Just bought a 1998 C280 Sport today and drove it about 250 miles home with no problems. A co-worker and I took it into the Ford dealership we work at after hours and put it on the lift and put new rims on it. By the way, we are parts guys, not mechanics. The rims were approved to fit on the vehicle, and they do, with no rubbing anywhere on anything. We take it down off of the lift, and all of a sudden, I can't back it out. The front wheels turn freely, but the rears seem to be hung up. We had put the emergency brake on while we were doing the work originally and thought that may be the problem, but it seems to be releasing. Nothing is hitting the calipers or anything else. The rear wheels only turn about a quarter each way and make a weird noise. Did we do something to the calipers or axles without knowing it? Is there something funky you have to do with a Mercedes when you take off the rear wheels? Pleeeease somebody tell me this is something simple! Thanks.

 

Your drive wheels should not be hung up or stuck...there is nothing special u have to do with the rear wheels when taking them off. It's just like any other car.

will the car move forward? are you sure that the e-brake is releasing all the way?

try taking the wheels off again and re-mount them and see if that makes any difference.

 

It won't roll forward either. I went in the car when we put it back on the lift and I kept apllying the the e-brake and releasing it. My buddy was under the car and said it was releasing, so I don't know. Do the e-brakes ever just lock up like that? This is bizarre. Thanks for your response.

 

Huh, that is very strange. There may be a problem with the e-brake, but I doubt it...

Did u try putting it into neutral and pushing the car forward or backwards to see if it rolls? Try that because theres no power to the wheels, so the tranny isn't engaged...maybe a tranny problem.

-Greg

 

I don't think we did put it in nuetral, but it just seems unlikely that I could drive 250 straight miles, and onto the lift, and the tranny go right then. Arghhhhh, I have no luck with cars!

 

How many miles do you have on the car? Did you check your ATF fluid levels? That's very odd...

 

there's only 31,000.

 

Next thing I would check is the tranny fluid...if that is leaking or low, that will cause your tranny not to respond...

other than that, I don't really have a clue. Sorry I can't be of much help.

 

thanks!

 

itz the BOLTS that are too LONG. on the rear wheels. u better put ur stock wheels back on

what kind of rim did u put on? did u measure the length of the bolt prutuding out formt he stock rim and on the new rim.
in ur case the bolt is too long and is touching the E-brake mechanism. so that is why ur car wont move.

 

bah...never occured to me

 

Yea your bolts are too long. Put your stock wheel's back on. Correction to Tp's post it is not the "E brake" mechanisim my friend, it is the parking break mechanisim.

 

I actually brought that up to my friend as just an off-the-wall idea, since nothing else made any sense. I used the stock lugs, but maybe the depth of the stock wheel and the aftermarket rim are different. But now that I think about it, we loosened the lugs after I talked about that, and it still was doing the same thing. So that doesn't make sense either. Uggggh! Thanks.

 

did u try putting the stock wheels back on? and see if it still works?

on both sides. not just one side.

 

yea i agree with tp and soldsep. your bolts are definitely too long. Do NOT try to continue driving it because you're going to damage your parking brake and its going to cost mucho dinero to replace. You can either put on your stock rims until you get new lugnuts or you can shorten the lugs yourself.

 

Would it be wise to use washers as spacers, or would that be dangerous? Thanks.

 

E-BRAKE ?!?!?!?! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??
man i heard of e-book, e-mac, e-pen, e-mail but E-BRAKE?!?!?!
WHATS THE WORLD GETTING TO!!!! lol

 

Don't tell me you've never heard of e-brake. "E-Brake" is a common term used in the US for emergency brake. Just ask anyone here.

 

ah.. you mean the hand-brake right?? (i'm looking awfully ignorant in this forum )

 

Yes, or the footbrake...lol

 

hahaha. so if the hand brake and the foot brake can de referred to as "emargency brake" which one is the regular ol' brake??

 

hahaha...nice one. You can call it the "Foot E-Brake"

 

Merclover, he doesn't mean the "regular" foot brake, he means the emergency foot brake way off to the left. Any car that doesn't have a hand brake has the foot brake underneath next to the left kick panel, about a 10 inches to the left of the "regular" foot brake. I guess some cars don't have room for the hand brake, so they use a foot brake underneath. See ya'!

 

Thanks everybody for your help. You guys were right. Even though the wheel manufacturer insisted they work with the stock wheel bolts, the bolts are too long for the rears. They are about 1/2 inch too long and hit whatever is behind there. I will have to find shorter ones or have the existing ones cut shorter. I appreciate the help. YOU GUYS RULE!!!