eddieo45

Back when I owned my first MB, a w202, I bought a set of wheels on Craig's list that had come off a w124 I think. I never even checked offsets, and they ended up fitting the w202 fine. More interestingly, I only used them on the rear, as I only had two snow tires at the time, and my mechanic let me use the OEM take-offs from his w126 on the front. Other than the lugs being well recessed in the wheels, they also fit fine. Did I just get lucky back then, with chassis styles that were far more similar than my current w203 and the E's and S's that have wheels for sale now?

FrankW

those are from the W220 when they first came out.

W220 wheels has high offset meaning it probably won't fit without using spacers.

w124's wheel offset is similar to the W201 and w202, so they would fit. It's just the W124 can't really run wider wheels unless you do some fender rolling or have a 500E/E500.

Glyn M Ruck

Yep - you got lucky. Check those offsets.

Edit - my car still has it's OEM 16" wheels - about to change but the present wheels are ET31

roland w203

I have a set of Linea Corse Lemans in 19x8.5 35 offset all around. I was planning on mounting on my 2003 C320 Sport (Not the new sports with AMG kit and brakes).

I tried mounting them today w/o tires and had a few questions. I'd greatly appreciate if you guys can help out...I've been looking for these rims for a while and would love to mount these bad boys.

1. The front is really close to the strut (less than 1/4") without tires. The rear is about 1/4" from the rear inside well without tires too...What spacers would you guys suggest?

2. Would it be safe to put spacers in the rear because the rims wouldn't sit on the hub if I put spacers?

3. The front hub has a round cap and I wanted to know if I could take this off and how would I do so?

4. What lugs would you guys suggest if I were to run spacers (length, brand, etc...)?

Thanks!

FrankW

I hope you got the Linea Corse in 5x112 and no the 5x120 for BMW.

to answer your question. (assuming you are on stock suspension)

the front will be fine as long as your front tire is 225 which the rim protector on the tire will not stick out. some 235 tires will work as well.

The rear will be fine as well in the same way except 8.5 will not look as good as the 9.5. If you want you can put a 10mm spacer on there.

You can always find RAD bolts, but you'll have to measure how long of the bolts you need yourself.

roland w203

Thanks, Frank!

Yup, I bought the 5x112...It's for Audi fitment with the center bore of 57.1 but I had the shop machine out the center to fit the 66...

In regards to the round cap in the front wheel hub, is it possible/safe to take off?

Glyn M Ruck

No - that is the bearing dust cap. If you take it off the bearings will get full of crap & water leading to failure.

roland w203

Last question (I think) - I know it's in here somewhere but I'm too lazy to look for it...

What kinda of lug bolts would I need (measurements)? Does it matter on rim type? I know I would have to measure length.

Thanks in advance all!

FrankW

depends on the rim type. they can be ball seats or cone seats.

roland w203

The Linea Corse Lemans are cone seated...I'm assuming they are 12mm rather than the 14mm?

FrankW

Audi A4 uses 14mm bolts, but A3 uses 12mm bolts I believe. since you have the wheels on hand you can take one of the stock bolts and test it to see if the bolt head is too small or perfect to get some idea on the seating, but I think 12mm bolts will work fine. or you can get 12mm tread with 14m bolt heads.

eddieo45

pardon my continued ignorance on offsets, (what does that measure anyway?) but I assume if the C-Class OEM is ET31, as Glyn says, then ET46 is not gonna fit my sedan? I may be able to go see the wheels, but I'll be driving my coupe. Would it make sense to try one wheel on the coupe to determine whether it would fit my sedan?

Glyn M Ruck

ET46 won't fit without spacers which I don't recommend.
Here is offset explanation i.e Clamping face to the center line of the wheel.

eddieo45

That's a beautiful graphic Gly, saved to my My cars folder. Since I'm looking only at MB OEM wheels, I wonder if MB indicates which ones fit which cars......alternately, what would you think is the safe range for a C, if ET31 is OEM? 25-36 maybe?

W203E35

I fit ET 38 in the rears without spacers and that was pushing it. The fonts I have 7mm spacers and that is perfect. It feels like the wheel is going to hit the caliper like a hairline.

So if I have an offset of 46 then I will need 15mm spacers? So the whole key is to get it to et31?

Glyn M Ruck

With 16" I think ET 28 to 37 is about the range - so your guess is close. 28 is too aggressive for 18 & 19 without fender rolling but for 16" is fine. You have a standard car so all should be fine - when you start lowering & fitting oversize brake calipers etc the things can get complicated. For the best look with 16" I would try & go ET30 all round or the back looks a bit tucked in (narrow)

eddieo45

If Karo's simple math is appropriate, is there a maximum thickness spacer that would be advisable? I'd love to avoid using spacers altogether, but I also want to keep an open mind on which 16" wheels I buy......

Glyn M Ruck

Depends on the wheel size (width & diameter) & spoke design Karo

TemjinX2

i'm have 19'' rims with et of 42. i'm running hub centric spacers with 15 in the front and 12 in the rear. so i'm running et of 27 in the front and 30 in the rear. Long as there hub centric spacers it should be fine, you won't get any vibrations or anything.

Glyn M Ruck

Sometimes - I've had friends with H & R hubcentric spacers that have given trouble (Porsche). If you are buying new wheels I'd rather buy the right thing.

It's his wifes car & I don't want to push the scrub radius out too far on the front & make the car tramline. You & I will live with that but not nice for a lady.

With ET 27 on the front those wheels must be throwing some pretty awful turbulence.

FrankW

as Glyn said. offset completely depends on the design of the wheel and the width of the wheel. diameter not as much unless for the same wheel the design some how changes due to diameter change.

TruTaing

With spacers to help clear brakes and coilovers, I am running ET 25 up front with an 8.5" wide wheels too! No noticeable difference from when I had ET 28 or even when I was on stock wheels. :x Maybe I can tolerate it...

TemjinX2

i bought generic ebay hubcentric spacers, seems fine to me. no turbulence issues up to about 135mph in my test runs in mexico.

i'm running a 19 x 8.5 all around.

TemjinX2

i bought generic ebay hub centric spacers, seems fine to me. no turbulence issues up to about 135mph in my test runs in mexico

Glyn M Ruck

I'm not suggesting you will feel the turbulence driving the car. What I am suggesting is that it screws with the aerodynamics - put it in a wind tunnel & you will see what I mean. It will knock the top speed of the vehicle a little & push up fuel consumption at high speed. But then you probably don't cruise at the sort of speeds we do in SA. Yes we are wrong to speed the way we do.