Uneven Tire wear

[loudandheard]

When my benz was in the shop for bodywork I had noticed that my driver side tire had so much tire wear on the inside of the tire that it just popped on its own and the tires were maybe 5 months old. Thank God for the accident that I had or I would have probably died on the highway from a blown tire. So I figured I would just replace all the tires and I put on my 19" rims and new tires. After about 3500 miles I'm having the same problem again with the driver side tire and the passenger side tire, which isn't as bad yet. I never did get an alignment, but I was told that there could be some frame damage causing the tires to wear unevenly. What do you think is the problem? I probably have to replace the tires, but I don't want it to happen again. The car is stock height just in case you thought that was the problem.

[benzfan]

Nobody can reasonably assume frame damage until the current alignment is checked and realignment is done. If it can be aligned to factory specs, there is no frame damage. If it can't, look for worn bushings, ball joints and tie rods first before assuming damage. A good alignment shop can tell you a lot about your car. They will be poking and prodding most of the suspension and steering.

[Abuimad]

yep exactly, get it to a good allighnemnt job, fix ur alighnment, fix ur balance, and then if there are still ne problems then you go to a body shop, and ur saying u got 19's on, post some pics iw ould love 2 c ur rimms

[Superpnoy]

haha it happened to me! it was after i hit a big rig tire and i didnt bother getting an alignment...so a few weeks later about this pass saturday driving home i heard THUMP than i heard thud thud thud and my tire was blown...good thing it was high rated tires so i could still run it for however many miles...

[loudandheard]

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/1855000-1855999/1855532_58_full.jpg

[loudandheard]

I took it to a shop and they said that my car is going to need a camber kit. The install and the alignment is going to be about $450 and the guy guranteed me that it will fix the uneven wear and the alignment. It sounded reasonable at the time, what do you guys think of the price and will it fix my problem?

[benzfan]

Since your car hasn't been lowered, I have to ask how he knows that will do it? Did he check the alignment before saying this, or did he just look at the tires? Did he say what camber kit he is going to use? Front or rear? I ask, because to my knowledge, there are only 2 rear camber kits available, and one is from speedybenz, and the other is darn near impossible to find. For the front, there is only the factory camber bolts available, which gives very little adjustment and are quite cheap. You might want to ask him to show you what he plans to put on your car, because if your car hasn't been lowered, a camber kit isn't necessary, and if he plans to put one on anyway, he likely plans to alter the factory alignment specs to something he maybe used on another brand of car, and that is really bad to attempt. It should align nicely without any addons.

[loudandheard]

Well that rasies alot of questions. He said that my alignment is horribly off and he guaranteed that camber kit will fix the problem. I'll have to chekc that out tomorrow. Thanks for the post, but now I'm worried.

[benzfan]

I think the clear course of action will present itself as soon as a regular 4-wheel alignment is attempted and the current alignment specs are compared with the factory specs. Attempting to achieve the factory specs will tell you if something is just tweaked, like a tie rod (that can easily be corrected with the range of adjustment) or if something is worn. You might want to try another shop, as this one probably doesn't work on Mercedes a lot, hence his apparent cure-all by selling you something you shouldn't need.

[GPReyes]

loud and heard,

whatever happened to your camber prob? I would like a front camber kit if you found one =)

[loudandheard]

Well, the shop I went to said that they put a camber kit that came from mercedes. I'm not sure wether they are from mercedes or just some camber kit they put on. I had to get my frame straigtned so they could do the front end alignment correctly. There was not too much of a difference when they put on the camber kit except for the toe, I think. I'll need to dig up the papers to let you know. So far no uneven tire wear, so I'm happy.

[benzfan]

Glad to hear it aligned OK. You should notice the difference.

[GPReyes]

Originally posted by benzfan
Glad to hear it aligned OK. You should notice the difference.

what did the camber kit look like? was it just a bolt? I want one if it really fixed your front camber...finally a solution to that prob...can you get part number or where they got it