Nickerz

I was out of town over the weekend and heard a funny noise coming from the rear, right tire. It wasn't a big blow out but the car just sounded funny. So I pulled into a gas station to check it out and at first the tire just looked low. So I started inflating it and then I saw that a part of the tire was shredded! It was bad! So I called Tele-Aid (it took them 10 minutes to come on the line ) and they said they could send someone out and would call me in 15 minutes to get directions. I was hoping they could get me to a garage to put a new tire on but they said everything would be closed (it was Sunday @ 8pm) so I had them place the call to dispatch someone, just in case something went wrong and then I immediately started pulling everything out of the trunk to change it myself. I liked the white gloves that Merc has with the tire set too! and I changed it in 10 minutes. The jack that Merc supplies works really well too! It didn't take any time to get the car off the ground. Much easier than using the jack for my Honda. My wife and I got back to our hotel and I finally get a call (over an hour later) asking if I still needed assistance. I told them I took care of it.

Nick

PS It's nice to know the Tele-Aid feature worked though! I think I'm gonna go 255 instead of the 245 this time. I love the fat wide rear tires!

emax

Lucky you have a spare tire, if my tire goes flat I have to hope a can of fix a flat works

FrankW

go figure...last time I had a flat was on a Sunday as well, call roadside and they said they couldn't do crap other than calling a tow truck to help changing the tire, but guess what I don't have a spare, so they couldn't do anything. In the end good thing I was only 1000ft away from the community where I live, so I slowly limp the car into the gate and park on the side of the road. The fix-a-flat is totally worthless since my tire where shredded on the side.

Tele-Aid is still useless in my book. My sister had an accident once and first we used the Tele-Aid in her CLK320 the thing dialed through for 20min with no answer. Then we used the Tele-Aid in my dad's ML430...same result, and then we found the number to roadside assistance and finally someone picked up. When we asked for tow truck the operator said " we can only send a tow truck if it was an emergency" at this point my dad got pissed and said "what do you consider an emergency then?" this is with us already told him that the car has a smashed windshield, dented hood, grinding noise from the suspension, etc etc and the car was not in a drivable condition. We ended up driving it back to the house (2min away) with eye looking out from the side cuz the front windshield is completely smashed and called the tow-truck ourself.

MBusa is lucky that both time we were near our house. If not we probably would've sue them.

sdsilverm3

I'm glad I didn't subscribe to that useless Teleaid. Sorry to hear of your guys' crappy experiences with it. AAA is still my favorite even though I haven't had to use it on the MB yet. *knocks on wood*

Fifth Ring

Agreed. My two best modifications: (1) Tele-Aid Delete, and (2) Spare Tire Add. Of course, doing these will ensure that I never get a flat!

Nickerz

Yeah, my impressions of Tele-Aid weren't that great either but I thought if there was an accident...they would certainly consider it an emergency! That's ridiculous.

Also, the spare I have comes deflated (otherwise it wont fit in the trunk if it's inflated) so I noticiced a can of air that can be used to inflate the tire if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. I was able to use the gas station air and save the can for an emergency. Not sure if many realize this or not.

Lastly, I dropped my car off at the dealership and they tried telling me that the tire I want was too big for the car (255 / 35) I called TireRack and they assured me it's fine. They have it listed to fit the C55 in their database. So I called the dealership back and told them to order it anyway. They sounded like they still didn't believe me. I hope this tire is okay, even with luggage in the trunk. Will this cause any rubbing?

Thanks,
Nick

Fifth Ring

Go buy the tire and bring it to the dealer. You'll get what you want and probably save yourself an enormous markup.

FrankW

you'll be fine. The w203 on 18" is suppose to run 225/40/18 and 255/35/18.

Nickerz

Yeah, I normally do this but the dealer said they had my tire in stock but then they called me back later in the day and told me they didn't have my tires and will have to order it. So I got a free loaner car out of it (C230) which I can use at no cost until my tires come in. It sure beats driving around on the spare. In the mean time, I can see what this C230 has as I drive the heck out of it!

Thanks guys!

eLTURCOamg

if i had the loaner c230 they would have to order new tires for it to by the time they get it back from me

doofoo

teleaid sucks *****. I was trying to make a reservation to grab a bite to eat, the drive was over an hour and I never was connected during the entire drive.

It used to be awesome when I first got the car, they picked up right away. Now you are lucky if you can get anyone ever. At least they haven't outsourced to india though.

lauer87

I believe they have outsourced it, not sure to where though. Our family had a very bad experience with tele aid as well. Someone at my dealertold me tele aid uses the same people/service that on star uses.