Two years ago last January, my wife wanted to go to some chi-chi restaurant with the girls and being the dutiful husband I offered to drive them to the venue in my S600 in style and spaciousness and pick them up three hours later. On the freeway, I hit a deep pothole that blew my front tire and bent my front wheel. I put them in a cab so they wouldn't miss dinner and told my wife to call an Uber for the after dinner pickup so their evening would not be spoiled. I waited two hours for AAA and they towed the car home where it sat until I could get a Tire Rack delivery. I also couldn't locate a non-bent used wheel, so I ordered a new one one from the dealer at $860. I didn't order the fancy gold plated wheel, just a 19 inch S600 wheel and he said that was $860. Plus a core charge until you bring back the old bent one. By the time everyone had finished getting their piece, I was out more than $1100. I made a claim against the DC Government who said they would pay the claim if the pothole had previously been reported. And 16 months later, a check appeared!!

Today, I just got my S600 back from its service and took it for a nice ride to enjoy it. As I am getting off the freeway exit, boom and I hit another pothole. This time on the other front tire. And yes it blew the tire. I don't think I bent the wheel, but I won't know until I get it off. Already ordered another tire from Tire Rack. The 40 profile tires, even the Michelin PS/3s, just don't survive. Tire Rack gives you a road hazard plan, but it is only good for two years after purchase of the tire. And of course, mine expired two months ago.

 

if you have lots of potholes where you live I suggest to switch to 18 inch wheels problem will be solved

 

I had a set of 18" genuine w221 wheels refurbed about 6 months ago, they rang me to say one was cracked and needed to be welded.... I took them another instead and they gave me the cracked one which I still have, I was very surprised…. its always on the inner edge, out of sight they go.

Its been normal in the UK for the last 12 years all 19" wheels on an Merc or BMW crack under normal driving on the joke roads the UK has now, but I'd have thought 18" would cope.... but clearly not....

 

Wow, sorry for the bad luck. Just came from DC a few minutes ago. The pot holes are bad even in MoCo.

 

I feel your pain. I hit a pothole on 395 two weeks ago and bent my rim. I should had stayed on 95, but calling myself cutting thru DC on 22’s bad idea.

 

I have to get one of mine straightened. It started leaking air just a few months after having new tires put on, so I took it back to Costco thinking they'd messed up yet another valve stem. Nope, bent rim on the unsupported inner edge. I've got the 21-spoke 19" wheels; bending the outer edge would be quite a feat. Anyway, I need to get that one fixed. Fortunately it's the same one on which I messed up the paint, so they can do it all at the same time.

We have two seasons in Nebraska... pothole season, and road construction season when they fill the potholes.

 

I feel your pain, DC here. I drove SL's since 2013 and after endless tires and a couple broken - thank god for the wheel and tire insurance - rims I got rid of it. DC metro roads are terrible, makes me wonder where all those wonderful tax dollars are going. Event he beltway is a mess. I now drive an S450 with 19"s and would have gone 18"s if they had them. Much better so far, makes for a smoother ride too.

 

The tax dollars are being stolen and laundered by the politicians. That is a massive, huge problem problem in America. They have all figured out how to do this robbing and easily get away with it. I believe every single politician should have a very thorough audit, and any unexplainable dollars, hidden or illicit income, be confiscated. It would be in the Billions. Good luck with that.
For the wheels, people should talk with their insurance agent. I have two insurance policies on my cars, and if any wheel or wheels get damaged by road hazards, including potholes, insurance pays to fix the damage. Replacing wheel is far better than repairing, in my opinion, and I would be demanding replacement. If one wheel is too rare to be found, then all four have to be replaced, and that is all covered. I am using Allstate for my GL450 SUV and Hagerty for my other four Benzos and my Maserati. I did scrape a rear wheel on a curb terribly one day zooming around a corner too fast in my Maserati, and a few days later I was browsing Craigslist and Amazing, I found a complete set of the same Maserati wheels ...for $400! Some kid was selling them. I was very surprised. They're now in my garage. They're said to cost around $600 each! It seems crazy to not have insurance that would cover such damage, especially when you have wheels and tires that cost $3000-4000 per set! Also, if the hit is severe enough to wreck the wheel, it could cause other damage to the suspension or steering.
There is a freeway on-ramp near my house, that has a horrendous giant hole, big enough for an entire wheel, and probably six inches deep. It's right there just before entering the freeway, at the left wheel... I wonder how many poor folks hit that thing in a day...

 

you are lucky you have such a thing as insurance … UK rewrote it in 2012 from I want cover for this situation - there's a sensible premium - into you think you have insurance but we NOW make the rules and we basically cover NOTHING at all EVER but luckily the government makes it compulsory you must have it, so hand the cash over and go away sucker !!!!

no wheel damage is covered here - never was even on the old un corrupt version

 

I suppose I might be able to file an insurance claim for a broken wheel or blown tire. It might be covered under the collision insurance, but of course I’d pay the deductible and after one or two of those I’m sure they’d bump my rates up. I just try to dodge what I can, and pay for my own repairs. Kind of goes with the territory I guess. It’s a 5000 pound car (and then some) with 19” wheels and low aspect ratio tires. That combination would probably work great in Germany or most of the south. I don’t recall seeing any potholes in AZ, NM, southern CO, FL, places like that. But the absurdly bad condition of the roads around here is one reason you see way more SUVs than sedans or coupes.

 

I feel your pain brother. I have gone through a few sets of wheels over the past 10 years. On my W211 I went through 3 sets of wheels in 4 years. Finally, on the 3rd set I downsized from 18's to 17's and never had the issue again. On my W221 I have two sets of stock 18's one in gunmetal and one in chrome. After nearly 5 years of ownership, I have had one slightly bent wheel on one of the Chrome wheels and it was somewhat correctable. Going down to 18's on the S600 is taking a step back, but you probably won't have issues again.

 

Hit this one hard...ended up buying a full spare set of 4 when I was looking for a single replacement that I now have just sitting in my basement.

 

It's always something... here in the desert very few potholes, but stones flying everywhere. It's like a stone shower at times. Our state insurance laws provide for an zero deductible annual windshield replacement with a comprehensive insurance policy. I've had three windshields in my S550 since 2017.

 

Hey, that looks JUST like what happened to my left front last week. Gotta get the wheel straightened and the tire replaced. I guess I'll find out how good Costco's road hazard warranty is.

 

Yup, cracked the wheel. I now have 2 rear and 1 front spare though for now.

 

Bummer on the bent wheel. We really do need to do something about the crumbling state of the infrastructure. I am almost OK with the politicians stealing their piece just as long as we get some new roads, bridges, and a ton more maintenance on existing interstates.

Update on my recent pothole story.... I filed a small claim for about $270 (for the tire) against the State of Maryland. Got a nice phone call from some drone in the "Treasurer's Office". Acknowledged receiving the claim. Said he would check to see if the pothole had been reported before my problem and not fixed within three days. If so, he would pay. If not, he would write me an email denial. Stay tuned.

 

Probably the same guy named Brian.

 

Me, too... If I thought anything would actually improve. What burns me is, they'll spend billions of dollars on road repairs and road construction... all of it done wrong. Substandard materials, incorrectly laid on insufficiently prepared surfaces. Why do I say that? Because within five years or less, you're already seeing it crumble. I don't remember the last time I saw an actual expansion joint in a city street. They just pour a big long slab of ****ty concrete, then slice grooves every so often to let the water in so it can freeze and crack the pavement. I'd love to meet the contractors who build this atrocious crap and ask them... are they actually proud of their work? When they drive down the street, thumping along and trying to dodge the sunken manhole covers and gaping holes, do they ever think, "Hey, I built this!" It would be depressing to me to know I had built something so shoddy and of such abysmally poor quality.

I drive a 4WD F150 with 18" wheels, and I'm not sure how much more abuse it can take.

 

I finally got the wheel taken to the repair place. It's an outfit called Wheel Tech that pretty much everyone I talked to told me to call. The bolts for the spare wheel came last week and I finally found time to pull the wheel and mount the spare. My wife dropped off the bent wheel and flat tire yesterday, the place called today -- $130 to straighten it. I'm going to have them strip, dress, and paint it for an additional $200. I had gotten a little close with the mower and bunged up the paint on 4 or 5 of the spokes, so it needed the repaint anyway. I was just lucky that it was that wheel that got bent. It will take them a few days to get that done.

 

I took a couple of mine to a remanufacturing place, and they told me they would not work on the 5 spoke 20 inch AMG wheels. So you're lucky! I've had to buy refurbs off of ebay.

 

Mine are the 22-spoke 19" wheels. The replacements I've seen for sale all cost more than having this one straightened and repainted... plus, you really don't know for sure the wheel you're buying is in good shape until you get it, and then if it's not you have a hassle trying to fix that problem, too.

 

I keep threatening to move to those wheels. It would help out with the replacements and repairs.

 

Somewhat, but probably not entirely. The one thing that stood out on the Carfax for my car was the number of times it had been in for front end alignment and/or front wheel and tire replacement. I can't remember how many times it was, but it was at least half a dozen.

 

I picked up the repaired and repainted wheel and blown tire today. The wheel looks amazing, like brand new. Costco will have my replacement tire tomorrow, then we’ll see how good their road hazard warranty really is on a tire with less than a years wear on it. My coil pack should be back Saturday or Monday, then we’ll see how it runs.

 

I have hit potholes multiple times in Atlanta and cracked my wheel 3 times and tire 4 times. The guys at Discount Tire think I am nuts. Same AMG 20 inch. I then bought two used ones from the guy who advertised them on this forum and son of a gun, one of the "perfect" wheels sent me, the Wheel Repair Shop said had been repaired twice and they showed the torch marks and showed where they had been shaved down. They would not even repair them. I am thinking about less low profile tires.