esport

Hey guy's need help on fiitting my E500 with 19" or 20" wheels. The case is that I am not interested in dropping my car so I want wheels that will look good without having to drop it. The advice I need is what wheel will look good on my car and wheel and tire size. Note where I live there is lots of rain which means lots of pot holes so need good tire size and make.
Thanks..

deuce zer0

get 20's and learn to drive around the pot holes .

i dont know what tire size you would need becuause i see a lot of different ones for some reason. i had 225/35/20 but i hadnt ever seen anyone else with that size.

esport

thanks but what about the look. I am worried it will look jack up and I dont like that. If you have any pictures of w211 with stock suspention and 20" to see how it looks.

deuce zer0

i have a 210 so i cant help with pics....except to say serch the forum cuz i have seen others out with 20's on a 211. i dont think they are all dropped either.

i dont think by putting 20's that it will raise the car any. it didnt mine. it will just fill up the wheel wells and look clean.

deuce zer0

not that you dont already now this, but....nice car btw.

CALBenzo

In my opinion, anytime the distance from the top of the fender well to the top of the tire (looking from the side) is more than the distance from the top of the tire to the outer edge of wheel, it looks funny. A 4 x 4 visual effect. This will happen with either a 19" or a 20" wheel, unless you lower it somewhat.

Between the two, if you are concerned about potholes, get the 19".

One other consideration which I have noticed with my 3 piece wheels (not the ones shown in my signature), behind the spokes, the rim is concaved between the inner and outer rim edges. Hence water tends collect in the is concave portion when it rains. When driving past 50 mph when it is raining hard, the centrifugal forces dont allow the water to escape and I have a significant wheel imbalance, and hence steering wheel vibration.

A real pain, but an inherent design problem with these type wheels.

SAguirre

I personally think that your car already looks very very good!

Why don't you drive some more with the rims you have and see if they get damaged by the potholes. If your current rims get damaged, you will pretty much know that the 19 or 20s will get damaged too! This might save you some aggravation.

I love the color of your car! For obvious reasons. . .

Steve

esport

Well I had a w210 with 19" lorinser RS5 and they held up pretty good but I was getting worried about 20" but if there are any picture that could help me this would be good. The wheels I like to get are the Maya's DTS which come in 19 x 8.5 "or 9 for the front and the rear they have 19 x 10" these wheels also come in 20 x 9 and 20 x 10. That's my first choice but also as my second choice I like the maya's DTR but they only come in 20 x 9 and 20 x 10. what is a better choice or if any other style which you guy's recommend...the picture attached is an example but of a E55 with the DTR they are 20 x 9 and 20 x 10.

SAguirre

I am not a fan of the wheels design in the picture. They rims look too massive FOR MY TASTE. My eyes go directly to the wheel, no the car and the wheels.

But as you know taste is subjective. I don't know (off the top of my head) what your other choices look like, but I would much rather have your current wheels than the ones on this picture.

Currently, your car is very aesthetically pleasing and it looks perfectly balanced. But again, that is my opinion.

CALBenzo has a very good point about the ratio between the space above the tire and the size of the sidewall. I agree with him 100%, but I also am not a fan of lowering cars. However, the reason I don't lower cars is because I need the ground clearance for snow, but that is the only reason why.

Steve

RRevolution

I personally would choose the 19in wheels, which you might need to drop a little bit to do the gap btwn the tire & well. Yes, with 20s you won't need to drop it as much, BUT the ride will be absolutely horrible.

A wheel that looks similiar to that of the Maya DTR is the HRE 544R wheel. Good luck with everything.

ATS

Can't you put somthing in there to break this up, like diagonal weights equal on each side?

CALBenzo

Hey Atssytems,

I called HRE, and they mentioned that this water retention is an inherent problem in all wheels of this design. Seems pretty dumb and dangerous that they would release wheels that become unbalance when driving in the rain. I'm sure if there was an easy fix, they (and other manufacturers) would do it.

Their advice was to either drive slower when you feel the vibration, or don't drive in the rain. Some fix . Fortunately, when it rains, I usually drive my truck anyway.

Sometimes, if I slow down, the water will drain somewhat, and then I can speed up again. I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this, at least that I have seen.

deuce zer0

it wont be horrible. its a benz, how bad could it get. i always thought my mercedes with 20's had a much better ride than my g/f eclipse.

esport

Calbenzo is that problem you have because it's a 3 pcs rim? or just happens to that particular style.

CALBenzo

Probably just this style, but I really haven't looked at other 3-piece rims. On my wheels, which are the HRE 841's, viewing it in cross-section at the the bottom of the wheel, and going from the inner portion (engine side) to the outer portion of the wheel, the rim is cupped. Hence when washing my wheels, there is a significant amount of puddling behind the spoke or center of the wheel (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup of water).

When I started noticing a vibration when only driving in the rain, I suspected that was the problem. I called HRE, and they confirmed that this happens in all wheels of this profile. I'm sure that there are probably other 3-piece wheels that don't have this profile, but I have never really checked.

This is my first set of 3-piece forged wheels. In all the other alloys wheels I have had, behind the spoke, the wheel gradually tapers outward, likely to prevent this occurrence.

esport

dp you have any piture of you car with those rims on. I like the style of your rims, I was actually thinking of those but having many spokes keeps me undecided.

RRevolution

It's not just HRE's fault. Being a dealer of HRE, I was speaking to one of their representatives & they stated that all the reverse lip wheels have these problems. So all the wheels that HRE carries with an exception to 540 Series & Competition series will experience this problem.

However, the vibration will occur if you're driving your vehicle at 65+mph & when they state rain, they mean rain when it's raining cats & dogs outside. Nobody in their right mind would drive 65mph+ in these situations.

Going back to my inital statement, other wheels this happen to include: Maya, Iforged, Kinesis. I know with Kinesis, the way you can tell if it's a reverse lip is if there is a letter R behind the wheel model (ie K19r).

koko381

I have 19" Maya wheels and do not have a vibration problem at all. I would have to assume that the type of tire would also play a role in vibration in wet situations. I have Bridgestone Potenza S03 tires and love them. Look real aggressive and perform very well. My only problem is that Maya wheels, similar to Lowenhart because they are made by the same company, tend to bend easier because they are very light wheels. So I would recommend something else for you if you have a lot of potholes in the area. Goodluck

RRevolution

The only reversed lip by Maya is the STM.

esport

I have heard that HRE are one of the strongest rims available.

what do you guys recommend for my car that will look good?

does anyone know how to photoshop my car with nice looking rims?

Electro-E

Here is my W211, stock suspension...

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206989

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206990

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206992

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206993

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206995

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206996

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206998

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=206999

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=207001

Barry45RPM

Maybe shoot 'em again in daylight?

amgkoo

esport, here are some pictures of a slammed w211 E55 with 20" Maya wheels. DTRs on the driver side, and EX2 on the passenger side.






If you are worried about Pot holes, then you should get forged wheels from companies like HRE or iforged. From what I heard, Maya wheels bend easier.

I think you should go for 20" because in situations where the 20" bends, the 19" will bend as well. IMHO, you should lower your car for the wheels to look right. The height of our cars are easily adjustable because of the airmatic suspension. What I do is I just "raise" the car with the button next to the shifter when the road condition is not too good.

koko381

WOW. That car is amazing.

esport

AMGKOO thanks for the pictures they look great especially with the mayas dtr. In your photos are the cars lowered via factory airmatic only or did you have them lowered some more on side. I not interested in lowering my car. so my concern how will 20" or 19" look in my car with factory airmatic lowering. I dont want my car looking funny with big rims.