MCMLXIX

So I was looking through a bunch of wheel threads and I noticed that alot of the offsets were lower for other W220s. The S65 with staggered 19" wheels have the highest offset at 60mm with the 9.5x19 rears. The fronts are the same 44mm across the W220 line (excluding the 4MATIC.) The S55 with 9.5x19 had a rear offset of 46mm.

Does anyone know if the rear wheel wells had a different shape?
Is there another explination for the super high offset?

Welwynnick

60mm doesn't sound right, especially with a wide wheel.
W215/220/216/221 are all around 43-46mm, front and rear.
60mm sounds like an ML, GL or R-class wheel.

Nick

Quadrobenz

Both the online owners manual and the printed one in my car show a 60mm offset for the S65 rear wheels along with a 46 mm offset for an S55. Looking at the front and rear wheels on my S65 it does appear the rear offset could be 60mm. I did not remove one from the car to verify. i see nothing about the S65 to indicate the wheel wells would be different. It is possible (likely) the larger S65 brakes are requiring a different wheel offset to provide the same tire position in the wheel well.
Looking at the non-staggered wheel fitment in the owners manual for winter tire fitment the wheels for the S55 are either 8x18 or 8.5x18, either wth a 44mm offset. The S65 with this option also has a different offset listed, they are 8x19 with a 50mm offset. It has to be the larger brakes on the S65 requiring the extra offset.

Welwynnick

Maybe they have bigger hubs and bearings?

Nick

Quadrobenz

The rotors an calipers are larger so the hub or hat must be larger and thicker. I do not know about the bearings. One would have to dig into the part numbers and specs to confirm.
What this all indicates is mounting an S65 rear wheel on a different W220 model may require a spacer for proper fit.

MCMLXIX

I detailed the car and pulled the spare to clean and vacuum the trunk. The spare is 8x19 wtih 50mm offset.

The idea was to see what other wheels will fit. I was thinking of swaping them out, but have decided just to refurb the factory AMG wheels. Someone changed my centers to a semi gloss black and there is some minimal curb rash. I want them to stand out a little more than stock... I will change the centers back to something closer to the stock grey.... Like a metallic anthracite, but I'm going to make the outer lip red....

Flight Test

The rear offset is definitly 60mm on the 06 S65. The rear 65 hubs are wider than all the other models.

Zax63

yup. and most aftermarket companies, tire rack included, show the specs for a s55 and they don't believe you and promise their 45ET offset rims will fit. They don't. I had some custom 55 et drag wheels made by ccw with 285s and they fill out the wheel well nicely but I wouldn't go a whole lot further...

Welwynnick

OK. I didn't realise that the 65's had larger rear brakes and greater offset. I could never find any documents that detailed that. However, I don't think that's the cause and the dependancy.

W220's generally have larger front brakes than rear; my 600 has larger front brakes than the 65 has rear, but the offset is still only 44. The caliper usually extends axially outwards beyond the rotor hat, and the inner face of the wheel is dished to accomodate the caliper.

On my Peugeot, the front rotor hats are almost flat with the rotor face, so its means nothing. There's another reason for the 65's offset, but I don't know what it is.

Its a shame though, because the 65 loses F & R interchangability. That's something I'm trying to take advantage of on my 600. I'm trying to fit 20 x 9.5 AMG ML55 wheels, which are all the same size. I'm nearly there.

Nick