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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I brought my 13 smart in for an alignment because the drivers side inner tire is wearing bad. The shop said they cannot align the car because there is no camber adjustment. I never heard of such a thing before. Why would only one side have this issue? Shop not know how to fix it or is this normal?
 

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I brought my 13 smart in for an alignment because the drivers side inner tire is wearing bad. The shop said they cannot align the car because there is no camber adjustment. I never heard of such a thing before. Why would only one side have this issue? Shop not know how to fix it or is this normal?
It's normal for the smart to show this kind of tire wear (on the rear tires). No worries. Time for a new pair of tires.
 

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FYI...

....from the always reliable jetfuel:

...just this time...

for 451.3.. & 451.4.. chassis the specs are:

front
camber (at 0 toe) 0 deg 18' + or - 30'
caster 7 deg 50' + or - 30'
toe 36' + or - 10'

rear (All 450, 451 & 452 chassis)
camber -2 deg 00' + or - 30'
toe 0 deg + or - 18'

front caster and camber can be adjusted slightly by loosening all 4 lower control arm bolts and sliding the whole assembly left/right forward back as needed (holes are enlarged to allow some movement)
Front toe is adjustable.

Rear is not adjustable at all


jetfuel...join SCOA...you'll be glad you did
:)
 

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Discussion Starter · #4 ·
It's normal for the smart to show this kind of tire wear (on the rear tires). No worries. Time for a new pair of tires.
Its on the front.

jwight so should Mercedes know how to do this? The only place that officially works on smarts is one Mercedes place and im already having to bring it back for a 2nd leaking rear axle seal 1st replaced in June 2017. The shop who said they can work on Smarts totally failed then.
 

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Its on the front.

jwight so should Mercedes know how to do this? The only place that officially works on smarts is one Mercedes place and im already having to bring it back for a 2nd leaking rear axle seal 1st replaced in June 2017. The shop who said they can work on Smarts totally failed then.
Yes, your local dealer can easily handle this job. I kind of assumed the complaint was about the rear tires (original post didn't specify).
 

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Its on the front.

jwight so should Mercedes know how to do this? The only place that officially works on smarts is one Mercedes place and im already having to bring it back for a 2nd leaking rear axle seal 1st replaced in June 2017. The shop who said they can work on Smarts totally failed then.
If it's on the front, you can take it to a good alignment shop and have them set to the toe. The factory specification is for a large amount of toe-in, which makes the car more stable and understeer more (it already understeers a lot), but this also creates a lot of tire wear. I'd suggest setting the toe-in to 1/16" on each front tire. As the car rolls, dynamic toe will approach zero, which will minimize wear. That smaller toe setting also settles the car down at freeway speeds - it hunts around less and is affected less by grooves in the road.

The driver side wears more probably because you have only the driver in the car the majority of the time. That puts more weight on the driver's side front tire, wearing it faster.
 
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