edison1314

hey guys, just picked up a 13 black s550 with stock 19s, looking for something a bit bigger in black, flushed setting preferred. any recommendations on 20s or 21s? also in what tire spec? thank you!

Jason B

Mike5215

Flush is a 24mm rear offset, 29mm front, if you're sticking with the staggered 8.5"/9.5" width. If you go up an inch in width increase the offset by 12mm. On OEM 20's a 15mm spacer front and 20mm rear puts you flush.

edison1314

thank you guys!

superpop

The problem with bringing your wheels and tires flush is that you end up with tires that throw a lot of crap at the lower sides of your car. I am in the PNW where we get a lot of rain and a fair amount of debris on the roads and it all ends up on the fenders including small rocks and anything else you may come across. I have 19" factory wheels with 43MM offset front and back with staggered width and 13MM spacers in the back. Nice stance but the car stays relatively clean. I have also heard that ride quality drops when you go above 19" wheels.

Mike5215

Can't speak to the dirt issue but going from 19" to 20" on my 221 didn't make an appreciable difference in ride quality. 19" look a little undersized on a 221. 20" seem to look right. I'd recommend Michelin Pilot Supersports. Great riding tire, even in a 20".

Jason B

Someone else just told me doing lowering links on 19's will actually really make them look like 20-21's? Interesting.

Mike, I PM'd you about the midcity thing.

edison1314

i do admit the 19s look a bit small, so it looks like 20s will be the way to go for a daily w221? not recommending anything higher right? 21s/22s?

Mike5215

21 is as far as I'd go but they're so rare and expensive vs the 20" I don't think they're worth the hassle. Tons of good 20" options in aftermarket and reps. 35mm offsets are common in those and work well on the 221, giving a slightly more aggressive stance. 45mm are also common and are essentially an OEM offset.

Mike5215

All the wheels are the same overall size, just trading sidewall for rim diameter. It's a question of how chunky you want the sidewall profile to look. The 20's give you a nice slim profile without significantly sacrificing ride quality. But you can drop on anything. The drop however will significantly degrade ride quality so going to 19" might help compensate. I dropped a 220 on links about 2" on 18's. Looked great, ride was terrible.

Gramma_Benz

I'm riding on 20's with a 1.1" drop, no change in ride quality.

Mike5215

Yeah, there's a sweet spot on a drop where it's obvious but there's still enough air in the struts so the ride isn't affected, or is minimally affected. (Ride quality is directly related to the amount of air in the struts and the resulting ride height. That's why Comfort rides the highest and Sport rides the lowest)

My 205 has 3 AirMatic settings, Comfort, Sport and Sport +. Sport + is a decent drop.

SIN3

if you have the cash go with a custom 21 inch 3pc. for a w221 nothing more than inch maybe 1.5. its a big boy car. keep it classy.

edison1314

what if i dont plan on dropping it, is 20 gonna look a bit small still? or 21 is gonna be enough to fill in the gaps ? any rubbing issue with 21s?

Mike5215

The gap doesn't change. The 18" wheel, 19" wheel and 20" wheel all have the same overall diameter. The way to make the wheel appear to fill more of the wheel well is to install a wheel with a lower offset (which pushes the wheel outward) and/or close the gap at the top of the wheel by lowering the body of the car itself (drop).

Manofsteelpt

Here is my S63 on 20" stock height...

Manofsteelpt

And here it is lowered...

DaveW68

If he went with a taller tire on the bigger wheels, he could fill in the gap. But that would likely cause rubbing on the strut tower. It would also require recalibration of the speedometer and an alignment.

Mike5215

Sort of. Every extra inch of overall wheel size would close the fender gap by a half inch (the other half inch raises the entire car off the ground by that much).

A Plus 1 or Plus 2 presumes the same overall rolling diameter to avoid the alignment, speedo, and brake issues you can get when exceeding the OEM rolling diameter.

I see a lot of guys posting about getting larger rims to "close the gap" who clearly don't understand sizing.

Jason B