Thanks for the info Darius

btw, what's the original bolts lenght?

 

I don't have the exact length of the OEM bolts with me but that depands on the rims. The OEM 16" rims that came with my car have much longer bolts becouse of the depth of the holes. Bottom line is that the length of the bolt sticking out once its inserted in to the rim, is what is important and at least on my 03 CLK320 that is 5/8ths of an inch. What ever you do, just be sure you get the same length sticking out as your OEM wheels and you will be fine. If you are adding spacers, just add the spacer thickness to what you need. Different rims will need deferent bolt lengths.

 

Has anyone tried the 10mm wheel spacer on the rear with 19"x9.5" 35mm offset wheels & 265/30/19 tires ? I am wondering if it will fit without rubbing the fendor.

 

I think it should fit no problem from my memory, but that depends one tire and if you are lowered. The new tire is in and I should be able to get the wheels on the car this weekend. Then I can check for sure, but there was quite a bit of room.

 

i'm running this exact set up and am rubbing on moderate turns. btw, i am lowered with H&R springs with stock shocks

my solution to my problem is either running a 255 tire or going with a 6mm spacer.

 

I guess its due to the H&R springs? I'm stock and have 255 tire. I will know by Monday how much room I have left with out any spacers

 

I have H&R springs and Koni shocks. So it's pretty much same set up as yours. I have 3mm spacer for the rear now, but I am thinking go a little bit more since it looks like there is room. By the way, with 5mm spacer, what size of bolt you use ? Any suggestion for the wheel spacer besides H&R brand ?

 

just measure your bolt and add 2mm

I'm not sure how short the bolts can be while still being safe. All I know is the max length of thread that can be sticking out. Perhaps you don;t need a longer bolt if you reduce the thread by only 2mm, but I'm not sure.

 

OK, finally I got the new tire replaced and put the wheels on the car! Looks awesome, a bit strange for now, got to get used to the new look. Wife things I'm crazy The rear looks good to me, don't like the sunken look of some bigger drops but the front is a bit too high. Will take some pictures later and post them.

I did have a bit of I hope temporary problem with the rears. On the first test drive I had what sounded like a rubbing sound coming from the passenger rear. Inspecting closely again I did not see any space issues and could not figure out where the sound was from. It was in and out as the wheel turned and was not very loud. Its hard to see behind the wheel as there is not much room to stick a hand in and I can hardly get my head under the car but it definitely has plenty of room as far as I can tell. I had my wife drive the car the next day while I was walking along and the sound was gone. Did maybe 20 min of test driving at varies speeds and all sounds good. No idea what the hack it could have been. Maybe something to do with the e-brake not releasing completely on the first run? I engaged and unengaged it a few times after the initial noise.

As for the ride, its definitely stiffer but not more noisier then the OEM with the winter tires. The Winter tires did sound louder and stiffer then the OEM all season tires which is normal. I have not done any higher speed cornering at this point.

Existing setup stand like this:

Front: 19x8.5 32mm offset with 225/35/19 Toyo FZ4 tires, 3mm spacers, 24mm bolts
Rear:19x9.5 35mm offset with 255/35/19 Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tires, no spacers, 24mm bolts

On the fronts with no drop going with a bit wider 235 tires I think would look better. Original owner of these rims had the car dropped with Eibach springs and according to him these Toyo 225 wide tires were chosen do to the side wall angle to eliminate or reduce the chance of rubbing on some turns.

Hopefully I'm now good with the wheels and can move on to my next stage of mods and that is getting the OEM AMG bumpers painted and installed Now the only thing left is getting this threw the wife with out a fight

 

Good Luck with that one

 

Yes the wife factor. Luckily I already purchased the bumpers and if things work out I will get them painted and installed in exchange for some computer work.

By the way, did you vinyl the roof or is it painted? This is exactly one of the mods on my list. How much did it cost?

 

It's painted, I think it was $400 for the roof and roof spoiler

 

Well I had the wheels on the car for 3 weeks. So far so good aside from loosing air in the other rear tire. The one that came with the wheels. Someone who mounted them cracked the edge part of the tire. That's what I was told at the tire place when I replaced the other one. So I guess I will have to get that one replaced as well. Too bad as it still has plenty of thread left. It holds for maybe 3-4 days and these are flat running tires so I guess I can just pump it up every few days. Good I have a small portable compressor I can keep in the trunk that uses the cigarette lighter

It's basically a 4x4 now on the front. I don't mind the back as I'm not a biggest fan of a tucked in look but the front is quite bad now.

















Sorry for the bad pictures, it was taken with a small camera in bad light. I need to drag out my SLR and take some pictures outside in the sun (when we get sun back in Chicago).

 

looks good, how many school buses can you jump over at one time?

 

Come on I'm already depressed about it, don't make it any worse

I'm still trying to decide if I should go springs/shocks or coilovers

 

Nice wheels dariusf! Very Clean!

I run stock springs with Bilstein HD shocks/struts. My wheels have a et35 offset and found that my front wheels would rub against my shock when I turn and reverse (or do really high speed cornering ). I added a 3mm spacer and it solved the problem.

 

Thank you! Looks very racy now I do need the drop and bigger brakes once I get my AMG bumpers installed

My fronts are ET32 and rears ET35. I'm running 3mm spacers on the front and will add 3mm spacers in couple days just got to find the time to do it.

Did you have stock none AMG or AMG spring, I think they are deferent? How do you like the ride quality comparing to stock shocks? I guess the ride did not get any lower with the stock springs? You do look lower then my.

Also what was the reason for the Sway bars? was the camber so bad?

 

I would imagine that you would have issue rubbing the shock with ET35, I was very close to the OEM one with ET32 that's why I added the 3mm spacers to get that to ET29. With the OEM shock and 3mm spacers I got a clearance of about 8mm between the shock and the back edge of the wheel.

 

Swat bars improve handling

 

I'm riding on the stock Non-AMG CLK500 springs. You can read about my experiences with suspension settings here:
https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...installed.html

In a nut shell, I tried to lower my car with H&R springs, but I wasn't too happy with the setup. I decided to leave the Bilstein shocks/H&R sway bars in and I noticed my handling improved greatly (My friend drives a stock 2004 CLK55 and we both agree my car handles better ).

 

I know I was just asking why he had to do it in his case, if it was a big camber issue or just performance

 

Just handling in this case. I do have a slight rear camber issue, but I'll need an adjustable camber arm to fix it (I'll install one when I get a set of PSS9s).

 

Your ride looks very sharp and clean. Right now I'm thinking of going with new shocks and pair with Eibach springs for softer ride. Sounds like your rubbing issues were related to the offsets. Based on your statement "there is a lot less body roll and understeer" regarding the sway bars, other then I guess correcting the camber issue, I'm not sure if 500+200 install is something I want to spend now. If I were spending that much I guess I would go to coilovers. Not that there would be no camber issues but hopefully would be able to set it up to minimize it.

Do you remember where you got your Bilstein shocks/struts and approximate cost for all 4?

Thanks
Darius

 

By the way I really like your drop, not too aggressive and nice and even.

 

Thanks Darius! My friend has a tuner shop so I bought the Bilsteins there. I paid $700 for the set. If I had to do it all over again, I would just get the coil-overs (PSS9s), adjustable camber arm (necessary when you lower the car; coil-over independent), H&R sway-bars and have them all installed at the same time.