Pulling towards the camber

[Fredhead]

Hi there,
I have a W210 E280 which I have had for about a year. I have a strange problem.

Depending on the camber of the road, the car tends to pull to that side of the road i.e. down the camber. As we drive on the left, the usual road camber is to the left / nearside and the car pulls to that side continuously. If I drive on the occasional adverse camber or on the other (wrong) side of the road, where the camber is to the right / farside, the car will pull that way.

I have had the wheel tracking and balancing done including rear wheel tracking. These were fine anyway and haven't solved the problem. The tyres are fine.

No other car I have driven has this amount of pull along the normal road camber. I drive a lot of motorway miles and always have to keep the steering wheel slightly to the right throughout which is tiring.

Basically the car pulls equally either way, depending upon the camber.
Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Cars will always pull to the side - in the direction water would flow on the camber - to some degree, however some cars are more sensitive than others.

If it's extreme then I would suggest an expert take a look - a member here is one such expert who could offer some advice, although I forget his name. It will come to me and I'll post back.

Disclaimer: Apologies to the person whose name I've forgotten!!

 

[kjay]

Wheels in motion.

.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Thanks kjay!!

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/mercedes-pulling-problems.php

 

[maddog]

Have the lower ball joints been replaced??

Mine was LOADS better after Olly changed mine , it used to have trouble in the ruts caused by the trucks on motorways as well

 

[DSLiverpool]

I have the exact problem since putting new tyres on, so much so its booked into MB Chester on tuesday for the full alignment hit - the lot. If it fails to cure the issue I will be disapointed as its ruining the driving experience - I had my car from 6k (newish tyres) and I cant remember it hedge jumping so much then

 

[mb240]

Hi there,
I have a W210 E280 which I have had for about a year. I have a strange problem.

Depending on the camber of the road, the car tends to pull to that side of the road i.e. down the camber. As we drive on the left, the usual road camber is to the left / nearside and the car pulls to that side continuously. If I drive on the occasional adverse camber or on the other (wrong) side of the road, where the camber is to the right / farside, the car will pull that way.

I have had the wheel tracking and balancing done including rear wheel tracking. These were fine anyway and haven't solved the problem. The tyres are fine.

No other car I have driven has this amount of pull along the normal road camber. I drive a lot of motorway miles and always have to keep the steering wheel slightly to the right throughout which is tiring.

Basically the car pulls equally either way, depending upon the camber.
Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks

I found the same thing with my W210 E240, it was quite sensitive to the road camber. My current CLK55 is also like this. I just decided it was a trait of the cars, and also stops me falling asleep on long motorway runs. However, it should not be a heavy pull IMHO, a single finger lightly on the wheel is enough to keep it from drifting off with the camber. This is after balancing and allignment.

 

[kjay]

This is from their website - gives a brief description of the problem.


http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/mercedes-pulling-problems.php

I'm paying them a visit in the next couple of weeks hopefuly.
Quite a treck for me, but they seem the only people who can cure the problem(?).

EDIT. sorry, just spotted Bobby Dazzlers' post.

 

[shorty]

I have the same problem with my car , when i checked the suspension i found that the lower rear bushings ( where the hub attaches to the lower arm ) where worn . I have bought all the rear bushings and im going to fit them this weekend . They cost around 100 euro for the full set .

 

[Dryce]

I'm paying them a visit in the next couple of weeks hopefuly.
Quite a treck for me, but they seem the only people who can cure the problem(?).

My local dealer managed it after two attempts.

Trouble is MB are in denial about the problem.

 

[kjay]

.........

Trouble is MB are in denial about the problem.

"they all do that" is the best I could get out of them.

.

 

[wheels-inmotion]

Cars will always pull to the side - in the direction water would flow on the camber - to some degree, however some cars are more sensitive than others.

If it's extreme then I would suggest an expert take a look - a member here is one such expert who could offer some advice, although I forget his name. It will come to me and I'll post back.

Disclaimer: Apologies to the person whose name I've forgotten!!

Tiss me.....

I don't know about expert but i do have an understanding to why these cars drift, hence the reason i added an explanation to my webby.

The MB has an extraordinary geometry set-up that normally works very well for many owners but!... there can be issues.

The drift comes from a combination of geometric positions where none of them are wrong but the balance of forces are dynamically incorrect.

Problem we have is these forces are hard to spot unless the technician is aware of real chassis dynamics, unfortunately most are not hence the catalogue of complaints for the MB drifting.

Obviously i cannot help members unless there is an image of the chassis to view but i can tell those who feel distressed the complaint is 100% correctable.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Thanks wheels-inmotion. I was having a blank moment. I knew that you were the man though ...if I could remember your name that is!!

 

[wheels-inmotion]

Thanks wheels-inmotion. I was having a blank moment. I knew that you were the man though ...if I could remember your name that is!!

Try not to laugh but my name is Tony Bones....... well someone had to have it!!

 

[adam1]

Had a w211 a few years back and it was terrible in pulling to left. So much i had to keep it from going into the kerb. Nothing helped and in the end got rid of it. Why Mbz..i've had different cars and they never did this. I can leave steering wheel on my Honda for 30s and it will go in straight line like a bullett, why my W211 couldn't be sorted I'm not sure.

 

[wheels-inmotion]

Had a w211 a few years back and it was terrible in pulling to left. So much i had to keep it from going into the kerb. Nothing helped and in the end got rid of it. Why Mbz..i've had different cars and they never did this. I can leave steering wheel on my Honda for 30s and it will go in straight line like a bullett, why my W211 couldn't be sorted I'm not sure.

Why MB?.... It's for many reasons, i will attempt a brief overview hopefully not boring everyone.

All chassis can be categorized by their handling performance (dynamic indexing) The MB actually has a poor index but for the right reasons....?

A perfect index would be 1.0 meaning the chassis responds to the driver at our comfortable workload of 2Hz or two driving actions per second. This would categorise the MB as an executive style of car.

Compare the to say an F430 with an index of 1.4 and 4Hz you would have an exemplary handling chassis but an enormous workload to maintain the drive.

The MB's index is around .7 due to it's weight, track and wheelbase, in addition historically they have a very fluid suspension, so in order to maintain the steering feel they normally have a very long castor angle and due to the fluid suspension the static camber is reduced.

This all works perfectly fine but the disparities over the axle between these angles needs to be small, reason being the conically compressive force generated from the camber is not there to counter the castor.... it's a very fine line.

The condition with your W211 could have been resolved but no doubt the technician's failed to recognize the over-the-axle disparities simply because they looked to small..... they were wrong.

 

[fenns]

Didn't understand more than 20% of that BUT I can attest to the 'verging on the magical' skills of Mr. Bones and WIM having had him properly align my W201 2.6 last year. Mr. Bones also has a substantial number of acolytes amongst MX-5 owners (myself included) as this wonderful car has a highly adjustable steering geometry /suspension set up which the half-wits at KwikFit haven't a hope in hell of understanding, let alone setting up correctly. Tony discovered and solved the norious 'Mk 3 handling problem' for Mazda owners in the UK. A genuine guru as his earlier post would suggest

 

[mattc]

Tony - so does the type of alloy/tyre combination not really affect the car set up that much? Other factors are much more significant?

 

[DSLiverpool]

Mine has been cured today by MB however its not as I remember it before the front tyres were changed.

 

[Fredhead]

Thanks everyone for your help. Looks like I will contact wheels-inmotion some time soon. This pulling problem is quite severe and gets you feeling down when the rest of the car is so good. Will keep everyone posted as to how I get on.