Forum members,

I just wanted to extend a general thanks to everyone for help of a recent problem. After FOUR trips to the MB dealer for a simple alignment, the steering wheel was not level/straight while tracking straight down the road. The dealer claimed he could do nothing more to correct the steering wheel.

By searching the forum I found detailed tooling and removal instructions for the wheel. Last night I removed the wheel, indexed it over one spline and solved the problem all in 30 MINUTES!....something the dealer could not accomplished in a total of four days of having my car. I can't wait to talk to the service manager this morning!

Thanks again,
Matt
2000 E430 113k miles

 

Hi,

If that's the best that a main MB dealer can do how can you be sure that the tracking is correct?

The CORRECT procedure is to set the steering wheel straight ahead with the steering rack / steering box locked in the centre position. This is to ensure that the steering lock and the various steering sensors will operate correctly and that you end up with similar steering lock to the left as the right!

The steering wheel should then be held in the straight ahead position and the tracking adjusted ensuring that each wheel is pointing in/out the correct amount and equal both sides.

However to do this PROPERLY MB procedure requires 4 wheel alignment equipment in order to be able to determine the various axis of the vehicle. If you don't know where the main axis of the car is how can you set an individual wheel to the correct alignment. One of the key axis is the levelness of the vehicle. If the car has its rear end up or down this affects the tracking since the geometry changes as a result of CASTOR (King pin inclination) effects.

Your procedure MAY in fact correct your visual problem but on the other hand you may find that you now have more steering lock one way than the other etc.

I find it hard to believe that a main MB dealer doesn't know how to track a vehicle and ensure the steering wheel is correctly set!!

Note: Some makes of car have splines on the steering column which prevent the wheel being indexed by one spline. This is usually achieved by having one spline have a bigger "land" on it so that the assembly can only be assembled in one (correct) position.

If you wish to know more about this please ask further questions.

I suspect that you will find that your tracking has been incorrectly set and that you will be needing a new set of tyres in the not too distant future.

Stuart.