03MBC320

Hey guys, just signed up here after i found out i'd be getting a silver 2003 C320 4matic in late july-august. I currently drive a blue onyx pearl Lexus IS250awd, on 18x8.5 motegi dv5s and a carson tuned grille (not much but made it unique, bought a suspension kit but just returned it as im giving the car back to lexus soon and dont want to deal w the installs. i also redded out the taillights =)
heres some pics of AlexIS







well, my family found it financially beneficial for me to give her back in to lexus and inherit () my moms silver 2003 C320 4matic (my had a friend who's lease ran out on a 03 SL500 and he sold it off to him at a very good price, cheaper than what my 06 IS250 was, so he bought it for her). So i've been looking into a few modifications i can do with it.. here are some basic plans

I checked the bolt pattern on the DV5's and they don't fit on the car so i'm gonna have to sell them, and if i want new wheels gonna have to find a new set. The cars silver, so i'm thinking i'm gonna go with black rims, not really sure even what kind yet but the main question i have on this is
Offsets - the offsets on my DV5's were +40, very conservative, and i didn't know until too late because it was my first set of wheels, this time around i'm going to want to go more aggresive and specific. Although with the 4matic, i can't go staggered i'm gonna have to do some searching and find the stock wheel specs and see how big/wide i can go, although i'm thinking 18" or 19". If anyone could just drop down a few numbers for me though thatd save me some searching time again i'm going to go for black as it'll match the rest of what i plan to do, and rather than the bold 5 spokes i had on my lexus i'm looking to do more of a racing style, wirey spoked rim

Next would be the grille and hood ornament, i do like how classy it is although i want to make the car look a little more sportier. I also wanted to somehow get the grille thats on the coupe series (i think..), the one that has the large mercedes emblem in the center, and then replace the hood ornament with the badge. I searched about it and read something about the grille being attached to the hood? so rather than looking for the grille should i be looking for hoods? I dont have the car on hand to refer to. If anyone could help me with this thatd be great, although i'm sure again some more searching should find me the answers

Other ideas were a suspension kit, which i havent looked far into so i'm not gonna discuss it much cuz i'm pretty unknowledgable about them for this car , but odds are i wont be going for coilovers, i'm paying for all the aftermarket stuff myself and those are quite pricey for me.

I also wanted to see what it would be like to put a black vinyl on the roof, one of the members over at clublexus.com (which i was active on) had done it on his white IS and i really liked it, so i'm gonna see if i can get it photoshopped to see how i like it

andd if i did that maybe i'd like to smoke the rear taillights, again i dont have the car on hand and i know smoked tailights on some cars/colors look horrible, but if it would look okay i think itd look even better if i have black wheels and the vinyl top. (i better get good at photoshop lol)

Something i probably wont be able to find though that i'm hoping someone could help me with is getting a staggered appearance. The 4 wheel drive is going to limit that since having different rolling diameters would ruin the system, but i know theres a slightt difference that is acceptable.. If anyone has tried this here who knows about what i could get away with in terms of front/rear size wheels,tires, and offsets, id realllly appreciate it!!

well, sorry that was long but thats my introduction post. any info on the questions i have remaining would be awesome, and i'll be searching for them myself. thanks alot for reading

XsuperbeeX

nice especially with the v6 it will be faster than the is250... and welcome...

bdgdl08

Welcome!

First off, I would NOT put black vinyl on the roof of a silver C, looks good on white or red though. You can easily find the three- or four-slat CL-style grille on ebay or in the classifieds on this forum, which is (i think) what you want... same with the flat badge.

For the wheels, I wouldn't mess too much with a staggered set on the 4wd. There are pleny of wheels out there that look great, and you could make them look good with the right offset.

Smoked tails look good on the silver w203s. I would also look into the facelift headlights and taillights... although I guess if you get smoked tails it doesn't matter. Also the facelift mirror blinker inserts would look good. Oh, and clear or smoked sidemarkers.

Another thing about the wheels... gunmetal wheels look better than black when combined with silver, IMHO, or, conversely, very light silver wheels that are almost whiteish look good.

Other than that, you will love the 3.2L m112 engine... and it will last forever. Mine went 232,000+ for me by the time I sold it (and got pushed VERY hard for the last 35,000 for that matter), and is still going! Enjoy your car!!!

FrankW

so your dad bought your mom the SL and then you are taking the C? and then who are you giving the IS back to again???

doesn't make much sense. personally I'd be if i'm getting pulled out of the current IS into the previous C-class. doesn't matter if it's a IS250 to a C320. power difference is not that dramatic.

but all the power to you as long as you are happy.

check out the DIY thread up top in the stickys for pretty much everything. check out C240wner's thread for suspension on 4-matic as you can only purchase springs for it.

also for 4-matic you CAN go staggered as long as diameter is the same.

Glyn M Ruck

Welcome - enjoy.

03MBC320

so thats what i'm looking for there? the CL-style grille for a W203 the fit? thats what i've been havin a hard time finding out

yup just realized that as i closed the website after my post! the wallpaper on my laptop is a mercury metallic IS-F on gunmetal wheels and it looks great, and its about the same color as the car i'll be getting

well, wasn't gonna go into detail but its not too long, when we got the lexus they were offering a purchasing option of paying half the price upfront, and then after owning the car for three years, either paying the second half, or giving the car back as is and walking away. The 3 year mark is coming up in august so we had to decide whether or not to buy off the second half of the car, or give it back. We also moved to Florida, although the Lexus, and my moms C320 (the one i'm getting) are still registered to NY insurance policies, so my dad has a florida insurance policy and NY, and the NY is much more expensive. If he can move the C320 down here and get rid of the IS, then he can eliminate the NY insurance and save a whole bunch on that. Also, he basically had too many cars (although i dont believe theres such a thing), he had 4 cars at a house where only 2 people lived, and another car sitting in a parking garage in NY with no-one to drive it. Paying off the other half of the IS would have just increased insurance expenses, and left us with too many cars!
and yes, i am upset to make the switch, i know the few HP doesnt mean much, but i was extremely grateful and fortunate to recieve a Lexus as my first car, and i'm fully aware of that, and couldn't stand to sound so spoiled as to refuse whatever offer my dad wanted, especially if it was to save a large amount of money.. and well, regardless, simply put, he owns the cars so uh, any say i did have would have been useless whining, and um... again, im in no position to complain about receiving a C320 with like 60,000 miles on it.

thanks for the info on the springs, and.. i'm a little confused on the staggered statement, i thought going staggered exactly meant having a different diameter in the rear than in the front... i got lost though when it came to calculating the actual "rolling diameter" (im only familiar with the term to be honest, and have a vague understanding of its meaning), and how far apart they can be before it messes with the 4matic. i'd really appreciate it if you cared to explain or showed me where i could learn more/read up about it

Thanks for the welcome posts guys, keep them coming =)

mystery905

See my signature for how the 4-slat black CL-grille from JAKUO on E-bay and the flat hood emblem from the dealer look.

The flat hood badge for the W204 from the dealer fits the W203, and costs less than what they are charging on e-bay.

Oh, and if you're interested, the headlights are Eagle Eyes projectors, also from e-bay.

yeuchau

congrats and welcome to the forum
go check out C240Owner's thread

FrankW

so the IS250 is a lease would be sufficient for the story. LOL I was reading and swear I read you wrote you are giving the IS250 to your mom and then followed by your dad also got her a SL. hense my question.

GotDaBenz

Sorry, but black wheels, smoked lights, and a vinyl roof? On a silver MB?(same model I have) Do the marque a favor and stick with a Lexus, please.

bdgdl08

What Frank is talking about with the staggered wheels is width. Rolling diameter is just the diameter of the wheels with tires on them. So you can put 19s on the front and back, but the rear tires would be wider (and most likely have more offset) than the front for a more aggressive look. Because of the traction control system on all benzes, you can't have staggered diameters without warning codes all over the place. Hope this helps.

03MBC320

as i said, i dont have the car on hand to look at to see what would be good, and if you read you'd see i wanted to view all this photoshopped before doing anything, and my ideas are only a reference of what i've seen done of silver/light colored cars, tbh i prefer darker colors. and on the topic, if i had a choice, i would stick the lexus, i apologize for thinking about degrading the same model car you own, how dare i. if you dont like my ideas, say so without sounding like an ***

back to the productive posts

yeah i talked to a few mechanics in my area today and they all told me that going staggered on 4matic would cause alot more problems than itd be worth so i'm most likely not going to bother with it, maybe some spacers but i was told even then the camber would be off

FrankW

do the forum a favor and ban yourself. GotDaBenz-OutAHere

FrankW

please read into the suspenstion thread and wheel thread.

there's nothing wrong with staggered setup when the overall diameter on the tires run are within 2% of variances.

holycaoAMG

Good come back with that pic! haha

Congrats on the c320, you'll love it. So far, great ideas on what to do!

bdgdl08

Nice Frank!

That car is slick

03MBC320

i've been trying to find a website that sells OEM and aftermarket products for mercedes now, and well i've found - formymercedes.com, but other than that not much. The actual lorinser site will only show me product for the 09 C300, any of you guys know good websites to find some of the facelift headlights/mirrors?

tommy

Consider that your unofficial "welcome to the forums" kick in the crotch. You're not a real member until you've received one of those.

Newer clear headlights are getting damn hard to find anymore. There are some Depo projectors that people have bought for their sedans, with mixed results. My recommendation, though, is to just keep an eye on the classifieds of all of the relevant Benz forums; they do pop up occasionally, and will be cheaper and oem, which is a good combination.

Welcome to the forums; search before posting anything specific, don't type in caps, use correct grammar, and troll comments from others will be kept to a respectible minimum, at least in theory.

FrankW

you can check out rmeuropean.com for OEM parts.

for aftermarket parts search around for what you like and then contact local tuner shops will be your best bet other than checking up on ebay.