C63 Snow Usage...Anyone??
 

Want to get a disscussion going on anyone on the east/midwest using their C63's in the snow. I just moved here from San Diego (born and raised) for business. But rear wheel drive? Salt? Moisture? Salt rocks hitting the paint? Slipping? How much torture can these babies take? What are your takes on not taking them out until it clears up in April and care while they sit in the garage...And to all you guys that are going to rub it in that your in Cali...Chillout...I already know how good you have it.

Heck i just added a roof rack and am heading to the mountains this weekend!

From another thread... haha, I am getting a lot of mileage from these pics!

http://www.benyl.com/C63AMG/IMG_0392.JPG
http://www.benyl.com/C63AMG/IMG_0393.JPG
http://www.benyl.com/C63AMG/IMG_0394.JPG
http://www.benyl.com/C63AMG/IMG_395.JPG

Check this out as well!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../IMG_3804S.jpg

holy ****! were you able to get out of that snow with the 63?

Sebringsilver, Benyl, SICK PICS!!!!!!!!!...Rugged and unstopable!!! Post some more angles!! How is your performance?! What tire types?! Any slippage issues?!

Absolutely. The car, when equipped with proper snow tires, behaves impeccably in the winter. Ice is a bit trickier than snow, however, so you still have to be careful as I'm sure you know.

(Sidenote: I see you a fair bit over on Audizine. Nice to see you over here as well! :y)

Unfortunately, I didn't take any more photos that actually show the car on that particular occasion. It does do pretty well in the snow, so if the point of your thread is to ascertain how practical it is in the winter, I don't think you should be too worried. I ran Hankook W300 IceBears last year when we had that huge snowfall, and didn't really have any problems. I did need a push on one occasion when there was some hard-packed ice underneath the snow, but other than that, it was all good.

If you're ordering snow tires for your OEM wheels, I believe most of us are using 235/40ZR-18 both front and rear. I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts as well.

Good luck.

Can we put 235/40ZR-18 on the rear OEM rims? Benz service told me that I have to order a pair of new wheels (same as the OEM front ones) in order to put on the snow tires. But I don't want to spend extra money on just a pair of rims.

Get yourself some same size wheels (same as E class) and proper snow tires - as narrow as possible - and enjoy. I'm in Naperville and the car is fantastic in the white stuff. Highly predictable, easy to drive and in fact I was out running 4x4's on "all season" rubber yesterday and laughing to the exhaust noise.

Driving it on Blizzaks, and so far so good. Last winter I garaged it and drove my S4, but decided to sell that car and consolidate to 2 after what I'd heard/read about people doing fine w/ snow tires on the AMG.

I did last year and it was fine. :)

I live in Calgary as well, and got my C63 as a winter car. Nice thing about Matte Black, snow doesn't stick to it at all!

http://www.virgeweb.com/rage2/c63amg/23.jpg

We got a rediculous amount of snow, and have been driving the C63 fine everyday. Like SebringSilver, I'm using the Hankooks IceBears for winters. They're OK in the snow and ice, it's the cold dry performance that's awesome. They have really good dry grip for a winter tire.

I drive pretty much with ESP-Sport mode, all the time, and ESP-Off at nights. ESP sport gives enough wheelspin to get going a lot easier from a stop (ESP-On is TOO intrusive), and ESP-Off when nobody's around so I can drive like an @sshole.

Is it okay to use 225/40/18? That is what they recommended at Tirerack with 18x8 rims with a +48 offset. I figured if Tirerack recommended it then it should work. I also believe that with the 225, I'd probably get a little more dig through the snow.

Does anyone know what backspacing means for a rim? I thought the only worry for aftermarket rims was to get a correct offset.

I have 225s all around. Allows for rotation so that the better tires are always on the rear of the car.

oh okay, i was wondering because people had posted that they were running 235s all around instead. didn't know if there was a reason.

ok in snow storm with 225/40
 

we just had a snow storm in montreal today. drove the car to and from work. no issues at all. I got a set of 4 wheels and 4 225/40 dunlop 3d and they work fine.

i'm sure that the 2nd battery that is in the trunk helps with weight distribution and improves the traction of the car.

bought the wheels and tires from tire rack. wheels were 121$ each. Dunlop were not too expensive either.

What tire pressure are people running for 18" snow tires? do we run the same pressure as our stock tires?

I dunno but 225 on a C63 would look sort of funky no? I have 275 rear and i cant imagine 225 on this car. I understand it is for the winter but I want the car looking its best all 4 seasons. Then again I have a G35X for the snow so some people need to use whatevr they have.

Pressures for the winters are located on the gas cap (weird location, I know). I think it was 39 psi or something all around.

Why is that weird? That's SOP from what I've experienced...

Where would you recommend placing it instead..?

I know others have said that the C63 makes it fine through the snow, but as an excellent (IMHO) and VERY experienced Winter driver, I would have to say that the C63 is by far the worst Winter driver I have ever owned, and that includes tons of HP cars.

Last year, I could not even get out of my slightly hilly driveway, and that was with a great set of snows on the C63. Therefore, it spent most of the time parked since my ML430 with a 107K miles on it is a veritable Snow Beast for skiiing.

Good luck and safe motoring!

The rest of the tire pressures are located on the drivers door. I would have expected them to be in the same place.

if you are running the recommended winter tire size by MB 225/18 all around, the recomended tire pressure is from what i understand 43 psi all around. Check inside your gas cap. it says + 4 psi for warm tires or winter tires. So I guess that's 39 + 4 = 43 psi. That's what I'm running right now.

As far as drivability goes I used to have an RX8 and the C 63 is way more drivable in winter. Probably because it's much more heavy. If you do get you rear on some wet ice even on a few degree of incline your not going anywhere unless you have some studded tires. But any other rear wheel drive car wouldn't fare much better I guess.

As far as looks go for the 225 tires in the rear, i guess it does look kinda funny but only seen from the back of the car. When you look at the car from the side, if you have the proper offset for your wheels the tires fit just right with the fenders like the OE wheels so it actually looks A OK.