dchou

After getting tires fitted onto new rims, do most people put the wheels on the car themselves or do they get it done in shops?

If it's a DIY, where can I find out how i can DIM?

It it's a shop job, how much would it cost?

Thanks.

P.S: reason i'm asking is cause the website i am going to buy rims from put the tires on the wheels for you free.

electromethod

righty tighty, lefty loosey.

nmsno27

HAHAHA

Burnt Toast

most if not all people would do it them slef, it has to be the easyest thing you can do on a car.

1) lossen all the bolts on the wheels
2) jack the car up
3) take off said bolts
4) take wheel off
5) place on new wheel (making sure its the right one i.e. not the wider one if staggered or if dirrectional tires its going the correct direction)
6) hand thread bolts back on and tighten a bit
7) lower car back to ground
8) tighten all lug bolts down to torq secs, or just real tight by hand. but not so tight your jumping on the wrench.
9) a few days leter just check up on the lugs to make sure none came loose from vibration of the road.

revstriker

I think that most people probably get their rims and tires installed where they bought them. If they buy them online, they probably still have to take them somewhere to have the tires mounted and balanced, so they probably just have them install too. If you order your wheels with tires installed (and balanced), then I would just install myself as it is VERY easy. My only concern would be if shipping them with tires installed could somehow effect the balance (I imagine it would).

Installation should be inexpensive, maybe $20?

CitronC230K_03

also every time you need new tires you take a chance of f***king up your rims. best leave it people who have the tools, experience and will pay for a rim should they f***k it up.

r3v1ls

Nah i think the #1 question we've had on this forum recently is where is is superchargeR. That one got some laughs :p

Gregs210

If you've ever changed a tire, you can -- probably -- do it yourself.

Contrary to one of the other posts, when you purchase a set of wheels and tires from the web folks they are mounted and balanced when they arrive. You should check for proper pressure (it's different at different altitudes) but no other prep is needed.

This is also not necessarily one of the easiest things you can do on your car. There are several things to be aware of. First, if you ordered a Staggered set, obviously the wider wheels will go on the back. Second, if you ordered directional tires (staggered or otherwise) you have to be very careful to install those properly. Third, if you're buying new wheels it's very possible you will need new lug bolts. MBZ cars are pretty picky about this, so for that reason alone it's worth having a good tire shop take care of this for you. You can always drop one of your bolts into the new wheels and see if it extends through further than on your stock wheels, and so long as the new wheels have the ball seat you should be fine. However, if the bolt doesn't extend through (or extends through much further than on the stock wheel) you'll need new bolts. Fourth, if this isn't something you're familiar with you should use a torque wrench, check the manual for the lug-bolt torque spec.

Good luck and enjoy the ride,
Greg

Buellwinkle

I would put in on myself, afterall, where are you going to carry the four tires/wheels you take off, wouldn't want that in my interior. Depending on time/mood when I need tires, I take the wheels off, load them in my truck and bring them to the tire shop to have new tires put on, saves me from waiting for 2 hours while they do it and they don't mangle my lugnuts with their impact guns. America Tire (Discount Tire) forced the nuts on so hard on our Honda they warped the rotors, when I loosened the nuts the warping mostly went away but the damage was done, had to get new rotors. They pride themselves on having quality torque wrenches to tighten lugnuts, too bad they don't have quality people that know how to use them.

dchou

Thanks everyone for all your posts. My rims will come with the tires already on so I will probably attempt to put em on myself.

Gregs210, in your post, you mentioned a possible problem with the lug bolts. Is there any way i can check this myself?

And revstriker, you said it's $20 to mount and balance the tires and put it on the car. How much would it be to just have it placed on the car?

thanks so much for your help and understanding.

FrankW

if you want to DIY changing the rims you'll want to get a torque wrench.

revstriker

I was guessing about $20 just to mount the wheels. Balancing would be extra. Tire disposal fee (if needed) would also be extra.

drexappeal

It's something that anyone can do themselves, however, the place I've gone to buy all my past rims and any future rims includes balance, install and alignment, as well as any suspension adjustments (if you have coilovers) to prevent rubbing.

Gregs210

Easy one first: cost. When I bought tires (only) from Tire Rack for my last car, my chief disappointment was trying to find a place that would mount and balance them for a reasonable price. The places on TR's recommended list were stunningly expensive -- about $40 or more PER TIRE . Through some finagling and waiver-signing, I finally got a different place to do them for $10 a tire.

If you're buying wheels AND tires, they'll already come mounted and balanced as I noted in my earlier thread.

The lug bolt issue is a sticky one, and one with which I'm all too familiar. Here's the essence of the myriad problems that can arise. For a long, long time now MBZ has been using lug bolts (not lug nuts) to secure their wheels; these lug nuts have ball seats. Historically MBZ used 12M lug bolts and a few years ago started going to 14M bolts. They still retained the ball seat; however, they changed it's design. Thus, you can't use wheels designed for 12M on cars designed for the 14M bolts -- and vice-versa -- unless you're prepared to have custom bolts made at about $15 each (times 20 bolts...CHA CHING!!).

The last kicker to this lug-bolt issue is that aftermarket (non-MBZ) wheels usually have conical seats, not ball seats. These will always require new bolts.

Assuming(!) you bought your wheels and tires from a reputable place and they are genuine MBZ, then they won't have shipped you the wrong wheels (such as 12M ball seat wheels for a 14M car). If that's the case then you can check the length of the lug bolt pretty simply. Just pull one of your wheels off, then insert one of your lug bolts in it. Measure how far it extends through the back of the wheel. Then do the same with one of the new wheels. If it's within 1/8" or so then you're okay, if not you'll need shorter or longer as the case may be. WWW.PRESTIGEWHEEL.COM has an excellent assortment of lug bolts once you know what you need.

If you bought aftermarket wheels and they have conical seats, the seller should have bolts available, I'd contact them and have them toss them out to you.

If you read through this and now have that "deer caught in the headlights" look, just take them to a tire shop and let them take care of you. It's not the sort of thing you have to do more than once (unless you change wheels again!), so the charge they'll inflict will be worth it in the long run -- since the potential downside of doing something wrong is very, very costly.

Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg

dchou

Yes, I am like a deer in the headlights of Murphy's law.

Thanks for the excellent info. I guess as a newbie, I'll find a shop to put the wheels on my car.

taylor192

Ask if your local MB dealer has a 'tire storage' option. Here almost all the larger European car dealers have a storage option, where your summer, or winter tires are stored at their facility and all you have to do is bring the car in and they change them for you - no charge.

If you don't know how to change a tire, please learn. They should make it part of the drivers test, like checking oil and other common vehicle maintenance tasks. I cannot believe how many people do not know how to do these things, and moreso, how many of those people are so-called 'men'.

dchou

I'll definately call up my local dealer. That's a good idea.

em2023

i know this is an old reply to the discussion above. i searched for a the correct answer regarding proper tire storage. did a search in this forum and this dicussion was one of the results that came up, so i figured i'd share my findings.

http://www.rma.org/tire_safety/tire_...ty.cfm#storage

hopefully this link will help future members answer their questions regarding proper tire storage.

dchou

Thanks for the link! I'll keep the info in mind this winter.