Camber adjustment possible?

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jshodgson

Active Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2017
Messages
138
Location
Torquay UK
Car
E class 320 cdi sport 2007
Can I adjust the front wheel camber on my E320 sport (2007)? I have gone through 3 sets of front tyres in 45000 miles all with premature wear on the inside edges. Rest of the tyres have had loads of tread left. Had the alignment done multiple times but doesn’t make a difference.
 
Was that a four wheel geometry alignment, or just a tracking check?
One can fit special camber adjustment bolts but just make sure everything is well within spec before changing. Make sure there is no damaged/bent control arms etc.. Also check springs for breakages
 
Never had one of those in 28 years of car ownership. Who can do them? My local garage doesn’t do wheel alignment, my tyre shop does alignment and has a laser machine but they’ve only ever done basic wheel alignment. The control arms have a bit of play in them but nothing serious. It’s just passed it’s MOT.
 
Most MB dealers can do it and at a reasonable cost, for the work done (in my experience on my CLS with AIRmatic)
 
Never had one of those in 28 years of car ownership. Who can do them? My local garage doesn’t do wheel alignment, my tyre shop does alignment and has a laser machine but they’ve only ever done basic wheel alignment. The control arms have a bit of play in them but nothing serious. It’s just passed it’s MOT.


Any decent alignment garage will not entertain a car with "a bit of play" anywhere in the suspension hardware. Best get a proper wheel alignment check done and once the printout is available take it from there. The camber bolts are eccentric so once fitted they will need rotated to get the perfect amount of camber whilst still on the alignment machine.

K
 
Camber bolts on a 211 front end are not eccentric (like the ones on 124s and 129s for example) but have grooves which engage with ridges in the mounting holes in the arms. There’s a single position, reducing the camber, with no fine adjustment. I’ve fitted them to our 211 and did the same with our old 219 and it certainly extended tyre life.
 

Any decent alignment garage will not entertain a car with "a bit of play" anywhere in the suspension hardware. Best get a proper wheel alignment check done and once the printout is available take it from there. The camber bolts are eccentric so once fitted they will need rotated to get the perfect amount of camber whilst still on the alignment machine.

K
Took it in to ATS today and they fiddled about with the tracking and I watched the numbers change on a monitor. £50 spent. They gave me a colourful report telling me that my wheels are now greener than they were. No mention of worn control arms so we’ll see how we get on. Looked like they were setting things against my car details they had on their tracking system.
 

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On the sides, from the top, it's Toe, Camber, and Caster (Front), then Toe and Caster (Rear). In the centre it's Total Toe Front and Total Toe Rear, then the Thrust Angle.
 
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It seems they didn't measure the caster for some reason. Also, you only showed the After printout, so it's not possible to tell what the Before looked like, but the camber adjustment is only possible if fitting fluted bolts, so either your car didn't need camber adjustment, or they fitted fluted bolt(s), or it already had fluted bolt(s) fitted by previous owner.
 
Took it in to ATS today and they fiddled about with the tracking and I watched the numbers change on a monitor. £50 spent. They gave me a colourful report telling me that my wheels are now greener than they were. No mention of worn control arms so we’ll see how we get on. Looked like they were setting things against my car details they had on their tracking system.
Do the results still show too much negative camber on near side front and the two rear wheels, could they not be be adjusted back into tolerance ?
 
On the sides, from the top, it's Toe, Camber, and Caster (Front), then Toe and Camber (Rear). In the centre it's Total Toe Front and Total Toe Rear, then the Thrust Angle.

Typo corrected, sorry. There's no caster at the rear (obviously).
 
Over 2 degrees of negative camber on the NSF will certainly not be helping your front tyre wear issue , whether you will be able to get the camber setting within spec with camber bolts would need to be looked at as i think they will only move the camber a (very) small amount.

Possibly something has been bent out of shape slightly , although i would find that hard to believe with the excellent condition of our roads :rolleyes:

K
 
Over 2 degrees of negative camber on the NSF will certainly not be helping your front tyre wear issue , whether you will be able to get the camber setting within spec with camber bolts would need to be looked at as i think they will only move the camber a (very) small amount.

Possibly something has been bent out of shape slightly , although i would find that hard to believe with the excellent condition of our roads :rolleyes:

K
Quite possible as I’ve had both fronts welded back together in the last year or so.
 
Quite possible as I’ve had both fronts welded back together in the last year or so.

How do you mean? The wheel rims suffered damaged and were repaired by welding?
 
Just to give an update the tyres gave up at 9000 miles of use (I did about 3000 miles after the alignment). Totally worn on the inside edges both wheels. Tonnes of wear left on outer edges and centre of tyre. Not sure what if any help the wheel alignment was.
 
They obviously didn’t fit camber adjustment bolts then. It’s common for W211’s to sag a bit with age and too much negative camber is the result. Buy some fluted bolts and find an independent who will know what to do. Your next pair of tyres will last much longer
 
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Slotted camber bolt is the only way to adjust the camber using stock parts . you basically have 3 chances at adjustment . Bolt in the left, middle or right hand position.

My C55 AMG came with non slotted bolts so they can only go back in the centre position. Why ? I don't know , but thats where they were when I replaced the arms , so thats where they went back in.
 
If you did 6k before adjustments, the wear pattern will continue well after adjustment.
This is according to the chap who did mine on a Hunter, so far he looks to be correct.
 
Get it down to Tony Bones at Wheels in motion
 

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