Vibration in car; bent wheels.
 

I had noticed a small purring vibration in my car at highway speeds for some time and kept wondering why it is not there on the other / rental cars which I drive. The tires have good amount of tread left on them. After a recent service they rotated the tires as well. I brought it to the service manager and they agreed to do a tire balancing, which is when they broke the news. The Front and rear passenger wheels have a slight bend in them. They gave me an estimate of around $2k for new wheels. :eek:.
Per them, the alloy wheels are very easy to bend and even a small pothole can do it. Honestly I don't even remember hitting a big enough pothole, unless you count the drainage lids in road as a potholes.

My other question is, will comprehensive insurance cover it? If yes, will they agree for new wheels or used wheels?

Also what other options do I have. Are there any wheels which are less prone to bending this easily....? :smash:. Many thanks for your replies in advance.

What air pressure are you running.... May want to keep it on the high end of the recommendation which would help.

You can have them bent back. There's a couple of places in my city that charge $100-$125 to bend the wheel back and balance the tire. Or you can pick up another wheel on eBay. Found one on Yelp and when I was at the local tire store, I mentioned it to one of the guys there and he said he also recommended some guy that they always send people to when they have bent rims. The guy that fixed mine said the OEM rims he fixes all the time and they're fine, it's the aftermarket ones that sometimes crack and can't be fixed.

I doubt if insurance would cover it and if it did, your rates might go up so it might not be worth it.

The OEM Mercedes wheels bent? I have some aftermarket rims that only cost me $1000 for all four, hit a few potholes here and there, and some other bumps and stuff. No cracks, no bends. Ultimately I wanna get some reputable rims but I gotta save up money first. Mercedes of Australia even put out a video about how strong their rims are.

If you want rims that are less prone to bent, buy some forged rims, needless to say, they are more expensive.

just had 3 of my CLK OEM rims straightened( vibration above 55 mph ) and one of my E350 OEM rims straightened(leaking air). One of the CLKs was straightened several months earlier and I didnt have any severe pothole impacts.

Was told that BMWs were even worse- the rims bend because of the way the rims are made- deep rim.

Seems the Europeans are not AS WELL BUILT AS THEY CLAIM

Okay so it seems straightening out the bend seems to be a reasonable and cheaper option. I am exploring that but without much success locally. Also I don't want to be without the vehicle for long periods since it is my daily driver. I'll keep trying.
It seems the low profile tires are to blame as well. I used to keep the pressure very high but had softened up about six months ago to improve the ride and I think that may have contributed as one poster said above. Thanks for your replies.

It has nothing to do with how well built it is. It's everything to do with the low profile tires. The lower the profile like 40 or 45, the less sidewall and the easier it is to bend a rim when hitting a pothole. I hate the super low profile and big rim trend, but it seems to turning around as the W211 had 18's as standard whereas the W212 has more 17 with the 18 as an option. I guess too many mad owners with bent rims and popped tires. Never had a bent rim when I had a car with 60 series tires.

As for finding a place to fix the bent rim, I found a place on Yelp and you could also ask the local tire chains who they use, I'm sure they get lots of people who come in for a new tire along with a bent rim. Took a day or two to get an appointment, but when I showed up, only took about an hour for him to fix it and I just waited while he did it.

I had 2 rims that would not balance out due to bends, and 1 rim that had a very slight tweak. I lived with it for quite a while, then got tired of the slight road vibration. In my case I liked the look of the OEM's so I decided to get all 4 rims checked/straightened and get a bit of color change as well. I searched locally (Houston area) and found a place that did repairs/refinishing. I'm very pleased with the repairs and the final color, all were powdercoated and the car is a rock going down the road. $600 total, wish I had done it months ago.

You can always look for a set of take offs. I have a pristine set 17" MB OEM rims waiting to take the place of the 18" staggered set on the car now. Only thing I'm waiting on is for the tires to wear out. I agree that narrow tires and tall rims are trouble waiting to happen and I prefer the slightly softer ride the 17's will give. I paid about 400 for the set, people upgrading from factory rims will always be looking to sell the originals.

BMW's combination of runflat tires and light weight rims is a perfect storm for warped rims, its too bad that Mercedes is moving in the same direction with runflats.

I have the same problem and am going to have my wheels repaired,not a hard thing to do for a experienced wheel repair person,if you can't find one go to your dealer and ask them who repairs there used car wheels and get there number and call

I found one repair shop about 50 minutes away and he is willing to work on weekend for me (normally it's open Mon- Fri). He charges around $300 + tax for two wheels though. Should I go for it?

$150/wheel is average... I say go for it, if he's willing to work on a weekend for you

there is a guy that does a good work for $100 a wheel , but just cuz of the weekend extra hunnid is okay i guess.

But where is this guy located? If it's somewhere I can drive and will finish the job in a couple of hours so that I can drive back, I will consider. But to dismount two wheels, send the wheels by post and wait may be a week or two for the repaired wheels to arrive and getting a rental car for the entire time period.
That is certainly going to cost more than $100, I think.
I don't have too many options here in WV.

Lowest price I've heard of is about $75 but that's near a big city like NY where there's more competition. At $150 it's barely worth it as you can find used rim on eBay in the $100-$150 range. There's also other websites that sell used rims in the same price range. But if you're in the middle of nowhere, you'll probably have a hard time finding anyone willing to do it much cheaper.

lol definitely not in WV
sorry
but yea like someone mentioned , u can find a used rim for around 150 , and maybe keep an old one just in case

That really depends. I don't know what rims you have, or when you have looked, but I have 18" split 5-spoke AMG rims on my W204. This same rim is on some of the W212s. I recently had a minor bend discovered in one of the front wheels.

I could not find a replacement on eBay for less than $500. Midwest Wheels (well known) wanted $700 for a refurbish. Mercedes wanted $1100 for a new one. One other online vendor offered $500 for a refurb.

In my case repairing it was MUCH cheaper.

If someone can find one of these wheels for $150, please link up. I'd buy it just to have.

Here is a link to a used one on ebay now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/222346974182?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true
Interestingly enough, the fronts are 18x8 and much more expensive than the rears on every site I looked.

thats true , as of now there are none that around 200 , but i can swear ive seen some when i was getting my wheels fixed (about 6 months ago) and recently (about a month ago)... i guess it depends.

P.s. i was looking at 18 AMG OEM wheels. just to be clear.


one more p.s. check out car-part.com , they have wheels too. :y

just had all four wheels straighten on my e350 wagon. I was told OEM wheels are soft

It's all done. Got the wheels straightened out yesterday. Now it rides awesome....just like the day I bought it. I'm so satisfied. I got it fixed for less money than my insurance deductible. Wish I had done it sooner. Thank you all for the wonderful help and support.

Glad it worked out.

As for the AMG rims, they're much harder to find. Mine are just regular stock rims. I bet the 18x8's are harder to find because the staggered can only be used on staggered cars, but if you got 2 sets from a RWD car, you could stick them on a 4matic. I think people dump the stock ones which is why you can find them much cheaper, the AMG rims tend to hold their value much more.

Guys. I think I'm back to square one. I believe the vibrations seem to have returned. I just had my wheels repaired less than two weeks ago. My wife was driving it all the time since then. She doesn't remember hitting any potholes though. I simply don't have the stomach to go through the same thing again. :(.