custodusty

So I have picked out my rims that I am ordering and I am having a huge dilemma with my indecisiveness on choosing the staggered or non-staggered set-up. Once I put the rims on, I will make the next decision which is to lower the car or not. In my experience, with all of my cars in the past, I have ended up lowering the car just to improve looks, but usually wait and see in case the fitment with the stock suspension looks good. So, knowing that I may likely be lowering the car, this is where I become concerned with the staggered 19’s. I’m concerned about rubbing, because I have people (adults) in my back seat fairly often, and with the additional weight and the car lowered, I am worried about rubbing. I’m not concerned about rubbing without people, because I’m 99.99% sure that it won’t, none of my other cars did. So that being said, if I may lower car, would I be better off sticking with 19x8.5 all around, or still going with 9.5 in the rear? Offsets are 48 for the 8.5 and 50 for the 9.5, which when calculated out, the 9.5 sticks out .6” further than the 8.5.

So the input I would like from you all:

Has anybody lowered their car, (preferably a 4-matic – but not critical), with staggered 19’s, and drove around with 2 adults in the back? Rubbing? (Wheel offsets and spring type would be good to know)

Other constructive input would also be appreciated.

Thanks!

Derspeed

If you can, mount a set with the same dimensions, and measure the distance between the outer-most section of the tire and the inner fender lip. I have done before with a pad of post-it notes. If you can fit one between (tearing off the necessary amount of notes for the distance or thickness) you should be okay no matter how much the suspension compresses. I am going to lower my C as well. I was also going to put spacers on the rear wheels to push tem out, but it is very tight in there. For my car with the 18" AMGs I wouldn't use more than a 3mm spacer. Hope that helps a little. To me, it is the easiest way to determine if you'll have rubbing.

Try this:

http://www.bigcustomwheels.com/rt_specs.jsp

ShoremNJ

They don't recommend staggering the 4matic drive vehicles.

custodusty

I would be very curious as to who "They" are that you are referring to. You could easily prove to "They" that staggered is recommended - Then point at your tires and tell them to read it themselves.

The 4 Matic Sport is already staggered from the factory.

7.5" Front and 8.5" Rear

aowhaus

same here, mine came staggered, though the brochure states they are the same size.

With 4matics you could go staggered or non-staggered as long as the offsets are correct. You could find the correct offset for the width wheel on Tire Rack's website.

ffejalink

All four tires should be the same size on any AWD vehicle or you risk damaging your AWD system. I'm guessing that your warranty would not cover damage caused by improperly fitted aftermarket tires.

One perk of having all tires the same size versus a staggered setup is that you can rotate your tires. This will definitely increase the life of the tires.

ColoradoDriver

Why then does our C300 Sport 4matic come standard with staggered wheels?

zebra1550

Yeah...our C300 Sport 4Matic also had the staggered setup from the factory. My guess is that our center diff was engineered to withstand a staggered wheel setup from the start, unlike some other AWD cars which were never meant to have staggered tires from the factory. The same would then also have to be true for the rest of the systems on the C300 4Matic, they were calibrated with a staggered setup in mind. If you were to put a staggered setup on a car which was never meant to run that way, the ABS, TRAC control, and VSC would all be out of whack with the front and rear tires turning at different rates.

KiwiRobbie

Someone forgot to tell Lamborghini, Porsche and Audi about that.

mingo

iirc for every inch you decrease your front offset by (whether you get wider tires or just move the wheels outwards) you gain a foot in your turning radius. as far as the previous comment about the audi and lambo, many cars of different make and models have different torque bias in there awd systems. and i remember reading in some post saying that mercedes updated their specs somewhere for the 4matics. it is now "okay" to have the staggered set up. So my suggestion is either go with 8.5 all around if you are paranoid or just increase the rear to 9.5 and figure out the offset you'll need to make it clear. lowering the car would induce some negative camber which would also angle the top of the wheel inwards more providing a tiny bit more clearance. One solution would be to lower your car first, then go to a high volume wheel shop and test fit something of that offset and width. certain wheel shops are fairly accommodating.

custodusty

I said screw it and ordered the staggered. I may like the look and not want to lower it anyways. If I decide to, I will cross that bridge when I get there.

Though this is a forum and place to discuss things, please do your homework before you make blanket statements that are disputed and end up misdirecting the entire purpose of the thread. I apologize for the note for "other constructive input", I am partly at fault for nearly de-railing this converstation.

So back to the original intent on this thread:

Has anybody lowered their car, (preferably a 4-matic – but not critical), with staggered 19’s, and drove around with 2 adults in the back? Rubbing? (Wheel offsets and spring type would be good to know)

Actual results, supported with data.

ShoremNJ

Actuall My C300 4matic Has Staggered Wheels From The Factory

papasuperman

You can stagge an AWD car.
But it is not as easy as a RWD drive car.

You need to make sure the overal diameter of the wheel is the same on all 4 corners.

AWD system can not tell how wide the tire set up is, but they can tell the different if the rear tire is taller than the front one.
Make sure the difference is with in 5% you should be safe.

Go to Audi sites those guys have lot of experience.