shogomad

Hi all. I'm new to this site. I've grown up with MB all my life, and this year i bought my very first MB on my own, which is a CLK 500. I really want to upgrade the wheels, but tirerack.com is not giving me the option to view this wheels on my car:

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Displ...2FMachined+Lip

Can anybody help me in trying to fit these wheel on my car, and if that is not possible, then why? Thanks to everyone who views or helps.

Chi500

If you're buying from tirerack, and they say it will fit your car, it will fit. Otherwise you might need spacers and longer bolts. To figure that out you need to have the offset of the wheels.

Ken Uyeda

Very nice. The wheels you're looking at are the AMG Styling IV 2-piece wheels. They do offer them for the C/A209-chassis CLK-Class cars. Here are the part #'s, recommended tire sizing, and specs for your CLK:

B6 603 1362 8.5x18 ET30 (225/40R18) Front Axle
B6 603 1363 9.5x18 ET18 (255/35R18) Rear Axle

Make sure that these are the ones you buy if you are installing them on a CLK as they make this style in other widths, offsets, and also with the lug holes to accomodate 14mm lugs instead of the 12mm required for your car...

shogomad

thanks for the info ken! at what store online could i find these wheels? thanks everybody for your help

AMG_55

do not get 18in wheels, go w/ 19
8.5 fr w/ 235/35/19 and 10rr w/ 265/30/19

if u want to run 275 on the rear (thats what i got) u will need to cut or grind about 1/6 in of metal from the inside on the outside :p part of the fender, u can see anything unless u stick ur head into the wheelwell.

u can c my car ( i got a few mean looking rear shots)
in the clk55 amg pic thread pg.4

AMG_55

if u get these wheels dont get these ***** tire sizes, go w/ 235 and 265

Ken Uyeda

I'm only posting the factory recommended tire specs. With modification there are always more aggresive options. AMG does offer the Styling IV 2-piece wheels in a 19" option as well, but for other chassis that do not cross over with the 209:

C215 CL-Class & W/V220 S-Class: uses 14mm lugs and offset too high
R230 SL-Class: uses 14mm lugs and offset too low
W211 E-Class: uses 14mm lugs

onkelmarknr1

i've got 19" amg 235-265 on my car. looks so much better then 18"! but they rub. the shop who installed and dropped my car tried 6 times to make it away, but were not able to. i am convienced that every 19 inch wheel is rubbing on the fenders (even if it is just a little). if you don't turn hard curves while you drive ( 90 degrees) you should be good. if you do and like to drive agressive then don't put 19" on there.

mark

Frisco

As an example of the impact of the size of the wheels - here is my car back when I had 18s and springs and then more recently with 19s and coilovers. In as much as the size of the wheel changes the look of the car, the suspension settings can also have a big impact on the overall appearance.

carlssonW208Rs

if you still need rims
i can hook you up with various brands
i-forged , DPE , DCR , HRE , And Etc

gonzomtl

i would this fit on my car..clk 500

gonzomtl

275-35-ZR 19 TOYO PROXES T1R

Hotspur1066

My understanding is that more can be less, in that if the 19"s with wider tires - there could be a conflict with the stock suspension.

I currently have the 19" with 235 + 265s and really wonder if I'm better going back to stock, or at least the AMG rims - for improved handling?

Mercedes spent a lot of effort fine tuning the suspension - so I'm concern I might mess it up. I don't care about aesthetics - just handling.

M-bENZ

Show us ur 19" rims ....

Hotspur1066

PLUS THIS IS WHAT ONE OF MY FRIENDS CONTRIBUTED

On the subject of your 2005 CLK500, according to the MB CLK brochure of that model year, the standard wheels for cars with the sport package were 17". Specifically,

Front: 17x7.5 wide with 225/45/17 rubber

Back:17 x 8.5 with 245/40/17.

The car is fitted with a sport-suspension, but not an AMG suspension.

The CLK55 had 18s, with 225s on the front and 255s on the back and had an AMG suspension.

replacing the stock wheels with 19s, which are much wide than stock and replacing the tyres with 265s in the back and wider tyres in the front, without modifying the suspension also will seriously degrade the car's handling in two ways.

Firstly, the manufacturer desings a suspension so all the componenents, namely shocks, springs, swar-bars and tyres work together. Tyre sidewall height and stiffness is an integral component in suspension compliance, meaning compression and rebound characteristics. The springs and shocks are tuned to this. Going from 17 to 19 will give you a much harder ride and place much more strain on the springs and shocks because the tyres are not providing their required.

Secondly, using much wider wheels and tyres will significantly alter the vehicle track. 265s may look more sporty, but they'll make the car much more twitchy and inclined to lean in corners because the tyres are wider and stick more. Since the suspension is not designed to handle this increased stickiness. Also, the car will tramline a lot more and handling will actually suffer because the suspension and alignment settings are not designed to accomodate much larger wheels and tyres.

Note that the CLK55 uses the same wheel widths f/r and has only a 1" increase in wheel size.

If that were my car, the most I would go to is using 18"s in the stock width with the CLK55 tyre sizes. The car has 35/lbft of torque more than the 500, so 255s should be more than adequate to put the power down.

COMMENTS PLEASE

tw2

Wider tires are not more sticky. Sticky tires are more sticky. Bigger wheels usually increase unsprung weight making braking and acceleration both worse. Get better tires lighter wheels and better sway bars if handling is the priority.

Hotspur1066

Does anyone know if MB offered a 18" wheel option on the A209 - CLK500?
Thanks