Will 18's fit?
 

Our GLS450 came in on Monday and we picked it up today. I have a set of 18" wheels that I used on our GLE w/ Blizzaks. Everywhere seems to be out of stock of 275/55/19 Blizzak DM-V2. I'm wondering if the 18" wheels I have will fit. I found a German doc that lists 265/60/18 as an approved size for the GLS350d and GLS400. I imagine the deciding factor is the size of the front rotors but I can't find anything listing the specs on those models to see if it's the same as a US GLS450. Would be nice as Tirerack does have the 265/60/18 in stock.

Short answer is yes. Be mindful of your offset and different wheels are shaped differently. I'll continue with more info in my other thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/gls-class...ting-x167.html

Yes, you have to ensure the offset is correct.

I ordered the 19" Blizzaks on 11/18 at www.tirerack.com and when I called a few days later they said that the Bridgestone truck was supposed to deliver to tirerack on 11/23. the tracking hasn't updated yet but they charged my credit card today, so hopefully they are coming soon.

So after I placed my order online the other day for the 18" tires, I got an email from a TireRack rep questioning the size. I called him up and he said they wanted to confirm before shipping them out. He then mentioned that they expected the 19" tires to be in stock in about a week. So that would coincide with what you're seeing.

Yeah, I ordered 265/60/18. Post 13 of this thread https://mbworld.org/forums/gls-class...tire-news.html has a link to a doc in German that lists an 18x8 wheel w/ a 265/60/18 tire works for a GLS400. I'm giving it a shot on my 450.

For anyone interested, here are pics of how close the calipers are to the barrels (front in 2nd pic & rear in 3rd).
​1st pic is from yesterday w/the 18" wheels and UPS had just dropped off the new 265/60/18 Blizzaks. I've driven on this setup for 3 days now and it looks too small for my taste. These wheels looked better on my GLE for some reason. I'll be taking them off in the morning and putting the factory wheels back on. Also returning 265/60/18 Blizzaks and already ordered another set in 275/55/19. They're saying they should be in by the end of this week.​​​​​​
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The clearance looks more than adequate. However I agree they are not the best in the looks department. I bought OEM 20 inchers from MB with sottozeros, the rims do not look anywhere as good as the OEM AMGs but they are fully functional, dont look any worse than the 450 rims and cost about half what the AMGs were.

Update: The tires I've ordered on 11/18 were shipped on 11/29 and were supposed to be delivered next day on 11/30 since they were coming from IN only 1.5 hours away. I made an appointment to have them installed next day on Saturday 12/1 at the Mercedes dealership. I have tire shops that are closer and cheaper than the Mercedes dealership but I thought the Mercedes dealership would take better care of my GLS than anyone else. UPS then delivered on 11/30 only 3 tires!!! and the fourth tire came the next day which destroyed my Saturday morning installation plan. My new appointment was today and I waited for 2.5 hours to have the freaking tires mounted and just like last time they "recommended" an alignment, for no reason. The tire wear is even and my 2017 GLS has only 7400 miles on it so why do they keep telling me get an alignment?! The bill was $160 as they said and when I came home I cleaned off the tire soap to find out what happened to my rims:

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Now I have another appointment to drop my car off, so they can send my rims somewhere to have them fixed. I wonder... when they redo the rims, are they going to fu*# up my brand new tires?

Update:

I got my car back yesterday and today in daylight I checked the work they did on my rims. Now I have spray paint on my new tires as if someone had done the work with spray can in a garage! They told me that they could clean it off but I really don't like the idea of them using turpentine on my new tires and I wouldn't be surprised if the paint started peeling off soon, I can see a crack and a few little dings in the fresh paint already. Btw I had a GLE350 loaner car for the past 4 days and it was soo nice to get back in my GLS, big difference!

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Another update! Just when you think that things couldn't get anymore ridiculous...
I complained and requested new wheels so my car looks the way it did before I brought it to Mercedes of Chicago and the service departements boss called and apologized and offered to switch my rims with rims from another vehicle. I thought who knows what had happened to rims from a used GLS but let's see what they come up with and today I got this email:

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Can you believe that they are offering to put rims from a 2007 GL on my 2017 GLS?! Mercedes of Chicago is worse than a used American car dealership!!!

Wow, talking about digging in deeper. Why would you agree to that?

I have had dealers scratch my rims before and they have someone to come over to the dealership and respray the wheels. Its a common practice. If that person did not sand and fill in the scratches to your satisfaction, have them redo the wheels again. As far as the paint on the tires, they have numerous ways to get it off that will not harm the tire. The person who painted your wheels did not do an adequate job masking the tires off.

When they normally do this the right way. they take the tire and rim off the car. Then deflate the tire , but leave it on the rim. That way they can sand, fill in any grooves /scratches. It also allows them to make sure the edge of the rim is well prepped before respraying the wheel. If I had to bet, I think they just painted around the tire and may not have even taken it off the car. Have the dealer send it back to the rim person. I would ask the dealer for the company who actually does the work and talk to them and tell them. I think they would do whatever to make you happy so they do not lose the contract with the dealer to continue painting wheels.

Normally these guys just drive a van around to the dealerships and paint wheels, especially on used cars when they are reconditioned.

Thanks for the info! What you are describing sounds like a half assed job that might be ok for older used cars. The dealer offered to try and redo the rims again but I refused that offer. If I was ok with used and fixed, I could have saved a lot of money and get a used GLS but I didn't, so I requested new rims. The last word is that they would order new rims for me. I wash my car by hand spending at least 1,5 hours every time, I park away from other people in the parking lot walking a few feet extra, I actually paid more and spent extra time by going to the dealership to have the tires mounted vs using the tire shop down my street just to avoid getting dings or scratches :-/

RIMS
 

Glad they are replacing the rims. However they do it , as long as it works for you. I am very particular about my wheels also. When I have them rotated, I bring along special set of plastic coated sockets made for wheels and make them us them. So they do not scratch the inner part of the wheel hole when using the standard wheel sockets. I always make sure they hand torque each wheel. I normally take it to the same place, not Mercedes dealer, so I can watch them do the tire rotation. The local Mercedes dealer will not let me into maintenance bay to watch it. At least twice a year I take the rims off and wash the inside/backside I hate seeing the black brake dust and dirt on a clean set of wheels.

I also put Mercedes Chrome wheel bolts/nuts on the wheels to add to the appearance.

The plastic coated sockets sound like a good idea. I have brushes to clean the inside without taking the wheels off. Isn't hand torquing standard??

It was a female mechanic and she looked like a decent person. Haven't heard of Carpro Quartz UK but I have to say the rim are super easy to clean, at least when they have the factory paint on them :-/

Last update!
Eventually the dealer agreed and ordered me new rims. The mechanic told me that the balancing machine had worn out parts and was fixed now.
Finally my baby looks nice again :-)


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