Help- advice jumpy erratic CLK

[Jhepb1]

I have this problem with my CLK55 too. I've been told it's the steering damper and I'm having that part replaced soon.
In the meantime, I adjusted the tyre pressures to the settings given on the inside of the fuel filler flap - mine were set at 31 front and 32 rear before that.
This made a big difference with much of the "wandering" and following of the road grooves now gone (this is at motorway speeds on the same stretch of the M4).
However, I'm still finding that the steering wheel has to sit at a few degree clockwise of centred when I'm driving along a straight level road. Could this be the damper too?
One more thing: I'd heard that Mercedes cars are set up at the factory to pull very slightly to the nearside as a safety feature - to prevent the car wandering into oncoming traffic if the driver loses control, passes out etc. Sounds like the sort of thing M-B would think of but maybe it's nonsense. Anyone know for sure?

 

[comports]

I've had a Eureka moment with this now. After I had a bit of a bang in the car, and it went through the insurance for two new off side wheels, I asked for it to be completely checked over.

After a couple of days in the MB dealers fixing a couple of things they said it also needded the camber and caster altering (all done on insurance as part of this claim) and the problem has completely dissappeared..!!!

In short - Get the caster and camber checked out and you might find that this is the problem.

Ash

 

[CLK 320 W208]

Thanks folks - I've had a new steering damper, new track rod ends, new wheel bearings and nothing seems to make much difference. Is there anything else it could be..? Perhaps new drag link. (I think that the part in between the track rod ends..??)

I understand the tramlining issue is probably more due to the size of tyre and indeed my Range Rover suffers quite a lot as well but it does not "skip around" on normal roads like the clk.

If I turn the clk steering wheel half way round one turn then feel the play there is about 2-3cm of "loose" movement in there..

Suggestions..

Mine is a 320 and has exactally the same steering symptomps as you have described above, "2-3cm of "loose" movement" , which just does not seem right .

Am at a loss on what to change first as dont want to pur oodles of £'s into fixing the wrong thing. Have already changed the damper and made no difference. Car is also pulling quite considerably to the left.

Suggestions welcome!

How big a job is it to change the steering box ? DIY job or not ?

 

[BDE1V]

I had this problem when I changed my AMG 17" tyres to the top spec Bridgestone Tyres from the Continentals that were on the car when I bought it.
The next set of tyres I bought were Dunlop SPSportMaxx & this cured all the jittering around and made the car quieter.