matthew121170

Hey all -
I am in need of an education on this whole tire/wheel thing I guess. I took in my C350 for it's A0 service and was told that it needed new tires front and rear. Rears I can visually see that they are shot, but the fronts have more than plenty of tread on them. The dealer says that they are "cupping" because they can't be rotated which is causing the vibration that I had them look at. I thought it needed balancing. SO, when I go out to look for tires I find that they are dang expensive, and that none of them offer a tread life warranty because they are considered high performance. The underlying tone seems to be that since they are different sizes front to rear that is causing a lot of my issues and driving up the cost. My question to the dealer was couldn't I just get a new set of rear wheels the same size as the front and be good then? You would have thought I asked him to paint my car pink. So I guess my question is has anyone done this with any success? Can you really get rid of the larger rear wheel set in lieu of a standard front size set and been okay?
Thanks in advance for the information and education.
Matt

Derspeed

You can use the same size all around. I believe the luxury has four matched wheels and tires. You'll sacrifice some handling sharpness, but it can be done. Go to tirerack.com and check out the sets.

matthew121170

Hey thanks. I was kind of wondering how much difference it would make. Do the different susupensions in the 300 vs. the 350 make a difference?

GateKeeper

Are your rims all of equal size ? width wise....

If not you might have a hard time putting the same size tires on all 4 rims

You don't want to stretch out a smaller width tire to fit a wider rim

matthew121170

No i was going to find somone who was getting rid of their rims and put their front rim on my rear that way I would have all four rims the same size.

GateKeeper

then you should have no problem.....

I run the same size rims and tires on all 4, on my winter setup, and have had no issues, with handling, or the 4Matic setup

if they are all the same, your good to go....

Cheers

ShoremNJ

I have staggered on my c300 and just put new OEM Michelin after 60,300 miles due to cupping.

burnteggroll

60,300 miles for staggered???

C300Kid

Why would you want to put smaller tire on the rear? It cant be THAT much cheaper..

FrankW

unless you have a C350 luxury (if you do then you're probably not in the states) you should have staggered wheels which you CAN run the same size all around, but the rear wheel will look very stupid and with the tires stretched.

never buy any tires from dealership. They always over charge you on tires and tells you you need new tires every time you are there.

There are wear indicator cross strip in each vertical grove of the tires (it's like a small bump in the grove) those are your wear indicator for 40-50% of the tire tread. you really don't have to change the tires unless they're down to like some 10-20% or they have extreme camber wear or over or under inflation wear which cause them to have no tread left on the tires.

few conditions that would require immediate change:

1. sidewall bubble: means you have broke the wires that does the actual supporting of the tires which with some hard impact you might have a blow out from that bubble.
2. rubber cracking: means the rubber has lost its elasticity.

Glyn M Ruck

If you want to keep your staggered set up run non direction tyres (ones that don't have a specific rotation direction)

Rotate across the same axle to change the rolling direction every 6 to 8000 miles & you will minimise feathering & cupping & it's nasty side effects.

matthew121170

My thought process is not that the tires are cheaper, but they will last longer. If I have to spend 1000 every 30,000 miles for new tires, which for me is once a year, then maybe I'll spend the extra to get a non-staggered setup and be able to rotate and get 60,000 miles out of a set of tires. I mean I'd have to outlay the cost of two new rear rims, but in the long run it seems like it would pay for itself.

matthew121170

So I'm considering buying the regular staggered setup for now, since it's painfully obvious that I need new tires. Lets just say that rainy roads and my tires don't get along much any more. I'm thinking about the new Continental "DWS" tires. Any comments on these? They are fairly cheap from Tire Rack.

Glyn M Ruck

The DWS is a fair tyre but noisy on a C Class. Not quite as noisy as SC2 & 3 which are awful.

ShoremNJ

Get the michelin Pilots, i ran them for 60,300 miles, mostly highway. so, I replaced with the same exact tires. $249.00 USD each.

matthew121170

I'm assuming in a non-staggered setup?

ShoremNJ

Mine are staggered, they were just amazing in their longevity. They still had tread on them but started to cup and were making more and more noise.

Glyn M Ruck

That is truly amazing mileage - when you say Pilot do you mean the HX MXM4, Primacy HP or PS2? - I can't believe a PS2 is capable of that mileage much as I love them & the Exalto PE2

FrankW

$245 for all-season junk? yes, I do consider MXM4 & Primacy junks.

If anyone's looking for all-season tire with good tread wear rating and affordable. nothing beats Nexen N7000. Runs less than $100 each and performs pretty much on par with any all-season junk out there. actually only paid $85 each for 225/45/17 I slapped on my sister's CLK. AND Yes, I have experienced the above tires I mentioned. had the MXM4 on the 1.8T Beetle and had driven cars with Primacy. I think the MXM4 was also the tire came with the C350 which I replaced it with the C63 setup. (word of advise: don't buy PZERO. rear's gone in 10k)

matthew121170

I don't see the Nexen N7000's on Tire Rack. Where did you get them from?

ShoremNJ

they are Michelin Pilot HX MXM4,

FrankW

you can find a local tuner shop or tire shop that can order Nexen for you.

NickCats

I bought Nexen tires here and had a good experience :

http://www.tiresavings.com/

Nick