jhpmbusa

oh woww, ok yes, i believe there should be a conspiracy theory out with the w213 for these odd vibrations haha, i have been trying to solve it for the past 2 years of my lease. The MY19 ive driven recently seemed much better for sure. MY17 and MY18 seems to be pretty bad. What year is your e450?

2012 merc amg

They are both 2019s. Very odd because my Cabrio is smooth as silk, the wagon has always had on and off vibrations. The dealer said at the 10K service I had two bent wheels and claimed to fix the wheels plus a bad tire. I had all 4 tires replaced at 10K miles with the same tires that on the cabriolet which I seem to like. Then when I got back from Florida I had a vibration again so I replaced all 4 wheels and sort of took the bull by the horns to speak. the past 2K miles or so the vibration seems to have come back.

jhpmbusa

the suspension is definitely sloppy for sure, not sure if it was lack of R&D or what. trying to build cookie cutter rather than tailored fit and finish per class. .

TugboatBill

My suggestion is to find a shop that does road force balancing. When they do it have them check the wheels and tires for runout, out of round, excessive out of balance, etc. If you still have vibration then it has to be the hub/axle.

2012 merc amg

I did the road force balancing at a firestone place a month ago. It didn’t help out. I asked them to check for bent rims. They said they are fine. Gotta be something other than the obvious I guess.

jhpmbusa

same here did roadforce balancing twice. checks out fine all the time...

jl199986

I've wondered if it's the tires and not the wheels. Like the RFT's get "bruised" or such and theres damage inside we can't really see.

About to pop for a new set of wheels & non rf tires, but will be disappointed if it continues.

2012 merc amg

That’s a good theory. Next time no more run flats. I’m done with them. I think it more than likely is the tires.

rraisley

I think it's simply a combination of what we all have and like: Large diameter wheels (the larger the better) with low profile tires (the lower the better) look fantastic, handle great, but gives very little cushion, which affects both the tire and the wheel. Then there's the light wheels, made as light as possible to reduce unsprung weight and handling, but sacrificing strength in the process. Sporting driving, not always able to avoid obstacles more sedate drivers might. Sure, run-flats are stiffer, compounding the problem, but think where you'd be with all those flats /without/ the runflat tires!

2012 merc amg

I’ll take the flats lol. Well at least my cabrio is still ok. Took it to the us open today in ny and hit a couple big bumps on 95 and still no vibration yet, living on borrowed time I guess.

Frank Rizzo

Bent rim here...I took the car in for NVH and it turns out I have a bent front wheel and "bad" front tire and a "bad" rear tire. I know something is wrong because I get a TPMS every 2 weeks or so with low air pressure(s). The AMG (front) 20's are $1550 list each!!!! My local guy gave it to me for a "deal" of $1000, plus tax, plus $150 deposit for the return of the old wheel, and I ordered the Tire(s) thru TireRack and saved over $1k from the dealer...but still. Jeez. 7k miles on the car.

Interesting thing about the Pirelli Run Flats; they have some sort of foam inner layer to help with noise and they are not really true "run flats" - more like an extended mobility tire called an MOE : https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret...jsp?techid=234. If the foam layer gets damaged (like mine did from a pothole) it deforms the tire and the dealer determines it is "bad". Sooooo - if your tires are the same, you can hit a pothole and not suffer any physical damage, but the tires could have been screwed up and cause vibration. See if your tires are MOE on the sidewall?

HTH

jhpmbusa

Correct, all Mercedes run flats are called MOE instead. I believe its a term/idea Mercedes came up with and they are not true run flats. The foam being damaged makes sense now, its like having another tire inside a tire lol. Makes me wonder how with all this extra layering and hardness these wheels are getting bent so easily.

I remember getting bubbles when hitting potholes but never bent factory rims with non run flat tires. I guess it kind of makes sense that the impact travels all the way to the rim because the tires are so stiff, but still, these rims re bending too easily.

2012 merc amg

Wow good find about tires getting messed up without any physical sign of being messed up. Ya I’ll bet that’s what it is with my wagon. I’m sure if I drove my cabrio as much as the wagon it would be the same issue. Roads around where I live are not good. These tires make no sense with the driving I do. Next tire change will be a top of the line non run flat like a Michelin super sport. It’s very rare to get a flat on the side of the road. Generally a screw or a nail which causes a slow leak and can be repaired later. Think about all the money people have wasted on tire balancing and rim replacement (me) that probably was not necessary with these tires. Although no regrets getting my new rims as they make my wagon look better I think plus they where only 1200 bucks and the factory rims stay like new in their boxes in the garage for when I sell this car.

jhpmbusa

so the other part of the theory is that due to it being in the inside - maybe the balancers dont pick it up. No idea, but just another part of the theory lol

2012 merc amg

Makes sense to me. Sometimes I think we know more about these cars being on these forums than the service techs do at the dealers.

2012 merc amg

I’ve noticed with me too they generally always will tell you the wheels were out of balance even if they were not to justify charging for the service.

Frank Rizzo

As soon as the new wheel comes in i'm going to take the car to my local tire shop (already have the new tire). I'm going to look carefully at the "bad" front tire to see what kind of damage is visible and share what I find. There is nothing wrong on the outside that I can see...

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gfmohn

Here are mine on my 2015 C300 4MATIC Luxury trim:

baadmon

Oh my gosh those are some ugly rims.

2012 merc amg

Sid77

The wheels look good on your car. I'm planning to get the same for my c300. The mandrus website mentions 42 offset for 19x8.5 front and 50 offset for 19x9.5 rear.
I'm not able to get the 42 offset and could only find 32mm for the front 19x8.5. Is your 32mm by any chance and if so does it stay flush to the fender or stick a little bit out?