drove a C200K and did not find this to be the case... will be spreaking to my dealer now...

Good piece of information to know...
Cheers

 

[Steve_Perry]

I agree with Sp!ke, in that my car follows the camber of the road. In the UK that means the car will want to go left most of the time, on those occasions where the car is on the right side of the road, eg right hand filter lane or in Europe, the car will want to pull right instead. On a perfectly flat road the car will run straight as a dye with no tendency to pull either left or right. The steering geometry is very sensitive to camber.

S.

 

[Ian B Walker]

My two penneth worth on this.... MB's generally seem to be very camber sensitive. My W124 pulls to the left (mostly) whilst in the UK but on the continent, it pulled to the right.

You get used to it after a while, and nowadays, I dont even notice.

Same with mine too. Checked at last MoT and was told that its normal. Bit worrying though if you are not aware. I also found that changing wheels to larger diameter and wider rubber made the so called problem a little more noticable.

 

[Real_Hunter]

My C220CDI pulls to the left. When I initially complained, I was told that it was electroniocally balanced and that pulling to left was due to road camber. However in my thinking that car should be intellegent to counter act camber, and eliminate pulling to left. (That's my thought anyway).

 

[Big_Stick]

My wife's now-sold 2003 C180K estate never pulled to the left. Though the tyres were obviously brand new. But perhaps we never noticed what with the rattling and squeeking and poor build quality (sorry guys, had to slip that in..I need professional help to get my 'new C-Class was a disaster' experiences out of my system).

 

[Robby]

My 190E drifts to the left, and it had the tracking done recently. You just learn to live with it.

 

[CLKBOY]

steering drift

pulling to the left is not helped by having the car tracked as the steering is effectively corrected as the car moves along (but will cause wear)
having the car optiflexed or 4 wheel aligned will or should help
a quick check is to swop the front wheels side to side to se if it stops
(a short term measure only)
all the cars with recirculating ball steering seem to suffer with tyre wear on the front axle , also usually the most simple fix is to check the tyre pressures !
hope this is of help

 

[big x]

Following road camber

Most cars do pull slightly towards the kerb however this post below (sorry I can't remember the original posters name) explains what to tweak if you are fighting the car to much;

"Tyres should not be wearing on the outside unless driven by roundabout fiends! If not then the cause is either excess toe in or excess positive camber, assuming that ride heights are correct. The former will "feather" each lump of tyre tread so you can feel with the finger that it is not worn square but scalloped across the tread. The latter will just wear the tyre but a hand held camber guage (car on a dead flat surface) will show that up in no time at all. Excess toe in will also tend to make the car "dart" on bumps.
Camber should scarcely be positive and on most vehicles a half deg negative is about right, max.

Before work, test the car with the front tyres swapped and evaluate.

Sod M-B spec sheets (they seem to hide them nowadays anyhow), if the steering pulls left it'll need a mite more left caster or a mite less right caster and most ingenious mechanics can probably graft that in. (I'd go for less right if given the choice, as it tends to lighten the steering, especially when fighting with road camber.)
Any one adjustment will affect the 2 others slightly and the toe a lot...so the toe must get done last thing and affects nothing, though the steering wheel position can be finalised using the left and right adjustments.

Not forgetting ... always... that the rear wheels, on a non-beam axled M-B vehicle have their own specs and must, further, be aligned equidistant from the chassis centreline....there's surely a toe spec but toe in, up to parallel can do little harm. Any toe out will introduce oversteer. Camber, again, should not pe positive except on some early swing axled saloons.

Having said all that there's many vehicles with offset steering centrelines at the front (an Audi idea of old) which can produce the opposite reaction to those stated for caster above.

That lot maybe telling some tech folk to suck eggs but plainly there is a major problem here; just look at the "steering pulling" threads and the
seemingly fatuous "they're all like that" excuses."

adam

 

[smiff]

Mine will follow cambers left, but the dealer did sort out the drift after a few visits and much pestering. - Find a flat car-park and drive across it. There should be no drift. If it's ok on that then all you are left with is the 'camber following tendancy', which you can't get rid of.
But - a lot of C-classes do seem to suffer from a genuine pull, which in my experience can be fixed (eventually).

 

[SGCW124]

I'm with Ian Walker on this

My W124 pulls to the left , and I noticed it pulling to the right when in France.

Pulling is perhaps a too strong a word a slight bias or gentle hands off slow drift is more accurate, indeed when I can feel it starting to get into the "pull" category I have it tracked & the steering centred again

Steve

 

[garystu1965]

I've had my C270 for nearly a week now. Delighted with it but mine pulls to the left as well. However I'm not sure what too much drift to the left is.

I find I cannot relax my hands on the wheel, I'm always having to pull the wheel slightly to the right with my right hand.

Surely then this is too much drift ? It slightly detracts from the driving experience.

I also get a slight wind whistle (oo-err) on my window at 70mph. Is this a window seal ? Also if it's wet weather it's like the door is open whenever I drive over a puddle (I can hear it very clearly).

Other than these slight niggle it's a great motor.