s210 320 cdi estate a/garde wheel alignment

[St Ives Velo]

A few years ago I had the front springs replaced after one had broken and at the same time control arms. Had the alignment checked & front camber was out so camber bolts fitted & still out but not too bad.

After some time I would get the occasional 'knock' from the front, checked in mot as all ok & couldn't find an issue but noted that it was low at the front.
Eventually changed the control arms for Lemforder (OEM) as it appears the previous replacements had been non-OEM which helped but got inner edge tyre wear at front so swapped wheels from to rear & evened it out a bit. I had by now decided to use 4 steel 16" wheels & found the ride improved & mpg went up regularly returning 40-45mpg!.

So.. after a few more years I decided to remove the springs & measure them & they came out at 330mm x 15mm gauge, did some homework & concluded they should be 345-350 long so bought replacements from MB which they assured me were the correct ones (colour code - 1 yellow & 2 white) Replaced tyres and refitted the 17" wheels (the tyres were cheaper than the 16" - 4x Michelin primacy 4+ for £360 fitted etc).

Went to local garage for 4 wheel alignment this morning & after putting it on the ramp & poking about said that they couldn't do the alignment as it required a special M/Benz tool (which cost around £5k) to measure the distance from a ball joint to something else & without this measurement they couldn't feed the correct data into their system & hence wouldn't get the right measurements. He showed me the setup on the screen & it was one of the input measurements at the beginning of the procedure and explained that they could do the toe in but that wouldn't correct the geometry & I'd get either inner or outer edge wear & said I needed to find someone with this tool with the warning that most people would say they were able to but that they would only do the tracking.

I've had the alignment checks over the years (had the cars since about 2005 & have 240k on the clock) & nobody mentioned this tool before.

I'm making some enquiries (MB were busy & said they would call back) can anyone offer any advice or a bit more information on this. I wonder if it's something that being obsolete gets thrown out or consigned to the back of the cupboard & can either be hired or bought...or even made diy with the right dimensions (I'm a practical ex metalwork teacher ) it would be handy to know what the tool looks like.

Thanks
Rob

 

[Swiveleyegit]

My indy uses an inclinometer, which is what your local garage doesn't have. I have no idea how it works but Google says

'What is a Romess inclinometer?


The Inclinometer measures the vehicle level ride height using the position of the transverse link on the front axle and the drive shaft on the rear axle as reference points.'

 

[St Ives Velo]

Thanks, that sounds complicated now that I look .

Have just spoken with MB in Cambridge & they say that for normal adjustments anyone should be able to do it (with 4 wheel alignment gear), and added that they do have special equipment but it's only needed for major adjustment which appears to be for accident damage and the like so shouldn't be required.

Anyway, now I've had a good look underneath I see the camber bolts have been fitted correctly on the left side and & the opposite way on the right, so had increased camber left side and decreased it on the right, no wonder the alignment was out.
Have corrected the camber bolts on the right this afternoon & fed the locknut on the tie rod with penetrating oil (it's being an awkward sod) ready for aligning, the near side freed up easily.

The correct springs have raised the car increasing positive camber, it sits better & will be interesting to see the final result.