Davel

I usually avoid driving it when the white stuff is on the ground (hate the thought of someone sliding into it!), but here in the DC area we have had quite a few snow storms lately and i have gotten caught 3 times in these snow storms. Mine is not a 4matic and i have had no problems at all getting the car home safely, now i did purchase new tires about a year ago TOYO Versado's. I not going very fast 25mph, but slow and steady gets me home with little to no drama.

AreL11

My car hasn't moved since last Thursday... EFF this SNOW!

blueC230K

Can you make it going uphills from a stop?? I have a rwd W210 with Dunlop WinterSport M3 and I can't make it when there's a slight incline.

nstanford99

yeah im up in pittsburgh and we are getting hammered right now, my car is a blast to drive in the snow, 4matic is the ****!

Yuille36

I'm in Alexandria, VA, and we are in blizzard conditions right now. I can tell you that driving either my C300 or the E63 is flirting with disaster. The C300 is a better fit for driving in the snow, but the AMG forget it. Too much Hp and torque for the road to handle, it doesn't matter what type of tires that are on the car. It's an AMG. i'm from pittsburgh, and I know those hills are no joke to get up and down from. i GLK would have been a better fit, instead of the C300.

nstanford99

hahah yeah man we are in a blizzard too, you can forget amg in the snow, all of our cars are 4matic except for the SL500, which doesnt do anything in the snow, i like snow, but this is tooooo much of it everywhere! what part of pittsburgh you from?

herrakani

Get some winter tyres and turn your esp off bro's. Only time you get a 220 CDI sideways is in snow.

We got 2 feet of snow up here.

007_e350

Can someone confirm too much driving in snow can cause the oxygen sensor to malfunction ?

007_e350

Hey nstanford99,
Are you running CLS's staggered wheels ? There are posts here that explain how staggered setup can damage the 4Matic drivetrain .. bottom line is they say the overall diameter of all 4 wheels should be the same

I'm craving staggered wheels but this is whats holding me back...

nstanford99

I bought my e500 back in december and yes the previous owner was running staggered CLS wheels, i heard about the problem and instantly changed it to have all 4 wheels on the 18x8.5's, before i did that the rear wheels where 18.9.5's. i didnt wanna mess up anything with the car.

herrakani

Haha what?

fortlaudsummer

be interesting to hear some stories of some of you with lowered cars and how youre faring

Davel

Did that twice but dont make it a habit, i try to leave a distance infront of me before red lights and inclines so i dont have to stop. I had lots of practice driving in the snow in my youth on a 69 Malibu with bias py tires, talk about 360s. I did learn going up my drive way, if you start to lose traction, turn the esp off, with it on you can floor it and not much power at all

herrakani

You should be quite safe with WinterSport m3's. Just use minimum amount of gas to get your car moving. If all else fails -> esp off and floor it.

I've gotten stuck once this winter, a parking spot uphill which wasn't plowed for a while. Had to get people to push me off.

novae500

i'm lowered on renntech ELM...had to use the raise button on the console to bring it up. Then ended up going in via laptop and bringing back to stock...4finger gap now, but good for the snow/ice we got in DC Metro area

health services

I'm lowered, 265 in front and 285 in the back. Went up big bear, had to use cables on the back tires I had raised it up with the airmatic. Not a lot of fun, met my dad up there in his Honda and we drove in it for the remainder of the stay. Went up and down a fair amount of steep hills. Front end pushed a lot and I thought I'd be into the side of the mountain or off the cliff a couple times. At that point I decided it'd be wiser to slow down a little.




There were a couple of inclines, where there was not going to be any way I could go up without the traction control off.

Yes, this socal guy is a wussie.

The cables would not let me get up past 40-45 mph after I put them on, as they started touching the inner fenderwell

And no they are not winter, or all season tires.



the sand that was put on the roads sure beat up the paint though

007_e350

Oh ok - did you see a difference in ride / handling going staggered to unstagg ?

007_e350

I know its funny - the analagy given was the oxy sensor is somewhere on the exhaust mani & salt-gravel-slushy mixture on continuous undercarriage splashing could cause it to malfunc - I'm still looking for more evidence thou

herrakani

In Finland we get 4-6 months of winter, sleet, salt, snow, ice, whatever from 32 F to -10 F. The salt and sand gets your undercarriage to rust if not properly protected and regularly washed. I wash my undercarriage about monthly and if I rebuild something, I epoxy paint the parts to keep from rusting. My american made cars are great in the winter b/c they all leak from the rear crankshaft seal, it keeps the underbody freshly oiled and that keeps from rust.

nstanford99

ummm a little bit, the handling got a little better in the snow, but i also i had to get the tires changed. Running the staggered will mess up the 4matic system from what ive heard, and we get a good bit of snow up in here in pittsburgh, so i didnt wnna mess with that, plus it didnt even really look an different.

06E55

I am located in Raleigh, NC (originally from a small town in northwestern PA that is about 15 miles from the New York state line, needless to say, the area gets POUNDED with snow due to Lake Area and being in the Allegheny River Valley). Anyway, we got a few inches of snow down here a few weekends ago that actually stuck to the roads for a day or two...

Man, I had an absolute blast driving my 06 E55 in the snow!!! I tried to make my car fishtail (within reason) and couldn't do it with the ESP. Turn that off, and it's a different story... I felt pretty confident with my cruise control set at 60 (it is 55MPH zone) and had absolutely no problems. I was passing many other vehicles with no problems. Not once did I feel that I was in danger of losing control... This is with ultra-high performance tires that are over a year old on the front and about 6 months old on the back (needless to say, that on this car, both sets are due to be replaced). The road is pretty curvy and has a lot of hills as well... I have driven many front-wheel drive vehicles in the snow and I would say that this vehicle outhandled any of them!

I guess it is all a matter of what you are used to driving in. I used to drive an S-10 around in the winter with no weight in the back in an open field in the snow just so I could learn how to correct a slide... One thing you have to learn is NOT to hit the brakes when you feel your vehicle sliding... You need to take your foot off the accelerator just a tad (but not too much, as this can make your vehicle slide just like hitting the brakes) and turn your steering wheel slowly wherever you intended to go (basically turning into the slide [e.g., if your rear ending is sliding out toward your right as you are sliding, you turn the steering wheel to the right]. This is something that takes practice, as your instinct is to slam on the brakes and turn your steering wheel in the direction the front of your car is going (instead of the direction that the rear of vehicle is going). You also need to learn the "feel" of your car during different situations (including the feel of the steering wheel). I can feel when my vehicle is about to hydroplane or slide before it actually does...

blueC230K

your sarcasm cracks me out haha

pa28pilot

My dealer used to sell great tire chains (RUD Euromatic) for my W124, but doesn't sell chains anymore apparently. With the incorporated hoop, they're trivial to put on and remove.

Has anyone tried high-end tire chains on their W211? How did they fare?

It seems in the D.C. area, no one knows what a tire chain is. Fortunately I got my older 300E running recently. With about 200 pounds of sandbags in the trunk and chains on the rear tires it does rather well in snow.

My wife's ML (she tows a horse trailer, so she gets the SUV), seems to do ok, but I think it would do a lot better with real snow tires. The all-seasons are fine, but it's not the same. I haven't been able to convince her that a spare set of wheels with snow tires might actually be a good idea.