Lazz83

Yup, thats what i hear and its been proven in my case.

A few months back I gently brushed the side of my front rim against a curb while parking. When I got out to look there was a 4" scrape mark on the edge of the rim with aluminum scrapings that looked like grated cheese. Although I was bummed about the cosmetics of it, I thought nothing else. Surprisingly, I did notice a slight vibration in the steering between 80-90 mph the next time I went on the high way.

Well I recently went in to have all season tires put on my car and was surprised to find out that the particular rim that was scraped was also warped- from a 2 mph impact scrape?? The shop found this out when balancing the new tires.

"Luckily" the Business Manager at my dealership talked me into the $1600 rim protection warranty, lol. So they are going to correct this problem under that warranty. Do yourself a favor and don't get talked into this upsell. There are lots of local rim repair shops in every town and if you do happen to get an issue, they will fix it a whole lot cheaper than the $1600 rim warranty- on a side note, do avoid pot holes at all costs...

My point is that I am very surprised that the rims where this flimsy and will definitely upgrade to something better in the future.

Maybe its just the lower end AMG ones but I have heard complaints before.

Who would have thought...

unr1

2 mph for a 3800 lb vehicle is a lot of momentum. Just saying.

Lazz83

I've "kissed" curbs many times, in many different cars and have never had an issue like a warped rim. I guess I should have put that in the original post.

There have also been several posts on this forum about the delicate nature of these rims.

alexasa

iTrader: (1)

The two damages probably occurred separately and curbing the wheel just raised your attention to watching for any effects caused by the curbing.

I bent 3 of the wheels in 10k miles and then shelved the crappy OEM wheels.

NYCSoiL

Your rims are not AMG wheels, real AMG rims are forged

alexasa

iTrader: (1)

so you come in to be rude and supply misinformation at the same time? good job.

joc

I have had a lot of cars and rims get scrapped and hit pot holes which some times bends them. A real good wheel man can make them look like new again. These guys are like old 'Blacksmiths" they they know how to heat and bend and then re polish. I know this as my friend in KC is called the "wheel doctor" and I have seen him work on old steel 12" wheels, motorcycle spoked wheels, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Lamborgene, a lot of the big dealers bring the wheels to him, and wheels all the way up to 28" low rider wheels. There are many people out there that say they can do it and end up messing them up. I would say on average he charges around $150-$250 per wheel. I am not trying to sell his service, what I would advise is to find a local shop that has lots of good reference, go see there work , see how it is done and then make your decision. I personally would not pay a $1600 insurance policy.
Just some information for thought, its like finding a good body shop go look at there work and see there references.
John

NYCSoiL

What misinformation? Oh, I forgot, C43 is a real AMG and of course it comes with real AMG wheels. Bad job, Mercedes, your budget rims, designed by AMG, are budget and do not hold up as well as forged rims.
You can crack/bend any cast rims.

alexasa

iTrader: (1)

No, forged wheels are an OPTION on many AMG models, not the standard.

Many TRUE AMG cars have cast wheels coming from the factory, like the C63 for example.

NYCSoiL

I didn't say they are Standard, yes, they are optional and they are not available as an option on 43 series.

alexasa

iTrader: (1)

So c63 cast wheels are not AMG wheels? What is the point you're trying to make and how is it relevant to the conversation at hand?

cenzo86

I don't want to get in the middle of this pissing contest, but NYCsoil isn't calling the 43 a fake AMG, I think he's had 2 of them. It sounds like he IS harping on the quality of the Mercedes built cast wheels and saying forged is the way to make a strong wheel.
Anywho. Those wheel packages are usually garbage. I read the fine print on the one my dealer sold, and it wouldn't replace a wheel unless it was leaking air. My salesman (old friend) is shaking his head at me as I'm reading it. He didn't even offer it, I asked about it. This plan also prorated the cost of replacement tires based on your wear at the time of the incident.
FWIW, I pay around $125 a wheel for refinishing here in Queens.

NYCSoiL

Yes, this is exactly what I meant to say
I paid $80 to fix my rims. Twice already…

Also, after driving real AMGs at the AMG Driving Academy I no longer call 43 a real AMG. It's so far away from real AMGs. Unfortunately.. Fake AMG - no, wouldn't say that. Baby AMG - may be. AMG Marketing move to make money - absolutely.

RichardCranium3

Agreed on all points. Although, by the time we were "down" to the C43's at Laguna Seca, they were letting us (me at least when I was front car chasing my instructor) push pretty deep in to the capabilities of the car when compared to the time spent in the GTS and E63S. Much closer to the limit in the C43 compared to the rest. Now the CLA45 AMG for the slalom/autoX......complete and utter pile of ****!

DRLC43

Jeez the ‘C43 is not an AMG’ trolls are now talking about rims? Why do they get on this site.

DRLC43

my package replaces wheels and tires, if had this coverage on my last few Jags, I would have saved thousand. I live in Boston and have destroyed 4 rims in a year before and at least that many tires. These packages are all different from dealer to dealer. I have already gone through two tires in 6 months.

CClement

I've had everything from stock cast wheels to super high end HRE forged and I'll tell you that none of them survive any sort of curbing. Curb rash is curb rash regardless.

And for those that consider the c43 a 'fake' AMG, I came from this and I can tell you that the c43 is no fake!

cenzo86

You guys really should read everything more carefully. The discussion isn't whether hitting a curb will ugly your rim, the thread is about why the wheel went out of true from hitting a curb. The assertion that was made is that a cast wheel is more prone to warping than a forged wheel. LETS DISCUSS THAT.
Please stop bringing up the fake AMG thing. EVERYONE. We have our own board here so we don't have to go back and forth about this topic. Besides, we have something no W205 body real AMG has... RED SEAT BELTS WOOOO!

Lazz83

Yup that's what I thought. At what price point do they start putting Forged AMG wheels on?

I paid the extra money for my rims thinking I was getting a better product.

NYCSoiL

Actually not true

The only advantage is 4Matic. I'd love to see a C63S Coupe with 4Matic+, what a beast it would be…

Lazz83

Dude they have the new E63s AWD, which is essentially the same as C63s, but with all wheel drive and a few more ponies. Stock it scoots to 60mph in 3.2 seconds, although it starts at $100k so...

Lazz83

According to the old lore, an AMG should have a big bad ***, high performance V8 motor stuffed in a luxury car, that makes tons of tire smoke, scares the **** out of passengers and has a very loud exhaust. By those factors the C43 is not a real AMG per say, but I have scared the **** out of many a passengers with my acceleration. For what the C43 is it is a great car and affords some of us the pleasure of owning an AMG when "the Real One's" are out of most C43 buyers price range. The "Real AMG's" have always been true super cars, the C43 give us some of that without the crazy six figure price- for that I am grateful.

I am not sure about road course performance- but the C43 can hit 0-60 in 3.6 sec and a 1/4 mile of 12.1 with just an ECU tune- not many $55-60k performance cars can do that.

DRLC43

Pound for Pound forged wheels are stronger, but most forged wheels are using at least some of that additional strength to make the wheel lighter as opposed to significantly stronger. I think the primary reason for buying forged wheel is because of reduced weight and better performance, I think it would be a secondary reason that the wheel is going to be stronger so as to better resist damage. They may, but I doubt that you can make a positive cost benefit on durability alone.

Also all cast wheels are not manufactured using the same processes, these different processes (gravity, low pressure, flow form, etc.) can affect strength. Lastly the design of the wheel itself can make a big difference. In general I think performance is the primary reason to buy forged wheels. You may get some durability benefit, but I have also bent forged wheels and they also cost much more to replace.

Lazz83

Thanks for the great info, this about sums it up for what I was looking for.

I posted this thread because I had my experience and was very surprised that I warped my rim, then I remembered reading that a few others board members had really bad luck with these AMG rims also. As I said this is the first time I have ever warped a rim by rubbing it gently against a curb, I have rubbed many a curb in other cars without this problem.

Then I saw the look and quality of some of Forged aftermarket rims people are putting on their and was very impressed, like Vossen for instance. I have never been a fan of stock rims on cars anyway.