apples23

Hey Guys

Brand new to the board.....this is my first post.

I just bought a CPO 2009 C300 Sport 4 magic. I take delivery on it tomorrow. Im in the market to buy a set of used winter tires.

I saw pretty amazing deal on a lightly used set of Pirelli's 205/55/16s that the guy had mounted on a C240.

I cant seem to find a clear answer as to whether the tires will fit. Do I need to go 17s because of the brake callipers?

Also, will the bolt pattern match?

Thanks in advance.

apples23

Bump here:

Is anyone running 16 inch on a c300 sport?

ralawren

Call the Tire Rack and check with them on whether that tire and wheel size will fit. There is probably a 16" combination that will work but you need to be careful.

chewychiu

I'm running my winters on 17's.....
225 front
245 rear
just like my stock wide

kevink2

That 205/55 tire has a much narrower contact (and much better snow traction) than the 225-45's snows, that are normally fitted to the c300's here and in Canada. Were those Pirelli's snows?

The bolt pattern is the same if they worked for the other owner, or if they were oem wheels.

The CLEAR answer is that not just any 16" wheel will clear the front caliper. But, there are a few 16" wheels that will even clear the bulkier C350 front calipers.

I got tirerack on the screen, and asked for 16" wheels that were for a C230-C240 (Canada only cars).

I bought one as a "full speed spare" from tirerack, as described in this thread:

205-55-16-wheel-tire-spare or 4-corners.html




You did a good job of filling out the background info, but for the full load:


_____________________ *** All Members, New and some Old *** __________________

please click on User CP at the top left of page, just below the thread title. Then add the following to either Profile and/or Signature , selecting buttons on the left side of that page:

year, model, if it's a diesel, Sport or Lux, 4MATIC or RWD, Location (city & state), and non-US country if applicable.

This helps others respond to issues, like tires, spring options, part sales, etc. Thanx


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apples23

They are the Pirelli snows.

My car is a C300 4matic Sport.


hmmm.....not sure what to do here. Perhaps I should just hold out for 17s as I dont have the opportunity to try the rims out to see if they fit as it's someone on Kijiji.

RLE

When I attempted to mount the wheels from my W203 C320 (same wheels as W203 C240) they would not fit over the front calipers on my 2008 C300 Lux. You decide.

Sold them on Craigs list.

Sportstick

If you do go for 17, no need to duplicate the OE size....you can go narrower with 215/50-17 for winter.

Eau_Rouge

Looks like some wheels fit and some don't. I just tried one of my old steel 16x7 et37 wheels that I used as winters on my 2002 C230 on the front of my 2010 C300 and it clears but it's very very close. There's approx 3 mm clearance between the caliper and the wheel...didn't try it on the rear of the car.
I don't know if there are any issues with the caliper being so close to the wheel such as heat build up or debris being caught between the caliper and the wheel. Personally, I'm going to keep looking into as I'm concerned about possible safety issues.

Edit to say that the stock wheel bolts on the stock 17 inch wheels on my C300 were a bit too long for the steel wheel that I tried. Shorter wheel bolts would be needed.

Eau_Rouge

Here are two pics. In the second pic, if you look at the 4th hole from the top you will see how close the caliper is to the inside of the wheel...it's very close but it clears.

kevink2

I don't recall many people trying to use W203 wheels on the W204 models. I think there is a big difference in offset.

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kevink2

If you follow the link on my 1st post, you will find the wheel I bought from TR and very carefully test fitted it to the front and rear hubs on a 2008 C300 4Matic Lux. The wheel was closest to the caliper @ the front hub, with an adequate .21" gap, and is now in the trunk as a full speed spare. The Lux and Sport versions have the same calipers, front and rear.

If Tire Rack still sells them, they fit.




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Eau_Rouge

There offset on my oem 17 x 7.5 fronts on my W204 is 46 or 47mm. The offset on my W203's 16 x 7 snow's is 37mm. By using 1010 tires wheel offset calculator and assuming a 46mm offset, this tells me that my W203 snow's provide an additional 15 mm of inner clearance and poke out by 3 mm in relation to my w204's oem front wheels. Not all w203 wheels have the same offset as my snow's.

RLE

Of course not. But, they were my former W203 winter wheels with Blizzaks so I had to know if I was looking at new wheels.

I ended up using the OEM 17's the car came with (C300 Lux) and bought a set of Nokian WRG2s which worked out fine.

Sold the 17s with Blizzaks on Craigs list with little trouble.

kevink2

Thanks for the added details. Note that the "1010 calculator" does not check for caliper interference, and as you know, you had to do a test fit to check that, as I did. Also, that calculator works off the listed tire width, which is not a controlled dimension and can vary by 20mm among different brand tires, for a given width spec, based on my measurments.

In your case the 10mm less offset may have helped to provide caliper clearance.

When I bought the posted 16" wheel, the guys on the phone @ Tirerack all read the same message, that the 16" wheels would not fit a C300 in the US. I had a hunch and took a chance, based on the close offset numbers.

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kHuNkHuNa

i have 16's on my car at the moment, the only problem i have is some rubbing when i hit bumps to fast, and the weights barely clear the brake callipers

kevink2

I had to specify that the outer weights be moved in the plane of the spokes, to keep them outboard of the calipers (see my pics on post #12). They show more, but they are snow wheels.

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