Mercedes wheel alignment

[V8andTurbos]

Long story short had the track rod ends & inner tie rods replaced on my C63. Dropped it at Mercedes this morning and had a call to say it needs front camber bolts and 1 hours labour to fit. Works out to around £150 for the bolts and fitting plus the inititial £90 for the checks a total of £240!!!

Rear wheels are fine and in spec but the fronts need new camber bolts which seemingly have an extra groove to allow the correct camber..

Feel like this is a total rip off. I can pay the £240 and get it sorted or pay £90 Take car away and have it aligned somewhere else..

Suggestions?

 

[whitenemesis]

£150 bolts and fitting? IIRC bolts were ~£30 each a good few years back, so £90 labour?. They'll not be any cheaper elsewhere.

Personally I'd pay the £240 and let MB sort it, unless you want to go to WiM, the only other people I would trust to do a proper job

 

[Lit91]

Crazy pricing for a wheel alignment, have you tried any local indies to see if their pricing is any lower?

 

[V8andTurbos]

Ive told them to go ahead with it.

£90 for initial check and any adjustments

£150 for bolts and 1 hours labour.

Best part of £240 for alignment.. Ouch.

WIM are the other end of the country sadly.

Asked them to keep orig bolts for me..

Car should be feeling good once it's back,

Just had a service B, rear dampers, pads front and rear, track rod and inner tie rods.

 

[whitenemesis]

I was quoted £120 for geo check and adjustment on my CLS55, parts would be extra. Turns out MB spent a good 3hrs fettling the settings (AIRmatic adjustments for ride height req,) but no parts needed. Still only charged me the quoted price.

 

[V8andTurbos]

I was quoted £120 for geo check and adjustment on my CLS55, parts would be extra. Turns out MB spent a good 3hrs fettling the settings (AIRmatic adjustments for ride height req,) but no parts needed. Still only charged me the quoted price.

U were fortunate then,

Doubt I'll be taking my car back to Mercedes again. Inflated prices, exaggerated labour charges and for the most part average workmanship and its questionable half the time if they even done the work they have charged for.

Time to find a good Indy with access to digital servicing.

 

[V8andTurbos]

On a side note,

If merc charged me £90 for an hours labour / check etc shouod they be charging me again for another hours labour to fit camber bolts and align? Surely they should just charge for the parts? As mentioned prev only the fronts need aligned. Rears are within tolerances.

How long do camber bolts take to fit?

 

[whitenemesis]

Yes, one might say I was fortunate, fortunate to have a trustworthy dealer giving excellent service over the ten years of my patronage

Yes, I think they should. It takes time to assess the geo and then time to fit the bolts and setup. All governed by MB's service book times..

 

[V8andTurbos]

Update,

Got the car back on Tuesday last week and haven't driven it since as I've been using my golf due to weather and work. Intended to drive the C63 after the alignment was done but due icy conditions and rush hour traffic I just parked the car up (my flat is literally 30 second drive from Mercedes).

Finally drove the car today and to me the steering wheel feels like it's sitting a tiny bit to the left and when I let go of the wheel on a straight road it will start to steer to the left.. Is this something the car should be doing? It's just had the revised camber bolts fitted and geometry done by Mercedes...

I live in Edinburgh and plan to go to Glasgow today which is around a 100 miles round trip and drive the car on various roads inc lots of motorway to determine whether alignment is out or it's the roads I'm driving it on.. Could the increase of milage cause an issue if I have to return to Mercedes to have the car realigned?

 

[whitenemesis]

I had similar after the geo was done and asked MB to recheck. I sat with the senior tech as he test drove and he agreed something needed adjusting. An hour later all sorted, wheel straight and no discernible drift.

Ask MB to recheck and refine the settings

 

[John]

Update,

Got the car back on Tuesday last week and haven't driven it since as I've been using my golf due to weather and work. Intended to drive the C63 after the alignment was done but due icy conditions and rush hour traffic I just parked the car up (my flat is literally 30 second drive from Mercedes).

Finally drove the car today and to me the steering wheel feels like it's sitting a tiny bit to the left and when I let go of the wheel on a straight road it will start to steer to the left.. Is this something the car should be doing? It's just had the revised camber bolts fitted and geometry done by Mercedes...

I live in Edinburgh and plan to go to Glasgow today which is around a 100 miles round trip and drive the car on various roads inc lots of motorway to determine whether alignment is out or it's the roads I'm driving it on.. Could the increase of milage cause an issue if I have to return to Mercedes to have the car realigned?

I've never heard of any dealer being able to get the steering wheel straight - including for a CLK280 once I knew of where the owner (FD of company I was at at the time) took it to 3 different dealerships and it was always wrong.

Took it to a decent inde - straight steering wheel!

:fail

 

[V8andTurbos]

I had similar after the geo was done and asked MB to recheck. I sat with the senior tech as he test drove and he agreed something needed adjusting. An hour later all sorted, wheel straight and no discernible drift.

Ask MB to recheck and refine the settings

I'll call them tomorrow and see what they say. Problem is I really don't have time to sit around and have the car checked Monday to Saturday. Sunday's are really my only free days. Very frustrating.

The steering really should be straight ESP after paying £240!

 

[salman002]

try to be sure before doing the alignment, sometimes you can find funny things after the "re-alignment"!

 

[V8andTurbos]

I've never heard of any dealer being able to get the steering wheel straight - including for a CLK280 once I knew of where the owner (FD of company I was at at the time) took it to 3 different dealerships and it was always wrong.

Took it to a decent inde - straight steering wheel!

:fail

Last time my car was at the same Mercedes they got it spot on so hoping they can sort it again

 

[salman002]

funny things can happen**

 

[V8andTurbos]

try to be sure before doing the alignment, sometimes you can find funny things after the "re-alignment"!

Not really sure what u mean?

 

[V8andTurbos]

To make matters worse I'm getting a vibration through the wheel at around 77mph and that wasn't there before. When I got the car back from its service alignment was also slightly out. I mentioned it to Mercedes but as usual they denied anything. Reason I didn't take it further was Because I was getting track rods, dampers replaced and would need car realigned Anyways.

 

[whitenemesis]

Ask them to re-balance the front wheels. The new alignment my have unmasked a poorly balanced rim..

 

[V8andTurbos]

Do u think they will make an issue of the extra 100 odd miles since alignment was done

 

[whitenemesis]

They might but if you felt the vibration immediately after the alignment the extra miles are irrelevant, you simply couldn't get to them sooner