lay3r3

haven't stopped buying black color vehicles since 1997. it's times like today makes me love this color. Removed my winter set of 17" wheel and tire set. Put on the staggered 19" that was purchased about 4 months ago and had just been sitting in the basement. Drove the car through a touch-less car wash; then wiped it down (water spots) the entire car with Chemical Guys EcoSmort waterless wash. Also the car was paint-corrected and C-Quartzed just before winter. Result: looks pretty good (should last at least 24 hours before it gets dusty :-)

Airmousam

I have c Quartz finest too on black...stuff is great.. I never wipe down after touch less as I don't feel a touchless gets everything off..will have to check out the waterless wash. Thx

CEB

Little early to swap out the winters, isn't it? In addition to the snow and ice, summer tires lose grip at temps under about 50 degrees.

lay3r3

C Quartz is amazing. as the conveyor belt sends me and the car through the car wash, the last step is the blower, all is well for the front half of the car except the trunk/rear end of the car. All the dirty suds would end up to the left and right of the license plate. Just a thick film of gunk. Usually there are some water spots under the side view mirrors. I would use just the ecosmart spray as lubricant and wipe down any streaks. So far has been very happen with the results. The car stays waxy and smooth. The problem then is that the entire car surface can get caked on with dust very quickly....

lay3r3

I was getting a bit concerned about my winter set. Temp has hit 70 a few times the past 2 weeks. Otherwise we are more near high 40s/low 50s. Too early?

Royce118

Car and wheels both look great. Mind sharing more info about the wheels?

rediesel

Nice looking wheels. It looks like you're in FL based on your plates so I'm gonna guess you are OK to switch wheels. I have my new summer setup patiently waiting in the garage, but figure I need another 2-3 weeks.

lay3r3

More info on the wheels:


Those are CEC C882 style wheels purchased from Wheel Warehouse (Rick T. was the gentleman that help me). Bought tires from them as well. I ended up buying TPMS from another vendor and directly shipped to Rick. He was fine with that since he mentioned their cost was just higher than what I was buying them from.

Within the C882, this is the Gloss Black with Machine Face.
Front: 19x8.0 Offset 40
Rear: 19x9.5 Office 45

Because my car is a hybrid (all show and no go) strangely even though it came with the Sports Pkg, but only came with 17in wheels. It's the same engine as any of the E350 plus a battery that cranked 20 some more horses. The OEM wheel is 17x8.0 Offset 48, with 245/45.

Tires were Continental DWS-06
Front: 245/35/19
Rear: 275/30/19

Using www.willtheyfit.com these cleared and also the circumference were almost dead-on as the OEM overall circumference.

I purchased OEM MB center black cap from ECS Tuning for just under $80. Here is the kicker, I have heard and read on many occasions that MB center caps would only fit MB OE Wheels. Well, they are not wrong. So the issue is that MB caps have that tapered bezel in the back which fit slightly (in mm) larger than the hole. So the underwire behind the cap is larger and thicker (higher grade).

If I did nothing, the cap definitely won't even go in. so I removed the underwire (insert bra related jokes) and was able to pushed the cap in. There were 3 tabs behind the cap which were evenly spaced and served to hold the cap in place. The underwire tension was what keeping the tabs pushed out against the center hole to keep the cap in place. Now that the wire was gone, I was afraid the cap may come loose. So I reinstalled the wire from the reverse side after popping the cap on with a needle nose plier. Well, then the tension cause the cap to look all distorted (not round). So instead I used the wire that came with CEC cap. a thinner grade and also smaller circumference. The wire set fine but it felt it wasn't as snug to those tabs. So I added a bead of silicone to the area on each of the 3 tabs that held the wire in place. Note: there was also a longer tab (circled in red) which I used my dremel tool to remove. It not, that was causing that end of the cap to sit deeper. Again, its' all because the center hole of the outside is just a little smaller.

lay3r3

Not FL... won't bother with winter set if I was there! :-)


Plate was Missouri.

Airmousam

Ive never seen a touchless that uses a conveyer belt for the car, usually the touchless mechanism moves overhead...at least in the 1/2 doz different ones I've used....have also not seen any leftover dirty suds anywhere....maybe different systems up this way...thx

lay3r3

Below is the exact place I use. I think if it were the over head kind I probably won't get as much suds in the back since the wash jets would spray at the car from all angles. With the car moving forward perpetually,the water jet and dryer hose (see those black tubes) tend to just blow the water towards the back vs fully blown then away. Anyways it is what it is :-) for 8 buck for a basic wash. :-)

Airmousam

That is cool! Way different than what I see. Thx

looney100

Wow! I've got another two months before I consider putting the summer wheels back on.
I hope you don't get caught by surprise.

lay3r3

In your experience, how bad is it to drive winter in 60 and low 70 degree weather? (for Canada I guess 72 F is 22 C)

CEB

Be careful with the summers until the temps hit 50. Under 50 they remain hockey pucks even on dry roads.

Car looks great. I'm a fan of Opti-Coat but the results are very similar.

CEB

It's not bad - they'll just wear a little faster. I tend to err on the side of caution and not swap my winters until the morning temps are reliably over 50 or so. I tend to get about 40k miles (60k km) from a set of winters - so about 4 years.

looney100

Agreed. I'd rather deal with some premature wear on my winters than get caught in a cold spell or snow on my summers.