Pull to the left CLK W209

[SteveX]

Hi Guys,

So this is driving my bananas!

Before the end of last year I had an MOT, the car failed on worn suspension bushes.

I swapped out both offside arm's upper and lower for new ones. I also swapped the NS spring for genuine MB one, offside was fine, other one had a crack.

I noticed some cracking on the rubber in a top mount when I removed both struts, so to be safe, I went to MB bought two new genuine top mounts and fitted them.

Put the car back together and the alignment was out, the car was all over the place. I had two alignments done by a tyre place, but the car still hasn't driven correctly. I took the car to MB Swindon, paid £300 for four wheel alignment again which they said had to be done and would correct it as alignment was still out. When I collected they said they test drove before and after and it was fine.

End result, as I expected, because no garage can ever seen to fix a problem with a car I give them, the car still pulls left...

Over bumps and pot holes the wheel wobbles and it shouldn't. If I hold the wheel straight, especially yesterday when I was on the motorway, it was horrible, the car changes lanes. I have to constantly correct the steering and pull to the right slightly.

Also when going over bumps in the road or slowing, when I remove my hand from the wheel, whenever the nearside hits a bump the wheel jerks to the left.

I took the old wheel alignment to them, and a full description of the problem, parts changed etc etc.

It's annoying the hell out of me. Whenever I give the car to MB who are the so called 'experts' I pay a few hundred quid and they just wash my car and give it back to me with the same pissing problem.

I've switched tyres over on sides too, still the same problem.

Is there anyone out there close to swindon, who can actually look at my car, find the problem and fix it? Or that would have any clue what it is? I am done throwing money at garages getting no results. I've spent over 5k on my other car recently and it's still in bits in the garage due to problems with other garages :/

Honestly I am getting so fed up with cars, if I can't get this damn car to drive straight I am just getting rid of the lot and buying a new one at this point.

Thanks, and sorry for the whinge, I am just fed up of giving cars to garages that are supposed to be experts and they charge me money and don't fix the problem!

I work in IT, imagine if I went to do a job for a contract or customer, didn't fix the problem and charged them anyway thinking it was perfectly acceptable! I don't understand how garages can get away with it.


Steve

 

[SteveX]

Attached alignment sorry for the bad quality, on my way out and didn't have time to scan.

 

[Deleted member 131833]

Did you tell MB Swindon that you had replaced the parts on the suspension?

Why replace only one spring on one side, usually replaced in pairs?

Back to Swindon I think ask them to confirm it is correct

 

[SteveX]

Hi,

I gave them a write up on the parts I had changed and the print out of the previous alignment.

I replaced a single factory spring, one was cracked at the bottom edge.

However, even if it was higher (is a spring sags with age) that would give it a different symptom, the car would be lower on the offside and go towards that side.

I measured both struts, and springs, they were equal when fitted, and the struts were the same.

I don't know what is causing it, but neither do MB, so need some help.

Weirdly with the old worn parts it went perfectly straight.


Thanks.

 

[clk320x]

Hi,

I gave them a write up on the parts I had changed and the print out of the previous alignment.

I replaced a single factory spring, one was cracked at the bottom edge.

However, even if it was higher (is a spring sags with age) that would give it a different symptom, the car would be lower on the offside and go towards that side.

I measured both struts, and springs, they were equal when fitted, and the struts were the same.

I don't know what is causing it, but neither do MB, so need some help.

Weirdly with the old worn parts it went perfectly straight.


Thanks.

Jump on the m4, and head to Wheels in motion in Chesham

 

[WDB124066]

Generally,

You need a front castor split of a degree or so, if you can get it, with more +ve castor on the left than right.

You ALSO need NOT to have front camber split the way it is, you need more -ve camber on the left than the right but not by too much because front camber can have quite some effect for little change in angle.

Otherwise WIM is your best chance.

MB will set it green and take your money irrespective of how it drives, they are generally not permitted to do much else.

 

[whitenemesis]

Definative explination.... Pull left

 

[horatio]

Like the others say, take it to WiM. They are the only place I have found which can properly set up a Merc. Everywhere else I have been to screw it up and end it ends up with frustration like this.

I can't believe a main dealer replaced a single spring!!

 

[grober]

There often used to be problem with Ford Macpherson strut [ concentric shocker and spring] cars when rebuilding the front suspension. After strut renewal they would often pull one way or the other. The cure was to losen off the top mounts and with THE WEIGHT OF THE CAR RESTING ON THE SUSPENSION retighten them. I notice you renewed the top mounts does Mercedes have a similar recommended procedure for this?

 

[Stratman]

My W203 had the classic pulling left 'feature', it got quite tiring on long motorway journeys. I eventually had enough of it and took it to WIM, who worked their magic and it now tracks arrow straight. I keep a printout of the settings in the glovebox should the tracking ever need doing again. I'll tell the garage to ignore MB's settings and 'just do this'.

 

[Codger49]

Grober makes a very good point. When replacing the struts did you tighten the bolts with the weight of the car on the suspension?

I suspect many tighten them with the car still jacked up, which leads to the type of misalignment problem you are experiencing.

The other 'gotcha' is not holding the camber bolts still whilst loosening/tightening, this leads to the camber 'nibs' being sheared off, thus losing the camber adjustment capability.

 

[WDB124066]

Wouldn't you expect to see that on the alignment machine? It's not like the thing stops measuring once you do the bolts up...?

 

[grober]

Wouldn't you expect to see that on the alignment machine? It's not like the thing stops measuring once you do the bolts up...?

I'm going to hazard a guess that this is a result of the difference between static and dynamic alignment. While a car's suspension may align within spec when static if part of the suspension when moving is going to react slightly differently from one side to the other due to forces of internal tension as the suspension moves you may get a "steering effect" causing a drift right or left? Letting the car settle on its suspension before finally torqueing it up is going to help even this up side to side.

 

[WDB124066]

Yes! Letting a car settle on it's suspension and then doing up the bolts is fundamental when replacing suspension bushes especially. IIRC it is even mentioned in the MB instructions for the 124's at least, for replacing certain bushes.

If you are struggling to get the degree of castor split required then you can start undoing bolts tweaking and re doing them, but best to see why you are struggling in the first place and maybe it has something to do with not enough adjustment at the nominated adjustment points = eccentric washer head camber bolts etc etc... rather than pinching at the other non adjustable points...?

 

[SteveX]

Thanks gents.

There is a locking collar for the strut which locks the top mounts in position, they are down as far as both would go before re-fitting the turret.

Then the nuts on top with the retaining plates were put on after, I can't recall whether I tightened them with the car on the floor, but the chances are I did not, and just torqued them with it in the air.

I'll loosen them off, then re-do the nuts with the car on the floor to see if it has an effect.

I'm assuming it's definitly something on the passenger side though as that is the direction is steers in, and like I mentioned it's more than just drifting as it actively bounced / pulls the wheel to the left if you take pressure off when going over bumps slowly etc.

 

[SteveX]

Ok guys, I wonder.

I re-checked the MOT From a few months ago, the chap originally put one nearside and one offside arm bush worn.

He crossed it out later and wrote offside. I replaced both offside arms.

What is the nearside camber arm is worn? (I replaced the upper not too long ago but not lower). Would it be possible alignment looks good when the car is static, but the lower bush if worn on the nearside when going over bumps, pot holes or with camber changes in the road, it could then affect the alignment and camber of that wheel fall outside of the adjustment causing a further pull to the left (especially the jolting of the wheel to the left when over bumps etc in the road?).

I am wondering if he was right first time, and there was a worn bush on the left side which has just got worse or been emphasised since I changed both arms for new on the offside, and the worn top mounts and spring etc?

I took a look at the offside lower camber arm, and although it doesn't look cracked from what I can see (hard to see while it's on the car) I can move or wiggle it fairly easy by hand a few degrees, and if I put a bar in there with the car jacked up, I can move the bush forward and back a lot with no huge effort on the pry bar?

I thought about buying a cheap arm from ECP, then I can switch it and see if the wheel jolts to the left any more over bumps, if it doesn't, even if the alignment is off again then that could point me to the problem?

What wouldn't make sense is why it went straight before and didn't pull left, but, like I said, maybe all the other worn parts that have been changed now have magnified the problem I didn't really notice or have before?

Thoughts?



Steve

 

[SteveX]

Main culprit was a worn n/s camber arm.

No one picked that up, not even Mercedes when I told them what I had / hadn't changed and the symptoms...

I replaced the arm, also took the crappy aftermarket ones off the offside and put some lemforders on.

Can still seems camber sensitive in that if I let go of the wheel over bumps and pot holes the car tends to want to move the wheel a bit to the side where the road camber is and where the bump was hit, but it drive 10x better at the moment.