mg-E550

Was in for service today and had an allignment and wheel balancing done. They told me that both of my left side rims were bent!!! Not bad enough to recommend replacement though...at least for now.

Looking at over a grand a piece if i endup needing to have them replaced. Maybe if i have to ill just swap them all out for 19s.

Chalk it up to atrocious roads in the northeast combined with my aggressive driving.

Sorta wishing id bought wheel insurance now.

K-A

Damn, another one huh. I hope mine aren't bent yet or anything.

Sucks to hear. I'd be P'O'd to know that I'm driving around on bent wheels.

Unfortunately, 19's will probably bend a lot quicker. I'd advise to get nothing less than forget 19's, but that will cost a pretty penny on its own.

Pntblnk

This seems to be getting more prevalent with the W212's. Was this a problem with the W211's as well?

ash_cpe

Sorta wishing id bought wheel insurance now.[/QUOTE]

I have the 18" AMG and I would love to change to 17", but I have Tire and wheel insurance which is a must in the northeast.

threeMBs

Its not the car. Its the metal manufacturers who build these wheels for Mercedes (mostly Ronald of Germany and Cromodora of Italy) use.

Also, and I'm very confident saying this, most people by far, do not pay attention to tire presure. W212 "says" to use 30psi front and 32psi rear under normal driving condition. This presure is mostly for comfort. If potholes are around, I would use substantially more air for "protection" - 40psi front and 42psi read. Yes ride may suffer a bit, and I mean realy very little on 17s or 18s (I use this presure on my 19s), but your chances of avoiding blowout due to pothole will be greatly increased. Of course it does matter how hard you hit it (pothole), but your chances of "survival" it will greatly increase.

fromthebeginnin

So this may sound silly but, I actually have a fairly competent dealer, although I am not sure any of them are truly honest. When I had my 2002 S no matter which stealer I brought my car to they always seemed to find something they thought needed to be done even though I was encountering NO problems. I'm lucky enough I've had someone independent who has worked on my Porsche's for over 20 years and would always act a reference whenever they made such proclamations as you need this or that. One example was when the car just exited warranty and I turned the wheel it made a horrible sound (metal grinding), dealer said the rack had to be replaced for 5900. Went to my independent he put fluid in and it went for another 60k with no problem, now I say thanks and I always get an independent opinion for any work they want to do. Most of this seemed to occur when sales started to drop and they began to incent (yes pay commissions) to the advisors for shop work. Get a good independent opinion before you fork out your hard earned money.

Oh for the days when I had my 1990 420 sel, that baby ran for 185k with no major problems, they were a lot simpler in those days.

FEGELEIN

Happened to me a couple times already. The AMG wheels are like butter and known as such.

YYZ-E55

You should be able to purchase the Tire & Wheel Insurance at any time, so long as your tires have adequate tread.

DNAPoPo

Just curious if anybody has researched the cost on this yet?

zr1vett

I had the dealer tell me one of my rear rims was bent last week. They also told me that i could come back the next Wednesday and have it straightened for a 150. seems they have someone come in once a month to straighten rims.

mg-E550

thanks for all the responses. My tire pressure has definitely been on the low end - maybe 33 at max and I had one at 30 or so for a while.

I recall paying about 1300 for wheel insurance on my former BMW 650. I foolishly did not buy it for this car. I probably will now.

BenzE350

The driver of the flatbed truck that took my dead E350 in for service told me business is booming in Boston this year for bent rims - many of them E350 / E550's.

K-A

I have my tire pressure at 30 PSI Front, and 34 PSI Rear (Cold).

Is that low? It seems it's what's recommended in one of the stickers (why the two stickers contradict each other is beyond me).

mg-E550

UPDATE: I took the car back to the dealer after the vibration got worse again. turns out i bent a third rim.

Dealer told me they would do best efforts to repair them but might have to replace them completely (3300 all in!!) Turned out they were able to bring all three back enough that the car rides normally now!

Thanks to all of you guys that offered advice. The dealer never offered to straighten until I asked which you guys recommended (and I previously didn't know you could do)

ash_cpe

It has been a while. I have similar issue in my 2010 and I was wondering if your issue got cleared up after straightening wheels. Thanks.

LEFAT1

2 bent wheels on my CPO E350, MBdealer had them straightened by outside source and wobble is gone.

ash_cpe

Excellent! Thanks for replying.

dbldpr

it is a bummer when wheels get dented. The streets are not getting better but worse. Sorry to hear about your rims. Look on ebay sometimes they have used good rims.

Barry Hanna

Low aspect ratio tires with larger wheels have complicated this issue. It's everywhere in the industry. Tire/wheel dealers say that BMW is the worst by a large margin. The idea that the "sport" wheels and tires significantly improve handling for the average driver is an expensive delusion. Also, the M-B wheel pricing is astronomically high. $1,100 for a week that costs less than $200 to manufacture is my definition of grand-theft-auto. Or make that grand-theft-OTTO.

joeyza

The cost was $150 per wheel to straighten out. I have 17", but even that smaller diameter was no match for the potholes left behind from New England's historic winter. Some of these pot holes were damn near a foot deep.

LEFAT1

I remember that when I lived in NY, 30+ years ago.

shaheryarhusain

Sorry for reviving an old thread, New here and i thought this would be the best place to ask. I'm absolutely fed up of repairing my rims (on my 3rd set). I have 2013 E350 4matic sport, is it possible to to put 17" wheels on the car with a much fatter sidewall to take the beating. My car comes with the sport brakes so i was wondering if there will be fitment issue? I live in baltimore and our streets are horrible for sport wheels, these streets have been bending my wheels and it's something i have to consistently do like oil changes.

belarus27

it should fit no problem , get the 17s from a luxury model w212 and you good to go.
you can also add some more rubber to oem 18s amg wheels , you can run 255s in front (i would even say u can prolly run 255 45 18?) and 285 in the back with 40 or 45 sidewall.

Arrie

I have the staggered 18" sports setup and bought 17" rims and tires and they fit fine. Reason was bent rims like you have experienced.

I just recently had the original rims reconditioned and had new tires put on them with another set of pressure sensors so now I have both 17" and 18" sets to use.

17" rims fit but there is not much room (mine is a E550) but an E350 may have smaller brakes? I had wheel balance weight rubbing on the brake caliber when they first put them on but they got it fixed.

shaheryarhusain

Thanks for the fast responses
After switching over to 17"s have you felt a significant difference in ride quality? Is it a great deal smoother?