theonidis

+1

Glyn M Ruck

Yes indeed - I mean the plain vanilla Pilot Primacy.

matthew121170

I know that I shouldn't skimp on the tires, but I think I should get a little more than 11K out of a set of tires. With all of that said, can I throw the same size tires that are on the fronts on the rear of my car without too much problem?

Glyn M Ruck

If your car came with staggered wheel sizes then ideally no. You need to take your back rims down to front size or preferably front up to rear size to go same size all round which will allow you to rotate corner to corner which is ideal.

matthew121170

So I have the stock AMG wheels (18). Can I purchase two new ones with the same dimentions as the other ones (either front or rear) to put on the opposing side (either front or rear)? I don't have aftermarket wheels and I don't really want to get aftermarket if I don't have to. I kinda like my stock AMG wheels. thanks

Sportstick

I may have lost the rationale, but why would you want to do this? If its just to get more than 11k miles from a set of tires, you can certainly buy excellent tires which fit your current wheels and which will exceed that mileage.

Glyn M Ruck

Buy 2 more rears & stick them on the front. Many people destagger this way with positive results. Common on W203s although I know people who have done it on 204s. Then you can rotate corner to corner to even out wear & minimise air pumping noise due to feathering & cupping - You really need to change the direction of rotation of tyres on these cars every 10,000Km max. That is why I don't recommend directional tyres.

Downside is that you replace all four tyres at the same time - although I see this as a positive. And you increase the scrub radius on the front which can cause the car to tramline a little more. With the amount of castor that Benz run I have not found this to be an issue as long as you run 1 degree more positive castor on the RHS front wheel for Left Hand Drive markets & the converse for others.

matthew121170

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking to hear. Now I have to find someone whose willing to part with their 18" AMG rear wheels. No fitment problems or rubbing since it's a larger tire that what was there before?

Glyn M Ruck

No problems - You are going to have to be careful with size & make of tyre you fit. The only tight spot will be clearance between the front strut & the tyre sidewall at the dimple in the strut. The guys that want to go super wide fit Koni yellow struts because they have a larger dimple than OE. You are not trying to be stupid so you should have no problem. Give me the existing clearance you have with your present set up between the sidewall & the concave strut dimple - size of tyre and offset of rim & I will let you know what you can fit without trouble or you can use the calculators on the 1010Tires website if you feel comfortable with such things. I'm just checking because wheels on SA produced Benz cars are made here & sometimes have different offsets. (you will see offset stamped behind one of the spokes as ET 44 as an example)

I have just been down this road with my 203 & settled on 235 tyres all round because of strut clearance issues up front & wanting to be safe. (Moved from 16 to 17" wheels & 1" wider than standard rims. Moved offset from ET37 to ET32) - The 204 runs very different offsets

We have a 350 Elegance with 17" non staggered or I would measure ours.

Bobby204

If you have offset rims, just change the rear tires. By the time the fronts are worn out, you'll know what to get. I went with tirerack recommendation on quiet and value, no problem with the Bridgestone summer tire so far (but it's been a mild winter.)

matthew121170

Thanks everyone for the info...proceeding on!