Tracking/4 wheel alignment W124 280TE

[inder]

Last week I put four new tyres on the car down at Costco. They couldn't do 4 wheel alignment so I thought I get it done this week. ATS/Euromaster said they could do it yesterday afternoon for £60 at about 2.30. I said I'd get there for 3.00pm just in case. The bloke said 2.45 would be fine. When I got there they said it would be a minimum 1 hr wait . So I left and rung around a few places. I ended up going to a Ford Rapid Fit who said they do all makes and do laser based 4 wheel alignment for £35. (I didn't even ring the local MB dealer so don't know whether it would've been better to go to them).

Well they did it and TBH I can't be sure how much difference it has made. Do W124's suffer from camber problems where they end up following the camber of the road? Do you need to hold the steering against the camber to keep going straight?

I don't have this problem with either of my other cars - just wondered if its either a Merc thing or a W124 thing?

 

[TKB13]

Last week I put four new tyres on the car down at Costco. They couldn't do 4 wheel alignment so I thought I get it done this week. ATS/Euromaster said they could do it yesterday afternoon for £60 at about 2.30. I said I'd get there for 3.00pm just in case. The bloke said 2.45 would be fine. When I got there they said it would be a minimum 1 hr wait . So I left and rung around a few places. I ended up going to a Ford Rapid Fit who said they do all makes and do laser based 4 wheel alignment for £35. (I didn't even ring the local MB dealer so don't know whether it would've been better to go to them).

Well they did it and TBH I can't be sure how much difference it has made. Do W124's suffer from camber problems where they end up following the camber of the road? Do you need to hold the steering against the camber to keep going straight?

I don't have this problem with either of my other cars - just wondered if its either a Merc thing or a W124 thing?

It's just the laws of physics that, if your steering geometry is correctly adjusted, with matching tyres both sides front and rear and correctly inflated, your car will want to follow a downhill camber. When you have an opportunity, drive for a short distance on the 'wrong' side of the road - it will want to bear to the right. Drive along the centre of the road - it will go in a straight line! If it does NOT do all of this, then you may have a problem.

 

[fnkhan68]

i had the track rod arms changed on my w124 after which i had 4 wheel alignment done. this work was done at a place called AMC garage which specialises in mercs and bmws and are very reputable but not cheap. I too noticed the same thing so i went back after which i spoke to a mechanic called Bill who had worked on my car, his speciality is w201's,w123's and w124's. He confirmed with me that this was not a problem with the steering but a tendancy of the w124 series to trailer, in other words the steering seems to follow the contours of the road. anyway you get used to it after a while and adjust to the driving style but my car when bought at 28000 miles always seems to trailer. even after having the alignment done at 72000 miles it still trailers so i wouldnt worry about it. im sure other w124 members would agree that their cars seem to trailer aswell.

 

[Tiff]

Phew,not just me then...I set and reset my tracking 4 times,and still found a slight pull to the left.I even tried to set the alignment "wrong" to get it to run true. I'll sleep easy now!

 

[vince320]

guys compared to my wifes 2001 omega elite my w124 drives like a dream, both have 17s on them

 

[kth286]

Guys

On the W124 models the castor angle is intentionally slightly different on each side, for this purpose. (Dont know the situation on other cars)

It's a safety thing - if you fall asleep at the wheel the car will veer to the nearside and not into oncoming traffic.

Regards

 

[Tiff]

Hope they used different settings for LHD and RHD then!!!

 

[TKB13]

It's a safety thing - if you fall asleep at the wheel the car will veer to the nearside and not into oncoming traffic.

This is actually a bit of a myth kth286. (Though handy I suppose when one drives on the left!)

 

[bolide]

On the W124 models the castor angle is intentionally slightly different on each side, for this purpose. (Dont know the situation on other cars)

I had a W124 aligned the other day and asked the operator about it. This place aligns cars for John Haynes, for John Cooper, for racecars & etc. He said that the castor is the same each side but that the wheelbase is 10mm different side-to-side

The car I took in was wearing the outside edge off the n/s/f tyre and I was sure it was misaligned. It was within spec and he said the tyre had probably been underinflated for some time

The first thing he did was to check the tyre pressures. The system uses digital cameras and reflectors mounted on each wheel to monitor the geometry

The specified castor according to this system on a non-Sportline W124 E Class with hard suspension for higher payloads is between 9'30'' and 10'30'' left & right

It's possible that, in response to complaints about pulling, MBUK suggested one side to be set at the lower end of the tolerance and the opposite to be high - but that's not what I was told

It's a safety thing - if you fall asleep at the wheel the car will veer to the nearside and not into oncoming traffic

Sorry, I don't believe this for a moment. Surely the safest thing would be for the car to drive in a straight line?

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[MDMB69]

My 280TE had worn tyres on inside edge, fronts almost had a groove in them, but they weren't rubbing, guess its cos I had it lowered. I needed 2 new front tyres for the MOT which upset me cos they had about 6mm of tread left.
Guy at local fitters said my camber was out which I suspected but they wanted a fortune to track it all up with camber and caster. £20 per adjustment. So at the weekend I got underneath and adjusted the camber myself using the best guess option. Basically wound in the lower arms by a few millimetres each side. Then fabricated my own measuring gauge to set the toe in correctly. It now feels a lot nicer to drive untill I can afford to have the whole thing done correctly.