C280 Sport

I would love have some insight into this.

A gentlemen came into my business we got chatting and I noticed he had a MB Key. I asked him what kind of Mercedes? He said "I have a POS GL550 4Matic and I hate it" I reply with "Sorry to hear you have a lemon. Sounds like it was made on Friday?" He proceeded to tell me his car has no issues but he hates it because he has to replace tires every 16,000 miles and how he is going to trade it in on a full size Yukon instead! It sounds like to me the dealer is racking him over the coils! I have had Mercedes where my tires last for 30k miles! I think he is either miss informed, bad alignment, dealer is taking him for a ride or he has really cheap tires on a premium car.

Sound normal GL owners? It just seems very hard for me to believe.
How many miles or how long do your tires last?

mrchris

My gl450 does fine, roughly 45K miles out of a set. My understanding on the 550's is that yes they do eat tires a little faster. Combination of a lot of hp, wide tires and all wheel drive and the fact that people with 550's tend to drive them a little harder.

Combine that with a relatively obscure tire size with limited options that tend to be soft tires that wear fast and it's pretty normal to see 15k to 20k miles. A buddy of mine with a 550 was having similar issues and bought new wheels and tires to go to a more common size and went with some Michelins with a 65K warranty. He's at about 35K right now and they are holding up far better than previous tires but down to about 30/35% and probably won't make it to 65, but he'd be ecstatic seeing 50 which is pretty likely.

mp0i

My 2010 GL Bluetec made it through 33,000 miles on the OEM Goodyears. They probably would have lasted longer but an alignment issue caused accelerated wear on the right front. This is my wife's vehicle and I noticed it when I took it for a "check" ride. I immediately noticed it was pulling to the right and asked the wife, "how long has it been pulling to the right?". Her reply was, "I don't know, I never take my hands off the wheel." Oh well.

a2j

Dunlop Sport MAXX came with the GL when we bought it. I'm not sure how many miles previous owner drove on them, but we had them for ~25k miles. I'm not expecting to replace them for another 10k miles at least. I drive it like SUV and not like a sports car.
Properly working suspension, correct alignment, and balanced wheels would help your tires to last longer.

alx

if you generally drive it like a soccer mom and not toss it around much, accelerate/ stop abruptly - you should get about 30-40k miles out of set of tires rotated once.

if not rotated your right-hand side rear will go first, followed by left-hand-side front as you are running open diffs and most of the time the rear right-hand-side is the wheel with the most torque applied to it followed by the front left-hand side one.

Shellbmb

I'd say 16-20k is about right for the GL550. It is pretty annoying and really my only complaint about the GL. The problem is that there are not that many options in the correct tire size (295/40/21). Really only two and neither last very long. Several times I've been tempted to put 20's or 22's to get more tire selections. And the sad thing is that they aren't that great a tire. Perfect for doing 120 on the autobahn, but the stock contis aren't that great in wet weather or snow. haven't tried the pirellis but haven't heard anything good about them either.

alx

stay away from pirellis. by far the worst tire in any form or fashion or tier.

my 2 cents

BJ021

A few years ago I grew tired of the options for tires on the std 19" wheel and picked up a set of rims and Blizzacks for winter use. This has proven very effective in the rapid sharpie like tire melt the GL leaves behind in hot weather. I am headed into my 4th winter with the same set of Blizzacks and next spring will replace the summer tires after 3 none winter seasons. The truck is an animal in snow and ice with the Blizzacks! Highly recommended.

bselph

I have an 08 GL320 and I ordered it with 18" wheels for the variety of tire selections. I have 156,000 miles and am on my 3rd set of tires. I get about 60K + out of my Michelin LTX tires (2 sets). The original Pirelli's only lasted 20K. I have no issues with tires at all. They are rotated and balanced every 5K miles. I am about 4K away from buying new Michelins.

FastMoneyPlaya

I got 33,000 miles out of my OEM Bridgestone Duel H/L 400 Runflats on my 2011 GL350... 275/50HR20... That's not too bad considering my old Land Rover LR3 used to only get 20K out of a set of tires... I replaced my Bridgestones with the same model for only $249 per tire at the local discount tire store which was much cheaper than going to the Mercedes dealer.

EWT

I've gotten about 25K out of two sets of Pirellis with a lot of around town driving. The tires wore out on the far inside edge both times. $1800 a tire change adds up fast!

captivabenz

07 320 cdi,19 inch rims, 72,000 miles, no snow.
My first set of Contis lasted 30,000 mi, second set of Michelin lasted 31,000 mi, I'm on Hankock set now, very happy with them, low noise and great handling, it looks like they will exceed 30,000 miles but I am selling the car in November when my new 350 comes in.

eric_in_sd

Dunlop SP Sport 5000 on my GL450. 265-60-18. I get about 36K. I don't rotate side to side but rather front to rear. I find the rears wear significantly faster. I also run them at pressures well above the recommended: 40 front 45 rear. I set this after careful monitoring of the wear rate.

Looks like Dunlop doesn't make them anymore, so I'll have to shop around for something different.

GLguy

Pretty normal. Tire wear is the main complain for many GL users. You get better millage if you drive on highway, but around town it's 15k-20k. I am replacing mine at 19k. Going with a different tire though, not Conti.

cmarshack

There are a whole lot of posts here with people talking about getting high mileage from the GL450. The OP was asking about the 550...it is a very different car with completely different tires. More horsepower combined with more weight compounded by only sport tire offereings= 16k miles for tires. There is not a tire on the market in that size that will last more than 20k give or take. It's just the price you pay if you want that terrible 21" odd size wheel. (I know from experience b/c I own a Audi Q7 with sline 21" and we have the same issue).

If he like the car but hates buying tires I would tell him to sell the 21's and get some knock-off 22's. You get the same look with MUCH better tire offerings.

cab2u

I have 67k on my 09 GL550. Just about done with my second set of tires. About 33k on each set. First conti's then Pirellis. All depends how you drive it.

eric_in_sd

Good points, even though the thread title is "GL owners", not GL550 owners". One reason that the GL450 comments are useful is it gives people insight as to what is possible with different compound tires. More horsepower has a negligible effect on tire wear; driving style has a huge effect. (They told me I didn't need slotted brake rotors because my car wasn't an AMG. I sez, I like to brake hard. Horsepower to get me up to speed don't have anything to do with it.)

More weight? The 550 doesn't weigh that much more.

Only soft compound tires available in 21"? That's got everything to do with it. Get different wheels.

Or just accept the fact that you will burn through tires. After all, you knew it was a costly car when you bought it, right?

For me, the 450 is bad enough. I couldn't imagine getting just 16k miles out of a set of tires. I would shoot myself and the car, not in that order.

KrustyKustom

I have a very stock GL350 in which i am about to start towing a Airstream. I have a worn set of the stock Goodyear LS-As which are the run flats. I am trying to get a little better wear rating and a bit more tire weight capacity for just extra security and came across the Goodyear Eagle 275 55/20 which is just a tad taller but the tires are a 1/3rd the cost of the run flats which i am not keen on towing with anyway. I can replace the tires three times for the cost of the Run Flats.

Others on here have posted that non run flats help with the Airmatic "wobble" which would be nice and is my only beef with the car. I am going to carry a plugging kit, three cans of fix a flat, small compressor and give it a whirl.

HamMan

285-60-18
non run flats
the cost of wheels & tires are less than 4 run flats

K-Mac

There is only front and rear toe adjustment available OEM!

To resolve premature, costly inner edgetire wear, K-MAC manufacture a front Camber and Caster adjuster kit and also arear Camber kit. Rear includes extra toe adjustment to compensate for thenew found Camber adjustment facility!

Kits provide precise adjustment andimprove traction, braking and steering response.


See http://k-mac.com/mercedes/

cmarshack

While I appreciate your shameless plug I would be careful suggesting that people get rid of the negative camber that is built into most European suv's. It's there for a reason and making any adjustment to remove it would effect handling and safety.

The better answer is to rotate your tires and keep them at the right air pressure. I would also recommend buying a tire that is designed for these cars that have a lot of negative camber built in (especially in the rear). I have Firestone Destination ST's on my GL and Vredestein SUV Sessanta's on my Q7 and both have much more dense inner lugs to prevent inner tire wear on SUV's with a lot of -camber (BMW, Range Rover, Audi MB etc.).

The only time I have ever used camber plates to remove excessive negative camber was when I lowered my BMW and had to in order to get it back to near OE specs. I would never make this type of adjustment to a stock set-up and do not think it's a good idea to make this suggestion to folks who may not understand the implications.

C280 Sport

Wow! I did not think I would get this many replies. Some really great information gathered here. So basically after looking at the post it seems the 550 Owner I encountered was having some issues with his alignment or had poor quality tires. I am still in shock how anyone could get 16k out of a set of tires. Not that the Yukon would be any better but I am glad to see people can get 25k+ on their GL tires. Many here are 350 and 450 but still for a car that weights that much to get say 30k miles out of the tires is fine. Driving conditions and how you drive vary of course.

K-Mac

“Get rid of”

No ,certainly not. Our intention was simply to make owners aware/point out that at K-Mac we manufacture precise front and rear Camber, Caster, Toe adjustment facility for virtually all model Mercedes- to finally allow accurate adjustment.

So settings in most situations can be returned to within factory specs.

Currently many owners blame the alignment shop when as we pointed out the only facility that they have to work with is front and rear Toe adjustment or one position offset OEM bolts!

http://k-mac.com/mercedes/

mdmmb

Option as far as i know is either pirelli scorpion zero or conti 4x4, neither seem to hv rave reviews.
has anyone an opinion, on performance spec, on michelin Latitude Tour HP ?
Any opinion on changing size to 265/60/18 for this vehicle?
pls. advise. thanks!

a2j

My current snow tire size is 255/65-18