i was wondering if anybody has heard or done this....that is putting japanese 5x114.3 wheels on a mercedes without adapters.....i know of a couple of people namely with accords and acura rls' that have successfully put real amg 5x112 pattern wheels on them WITHOUT adapters....did not follow up to ask if they had any unusual vibration or anything.....i do know that c klasse vehicles have a front wheel drive offsets that is very compatiable with the flock of wheels available....the reason i ask because i want a set of advan sienna gen II's and they are not available in mercedes bolt pattern.....scorchie, anyone....?

 

They had to remove the rotors and replace with 5x112 pattern. Try contacting the manufacture of the wheels you want and see if they can drill them out to your specs. It may be cheaper then the fabrications.

 

I currently have 5x114.3 wheels on my 190E. No adapters BETWEEN the wheel and the car; no shaking, no vibrations, etc. I have done this using a prototype adapter which will be on the market soon, and a set of hubcentric rings. (I also have Chevy-pattern 4x5.0 wheels on my G500... but I redrilled those to fit the 5x130 pattern of the W463.)

There are a few ways to mount such wheels on a car with 5x112 pattern. Many of these ways are the wrong way, a few of them are passable, and I can think of a few that could be called "the right way."

Let's start with the definite "right ways", which some will argue aren't even right.

One way is to redrill the wheels. To properly redrill wheels, the original holes must be filled with blanks, then the new holes drilled. This isn't too big of a deal because the new hole center is only 1.15mm off center. When redrilling, make sure that the drilled hole uses a seat that is compatible with our wheel lugs, either a cone seat or a 12mm ball seat.

Another is to redrill your wheel hubs. This won't be cheap, as your original holes again need to be filled with blanks (welded) and redrilled and tapped. Your rotors will also need to be redrilled, but only the holes will need to be enlarged. Plus, you will need a 5th spare wheel.

In all cases, you will need a hubcentric ring to take up the space between the wheel and the 66.56mm hub of the Mercedes. If you're buying hubcentric wheels, make sure you get one for a car that has a larger hub than ours: Mitsubishi Eclipse/3000GT, Dodge LH/Vision/Voyager, Mustang/Explorer, or Honda (Legend/NSX front/S2000 front). Anything else will probably have a hub size too small that will need machining, or will be a fixed size that requires a hubcentric ring.

The passable ways include using a wheel adapter, but this changes the offset, and was excluded by your statement.

The wrong ways are to just bolt the wheel on, or to use offset studs. It will not be hubcentric, the lug bolts will bend because they are offset, and the lug bolts will not seat properly against the wheel, increasing the risk of "pull through", or damaging the wheel due to the increased pressure on a small point instead of having the clamping force distributed across a wider area (remember, alloy wheels are made of soft materials).

I hope this is enlightening, and will also encourage people to increase their wheel style choices by using the offset lug adapters that will be on the market soon. I am obligated at this time to not reveal the manufacturer of these devices, but after I return my testing results I am sure they'll be out within 2-3 months.

-s-