Jason08247

I picked up my 2021 GLS last March, and it’s now in for service A and state inspection. Dealer telling me one tire is 3/32 and failing, and others are close. Not wearing unevenly (they don’t see alignment issue). I need new tires, but it only has 8k mikes! That seems ridiculous. Anyone else experience this?

DubDub12

What model and tires do you have? My SA told me that most of the GLS63 23” tires wear out really quick (8-10k). Mine were still ok though.

Jason08247

That almost makes sense. Mine is a GLS450 with the 20” wheels.

DubDub12

yeah I don’t have anything for that. I get the answer for my 63 since it has a set of Pilot Sport 4S. 🤷🏻‍♂️

jomama

i have pirelli scorpions on mine and i've been monitoring tire wear. after 20k miles, tires still look good on my 21" wheels. fwiw, i keep air pressure around 38/40 f/r.

jbattan

Another thread already covered this. My Yokohama advan sport 22” summer tires are almost shot after 8000 miles of aggressive driving. My Pirelli scorpion winter tires are doing great after another 5000 miles, and I will leave those on year round once I finish wearing out the Yokohama‘s.

chassis

GL/GLS are well known for rapid tire wear, particularly rears, particularly AMG models. It’s caused by the design choices MB made for suspension alignment and wheel/tire specification. Not caused by “heavy vehicle” which is a common post on this site.

nc211

8k on the standard 20's is not normal at all. Not even acceptable for this car, which is known to have a healthy appetite for tires, especially the back. Mine has the staggered 21's and I can pull about 25k-30k out of a set, with the rear being the first to go. I do think it has to do with the suspension setup and the weight of the vehicle. When you take a turn and the air suspension tightens up to keep it from leaning too much, that weight transfer has to go somewhere.

I think you've got an alignment issue, possibly inflation setting issue as well. I'm assuming you're not running super soft summer-only tires here since they're the 20's.

We started with the Pirelli's that came with the 21's and got about 25k-ish until the rear's starting getting too close the wear bar for my comfort. But the front tires were fine for probably another 20k. I've never liked Pirelli, always a Michelin guy, so I switched over to the OM versions of those tires. We're approaching 50k on the car now soon, and I'd say they've probably got another 5k-8k on the rear before they get too close for comfort on the wear bar. But, the fronts are wearing faster than the Pirelli's were by a decent amount. It's always the rear tires on these cars that seem to wear the fastest. In fact, Michelin even called that fact out with their 50k warranty, footnoting that on a staggered tire setup, the rear warranty is only for ½ the mileage duration.

Might try Continentals next just because. Had them as OE on my current 2014 212 and they lasted a long long time. I switched over to Michelin's a year ago and it's a smoother and quieter ride, but not sure if they'll last quite as long as those original continentals.

marchgroupinc

Do you or anyone here know if you can change the Camber and/or toe away from factory specs to maximize tire wear? Camber especially on the rear, looks excessive on my GLS especially in sport mode or -1 level. My dealer only sets to factory specs. but if the adjustments are possible and tire wear can be improved I would do that.

chassis

There is a vendor on this site, I think its K-Mac, that offers camber kits exactly for this purpose. GL/GLS rear tire wear is excessive, and is the direct result of MB's design choices.

nc211

Chassis, do you remember what MB did for our 212’s to help modify the alignment a few years ago? Something about a new type of bolt or something? I can’t remember exactly, but know the actual MB dealership I bought that car from ended up installing that part as well back in 2018 for my 2014. Do recall what that was?

chassis

Camber bolts are commonly used during wheel alignment. They are installed at the inner pivot of the lower control arm or lateral link to move the bottom of the knuckle in or out as needed to adjust camber angle.

I don't know the history of MB camber bolt design changes over time. I think K-Mac is a sponsor on this site that offers a camber-related solution. It's either a camber bolt with more adjustment, or a new suspension link, or both. Not sure if K-Mac has developed a product for 167 yet.

K-Mac

Hi - We manufacture rear "Camber" (and extra Toe to compensate) adjuster kits for the W167 (also front "Camber and Caster").

Popular rear kit - as yes OEM negative Camber is excessive resulting in costly, premature inner edge tire wear.

Rear kit simply replaces the centre upper rear arms providing more then enough adjustment to resolve any Camber issues. P/N 504226-1N $695.

While Front kit "Camber and Caster" replaces the upper arm inner bushings P/N 504016-2K $480.



We manufacture Front and rear kits for all model SUV's (in fact every Mercedes Benz model incl. Sedans, Coupes, AMG and light commercials (1968 to 2021).

Hope this helps Kevin



Resolving OEM Suspension Shortcomings Since 1964 !

Dave Stough

I've now gone past 15k on my 2021 GLS450 with the staggered 21-inch tires.

I just replaced the rear pair due to a nail that intruded the side wall and couldn't be patched. There was nothing wrong with the tread, and they probalby had another 10k in them. The fronts are looking fine for a good while yet, as well.

jomama

given the wide ranging experiences with tire wear here, i’m wondering if suspension mode may have any contribution. i pretty much drive in sport suspension mode all the time, and my tire wear has been pretty good - 20k miles and still some meat left.

Jason08247

So I keep suspension mode in comfort. And I drive it like a family car. But I heard back from my dealer today that cooper is covering 85% of the cost of replacement tires. I had 5/32 up front and 2/32 in rear. They are putting 4 new cooper tires on for $328 + $130 alignment + tax. Granted, that extrapolates to ~$2200 for a set of 4 tires at full price, which is insane. Costco would put 4 Michelins on for $1200 all in with a better road hazard and tread wear warranty. But I’ll pay close attention to these new ones and get them rotated as needed. Either way, I view that as a good (not great) price for a year of tire wear. We’ll see what happens going forward.

dyc1077

I just changed out the tires on my gls63. Got 9000 miles out of the factory Yokohama v107. The treadwear rating is like 240 or so. The only other tire I see for the 22” wheels is the continental tires with treadwear rating of 280. Might try them once the fronts bald out which I am guessing is in another 9000 miles. Looking like two sets of rears for each set of fronts.

jomama

just did 20k service and the dealer said i have prob 5-10k left on rears. the fronts, surprisingly (or not), have a lot more meat on them. 21" staggered setup with pirelli scorpions stock tires, in case anyone was wondering.

marchgroupinc

Can you tell us about your driving - is it primarily city or highway and what suspension mode and height do you have it set at most of the time?

jomama

<deleted>

dyc1077

i would guess pretty even split between Highway and city driving. Mainly flat roads driven in comfort setting. This tire is made in very few sizes so hard to find information on what other people are getting out of these tires. The tire shop was surprised to see 325 width on an suv from the factory.

wheel0

I am also tired of new tires wearing fast. then I read this post which include reason and safety measures. Read Here

DesertGolfer

Search this forum for tire wear and you will find many complaints, especially in regard rapid wear of OEM Cooper Discoverer series.

At 12,000 miles two of the Coopers on our 2020 GLS 450 were down to 2/32" and the other two were about 3/32". I replaced them with a set Michelin Primacy Touring 275/50 (20") tires with 8.5/32" tread depth. The Michelins now have 8,000 miles of wear and tread depth is 8/32" on two and 7/32" on the other two. I had them initially rotated at 7,000 miles. Extrapolating the wear rate, these tires should last at least 25,000 miles or more than double the terrible OEM Coopers. The Michelins are quiet and provide a very smooth ride with good traction in wet conditions.

TonyF61

I got 20K out of my rear Coopers, but fronts are fine. Dealer said it's due to the weight of vehicle. In that case, I would think the front should be more prone to wear.

chassis

Weight as a reason for tire wear is false, and a statement by the dealer stoolie designed to fluff off the consumer from asking more questions.

MB chose their alignment and wheel/tire combination poorly. It’s a design defect by MB, one of many.