kamilclk430

1000 times better WOW what a difference

Mike5215

Big deal. One of my wheels looks exactly like that.

Mike5215

Yeah, the spacers came with new "normal" lugs.

ramos226

.. I kinda feel it rides better too... I also had to take mine to MB & they replaced all lugs free of charge. I made sure I did that about 2 weeks ago to be ready. Lug caps were warped & so damn seized it snapped the OEM lug wrench socket in half. (They also replaced that for free). Sucks you have to wait. I'd never trust a tech to do something I could do. Make sure they wire brush the hell out of the hubs. Mine were caked up.

ramos226

Yeah, but if you notice, They're shorter than the oem lugs, & cone vs ball seat. No idea why they even included those in the box.

They look like them short A$$ lugs you were ABOUT to order...

ramos226

I wouldn't say the oem lugs are junk.. The issue with them are the fact that MB caps the lug with a fancy chrome cover that are almost always warped when shops use impact wrenches on them. If you go through the life of the lug & never use an impact wrench, you'd probably never have an issue.

Mike5215

Rip off! I didn't get any free useless bolts. Just the big ones I ordered. I'm never going to live down the thing about the shorter lugs, am I?

ramos226

To be honest, it was NOT supposed to come with any lugs in the first place. I was gonna send the whole shipment back when I first opened the box. Both boxes had labels that were marked with the correct part number, but incorrect description. Take a look at the images... I ordered 15mm front, 20mm rear. Yet, the labels say different.. AND... I got 10 lugs in the box that had the 15mm spacers... One of the 15mm spacers looked like it had been test fitted too.. I was tempted to send the whole thing back. If I wasn't so anxious to get them mounted, I probably would've returned it. I made sure the spacers themselves were H&R stamped & had all the normal markings, but thought that was weird.

K-Mac

Important to realize ex-factory there is only front and rear "Toe" adjustment for virtually all Mercedes models.


No Camber and Caster adjustment capacity to reduce costly, premature inner edge tire wear and increase traction. Also to resolve steering pull and improve steering response along with quicker turn in and reduced dive/lift on brake and acceleration.


K-MAC saw the need and manufacture front and rear kits essential to allow you to return vehicle to factory specs (and have ongoing adjustment) after curb knock damage, altering height, load carrying or fitting wide profile tires.


The patented K-MAC design required no special tools to install. Both front and rear only require a single wrench to precisely adjust/change settings.


Promotional offer for April for MB World member in USA and Canada.
FedEx Air freight $25 one kit or $35 for Front and rear kits (normally $70 and $85)

Mike5215

Thanks to Ramos for doing all the legwork on this. Here she sits on staggered S63 20's and spacers. Lowering links enroute.


While I did the spacers entirely for improved appearance, the car handles so much better with them. It's like it shed 500 pounds. Now the "sport" Airmatic mode, "sport" transmission mode and paddle shifters actually make sense. No vibration at all from the spacers either.

ramos226

VERY nice... My chrome lug caps came in today. Nice little caps... I think it'll be a nice touch. I'll take some before & after pics when I get them installed tomorrow. By the way... which links are you going with?

Mike5215

Thanks. The photos don't do it justice...not enough contrast between the car and the wheels...but I'm very happy with the new look and improved handling. I had AAR's on my 220 and while they're nice pieces, it was a pain yanking them off and resizing them, so this time I went with GL.

So we're both on OEM 20's and I think both cars look good, but not quite as sinister as the cars that dropped on 21's. I'm thinking when it's time for new tires maybe a wheel upgrade is coming as well.

ramos226

I know what you mean.. I keep going back to what your brother told you about my staggered setup on my 4matic... Something just tells me not to do it.. For now, I'll listen to my instincts and enjoy the new look as is.. We'll see how things pan out.

Mike5215

What I do like about the look is that at first glance the car is completely stock. But then there's just something about the car that looks so much better than stock. If you were only casually familiar with the 221 you'd be hard pressed to know why. From a resale value standpoint it's the best of both worlds.

As far as the 21's go, you could go with a square set up at 9.5 all around.

snovvman

Question about the negative camber observed as a result of the added spacers: It is understandable that the spacers caused a change in load geometry, but why wouldn't the airmatic levelers pick that up and bring the suspension back to level?

Mike5215

Wheel offset doesn't affect ride height, which is what the Airmatic system is sensitive to. I'm not even certain lowering wheel offset affects camber at all. I know a drop will affect camber. I run 20mm spacers rear which is pretty aggressive (23mm net offset) and I just replaced my two rears at around 15,000 miles with the spacers on and they were worn perfectly evenly.

From my experience the car has no trouble taking the lower offset wheels, either by design or with the use of spacers. Offset does not affect alignment. The only potential downside I've encountered with spacers is the possibilty of inducing vibration, but the HR Trak for the 221 are undetectable as far as vibrations.

They're a very inexpensive mod that really improves the car's look and stance on OEM wheels. Handling will also tighten up a smidge. Highly recommended.

snovvman

This is all theory:

Imagine a factory setup with factory offset. Now imagine a certain amount of load of that the wheel and spindle exert on the spring/suspension.

Next imagine a very wide spacer, like three feet wide, pushing the wheel out three feet from the car. Can you now visualize the extra load on the suspension? In this example, the springs may not even be able to keep the car off the ground. The result is that the wheel will pivot into the negative camber position until the car bottoms out. In the case of an airmatic suspension, I would imagine that the sensors will "see" that the suspension is bottoming out and attempt to compensate and bring the geometry back to normal.

Using the above extreme example, I would imagine that ANY change in spindle length outward (spacers) will change the load on the suspension, thereby affecting height and camber (assuming the contact patch does not change).

Contact patch, if one were using wider a wheel, can redistribute the load (if the patch extends equally inward). But in this case, we are talking about spacers only.

Please check my logic/sanity.

I absolutely believe that, at reasonable extensions, that there are no unwanted side effects, I am just curious about ramos226's observations of the negative camber. Did it occur *after* the spacers and why did the suspension not compensate?

Mike5215

I think to whatever extent the spacers cause the body to squat more on the suspension the Airmatic would sense the reduced ride height and compensate (within the range of adjustment the system has at its disposal.)

Maybe the reason I saw no excessive inside wear when I put the 20mm spacers on was because the system did compensate.

snovvman

What is the proper bolt length for a 12mm spacer--55mm or 60mm? Presuming 60mm would not overpenetrate, I'd imagine that it would offer a better safety factor?

Mike5215

I think you just flat out add the width of the spacer to the stock lug bolt length and you're exactly where you'd want to be.

snovvman

I agree, but the H/R bolts only come in 55 or 60mm. If I went with a 12mm spacer, I am adding 12 to 45, which is 57. It will either be too short by 2mm or too long by 3mm. If the 60mm does not over penetrate and interfere with something on the back of the hub (haven't taken the wheel off to see), I would go with the 60.

BTW, I remember reading a thread about two months ago related to you making a trip to the dealer because of vibration, and the tech installed the spacers because they were in the trunk. What was that about?

Mike5215

Yeah, on my 04 S430 I had a terrible experience with spacers and with a drop, so I was a little reluctant on the 221 to mess with anything at all, but I read enough success stories from guys I trusted to give it a shot.

Spacers definitely can add vibration...it's just an extra piece of rolling mass and it has to be perfectly machined, and it can't be balanced out like a wheel or tire. The safer solution by far is to buy a set of wheels that already have a lower offset. Most aftermarket wheels and replica wheels are 35mm.

On the bolts, I guess I'd go 3mm over. There should be plenty of run out room on the back of the hub. Stick a finger in there and see what's what.