Repair-It

Looks like my right front level sensor is flaky. Or it is while the car is in the air. I'm sure I damaged it when the linkage came around backwards when we were doing the struts. Shows level as like -4" when the other side is +3. If I touch the level sensor a bit it snaps back to normal. But it feels loose and probably broken inside. Damn.

A2129050403

https://www.mercedesbenzpartsshop.com/o ... 2129050403

I don't know if this just controls headlight level or if it is also used for damping control. There is no front Airmatic so it wouldn't be for front level control. Pricey mistake. I could also take a look at it with the car on the ground. Maybe it is in a happy zone at that point in its travel. But, I should probably just replace it and be more careful next time...

Ended up centering the steering wheel after 2 tries. The wheel was about 8 degrees off to the right when driving straight and it turns out the tie rod adjusters move the steering wheel about 8 degrees per full turn. So handy.

Then I was able to teach in the steering stops. I had a lot of trouble until I realized it really wants you to manhandle the steering wheel past lock so it can, uh, learn motor torque or perhaps be confident where the stop limit is. During normal operation maybe it just stops boosting at the stop rather than try to work against itself like hydraulic steering. It still clunks the way the other one did with the engine off but perhaps less so? When not running, there is play. When running, there is no play. When driving, there is play. Get all that? I measured about 3 degrees of steering wheel play before anything happens on center when driving. I think it's better than the old rack. Maybe the old rack was 5 degrees? I should have measured. Like with my CTS-V rack replacement for the same reason, the on center play didn't really get fixed but it felt more positive on turn-in. That applies here, as well. Was this worth $1800? I dunno. Maybe not? But the curiosity would have killed me. Would the $2700 reman at the dealer been any better? I don't really know. Would I have rather spent even more to get a better result? Not sure. If I could convince them to order one I could grab the input shaft and rock it and that would give me some indication of play. But I'm probably done with this experiment. Now I have a new rack (and motor and belt and tie-rods).

I did put my old rack in the vice and tried playing with the preload adjustment thingy just to see. It didn't really do anything. I loosened it and tightened it and the apparent play at the input shaft didn't really get worse or better. So I guess I'm actually relieved because if it magically made it better I would have felt some regret in not just trying that, considering how easy the rack was to remove.