Recently purchased a 2007 E550 with the sport package. I've had the car for about 2 months and I've done a few mods. Including lowering the car with links. I have had some bad luck with the car already though. Like paying 2 grand to replace a speed sensor in the transmission and blowing out a tire on the interstate. Which I'm still wondering if was somehow caused by lowering the car and having increased negative camber. I recently purchased wheels online. It was advertised as 66.6 hub bore which is what I know i needed. And also 5x112 bolt pattern. When I got the wheels delivered, the boxes said 5x114.3 and 73.1 hub bore. But the seller marked out the 5x114.3 and wrote 5x112 with a marker on the boxes. So I assumed everything was good. When I put them on the car I could tell the center bore was too big for the cars hub. There was a lot of play in the wheel and I couldn't get the lug holes to line up good. I finally was able to hold the tire and get all the lugs in and tightened them down. At this point I knew I needed hub rings and ordered some. I figured I'd just leave the wheels on for now since I was currently riding on a spare tire from my blow out. My car starts to vibrate at speeds around 40 mph and over. So today I got curious and took one of the wheels off and did some measurements. The center bores are 73.1 and I believe the lug pattern is actually 5x114.3. I got screwed basically and now it's too late to send the wheels back because I've already had them mounted on tires. I guess i learned my lesson to always test fit wheels and not be lazy and assume they'll fit fine. I should be okay though because I just ordered some wobble bolts, which to my understanding should allow me to run the 5x114.3 lug pattern with no issues. Once I get the hub rings and wobble bolts installed should that fix my vibration issue? And will my car still be safe? Also here is a picture of my car as it currently sits considering I'm a new member and figured I'd show it off. Thanks

 

Get the hub rings, get the wheels balanced.

Find a good wheel shop you can easily have those wheels redrilled to 5x112

Ask them to redrill and sleeve. Sleeves are installed in the bolt holes reinforcing them.

 

+1

 

Hmmm, now that you say they install sleeves in the bolt holes I'm beginning to wonder if my two back wheels were actually redrilled correctly by the seller because I noticed what looks like the sleeves you might be talking about in all the bolt holes. It's just a little piece of metal that slides into the bolt holes correct? My two front wheels didn't have that in them. Maybe it's possible my bolt patten measurement was off and my wheels just weren't lining up good because I didn't have hub rings. Or maybe just my front two need to be redrilled. Im getting my hub rings today and I'm gonna try them out and see if that fixes my issue by itself. I suppose if the bolt holes still don't line up perfectly with the hub rings then I'll know for sure I need to either wait on my wobble bolts or have them redrilled.

 

Yes that is correct.


Hub centric rings have nothing to do with the holes lining up. They just create a flush interface between wheel and the car hub to eliminate any vibration.

I'd say get them redrilled so you can run standard wheel lugs and locks.
McGard makes wobble wheel locks if you can get them.

What kind of wheels are they? specs?

They look like ESR's or Varrstoen's from here.

 

I just meant that maybe it seemed like the bolt holes weren't lining up correctly since I was having to hold the wheel up while I stuck the lug bolts into it due to the play in the wheel because of not having hub rings

And they are ESR SR06's. 18x8.5 30 offset in the front and 18x9.5 35 offset in the rear.

 

Is rim redrilling legal?
I keep asking "why" ?
With so many OEM Mercedes wheels on the market, why would you buy poor quality aftermarket that doesn't fit and play with shims and washers sacrificing the safety?

 

Well I would never purposely buy wheels that required redrilling or special lugs. These wheels were advertised to be a direct fit for my E550. The wheels I received were not the same specs as what I ordered. And unfortunately I already mounted them on tires before I realized. So after spending 800 dollars on them I'm willing to do what it takes to make them fit. And I wouldn't say that redrilling or using hub rings make wheels any less safe.

 

When hub rings only increase potential wheel play and being off-center, drilling holes in rim definitely weakens the structural integrity, who'm I would question from the beginning as cheap wheels often come with cheap cast.
From what you are saying, that was evident seller error. Why don't you take the tries off and send them back?
Even if you made a non-returnable deal, is your safety and safety of others on the road worth the money?

 

I could sell them to someone else on Craigslist but if I can make them work on my car without doing anything completely unsafe then that's what I think is the best option. And I don't feel like using hub rings or even redrilling is necessarily "unsafe". What WOULD be unsafe is running them without taking those precautions. Which is exactly why the car is currently sitting in my driveway until I get the hub rings delivered.

 

No offence, I hope you will find safe way to do it