Edward993

Well the SoCal area has been getting unusually high rainfall this season ...good for ending Cali's drought, but killed two tires and scarred two rims!!


Our '14 E350 is less than a year old to us and is pristine ...my wife's creampuff I got her! So last night coming home in light rain, "BANG BANG" and the car goes wobbly. And what do I find when I pull off: not one but TWO tires with holes you can put 4 fingers through!


Fortunately, in getting new tires this morning the rims checked out true, and after cleaning them up, they're still scarred/scraped at the lip and face, but at least not looking as horrific as it did last night. UGH! Oh well, that's life in the big city. Thank you for indulging my rant...
Have a good rest of the day, gents!


Edward

Abrown3mtg

You're lucky you don't live in the Midwest or East! We have craters. It makes running my choice of wheel very unnerving (and I have bent numerous). It just goes with the territory I guess. I'm sorry to hear that happened to you though!

KEY08

Someone needs to invent a pothole proof low profile tire and wheel setup. They would be a billionaire in short order. I'm not talking run flats either.

The G Man

Runflats are actually worst on potholes, the force of the stiffer sidewall is transfer to the rim, bent rims are very common on runflats. If the pothole is big enough, the sidewall of the runflat will bubble and you would end up replace the tire and rim.

belarus27

Oh man how i feel you , these rain have no chill , me and my friend got in the same pothole with 10 min difference , he bent his Niche front wheel...
hella new potholes everywhere , and what sucks that u cant even see them when filled with water.
i hate that sound and i hate that feeling.
my poor benzo prolly hates me for doing it to him so often. My heart hurts aftef hitting potholes.
oh well , they better fix them asap.

belarus27

Btw.. who has experience with airmatic (lowered) and regular (lowered) on potholes.. because to me it feels like airmatic isnt handling them so well as regular , it sounds more terrible if i can say so. From my experience

Diesel #2

It got quite harsh after about 7 months riding lowered. Started hearing a lot of creaking i never heard before. Im back on factory suspension now with 19s. Feels much more comfortable i must say lol

They are improving certain streets and highways but my gorgeous wheels have been tainted by crappy roads. Feel into a nasty pothole on the highway going aboit 77mph and this only happened. When i exited i was expecting to find much worse.

Abrown3mtg

I keep my suspension set on comfort 90% of the time. It definitely softens things up and likely helps with preventing wheel damage. I put it in sport if I know the streets or am parking and remember to

Edward993

Thanks for chiming in, all ...like a support group for the those afflicted by pot...holes


I cleaned up the wheel lips of the two that got banged up, and with new tires and wheel face polished up it definitely looks a ton better than last night's carnage ...but alas, no longer pristine. Oh well, kind of like seeing that initial dent or scratch in a car: the first is always the worst. Just wish it didn't happen within the fist 6 months of my wife owning it. Talk about 1st-world problems


Sidenote: I replaced the 245/40-18s with 255/40 as an experiment.
1. I prefer the look of the 255 as the marginally larger tire visually "fills" the wheelwell better.
2. That marginal extra sidewall I will have "may" give me another 2.759% extra buffer against another pothole malady.
3. Whether it's the new tires or the extra sidewall, it feels uber-smooth!


4. The above point is perhaps due to the Conti ProContact gone, and now ControlContact Sport is what I have. Apparently this tire is a formulation made only for Discount Tire (aka America's Tire), and is Conti's ExtremeDWS counterpart. Still labeled a "Grand Touring" tire with 550 treadwear rating and 50k mile warranty, this ControlContact is supposedly less biased for snow and more for dry/wet grip than the DWS, so I figured (being in SoCal) this may be better for me. And the price was right! Initial impression is very good, but we'll see how that fares as the miles accumulate.


And given the challenging road conditions the rest of you across the country have to face, this Angelino will now just shut up and drive


Edward

taphil

Could have been worse. My repair bill came out to $7900 after hitting a pot hole in the dark after the rain on the 10 fwy.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...-tire-rim.html

Airmousam

Sorry to hear. I bent 4 aftermarket 19" wheels in one incident a few years ago...had to get towed out of there...feel your pain!

SD-14E550CAB

Yep, San Diego here. A couple of weeks ago, I blew a tire then found out all 4 rims had been bent running over a series of potholes on a B-road.

Cost to insurance was about $8,000 as well, and that's just with the standard sport-package 18s and not actual AMG wheels.

It was ridiculous here in SD for awhile, but the road crews have actually been fixing them pretty quickly.

jahquan3

I blew out both of my tires on the left side about a month after putting on new tires. Honestly I thought my whole car was going to explode lol. In North Jersey it's like driving around a land mine filled double dare course.

It's all luck of the draw especially at night when their hard to see.

cetialpha5

Or go back to 50-60 series tires with 15-16 inch rims where blowouts, tire, rim damage were a lot less common. The only reason they have low profile tires is because people think they look cool til they get the repair bill and by that time, it's too late.

OnlyGerman

Broke two wheels and blew two tires...sucked.

KEY08

That 14-15 inch wheel look can stay in the 60's as a distant memory for me.

jahquan3

^This

Even though I wasn't born then I doubt I want to have that look on my cars LOL.