360 Spyder

I am not satisfied with the rear suspension ride characteristics of my car in either sport mode or regular. It does not have a solid feel over bumps and it seems like the car gets unsettled with body roll too easy from just going over modest bumps like a manhole cover. Is this typical? I would expect that if there was something wrong, the car would not sit level or would have a warning light. Is this just typical of a luxury car with air suspension?

Tom in Austin

How many miles on your car?

360 Spyder

38,000 miles

Tom in Austin

And what kind of wheels and tires? E.g. 20" with run-flats? How many miles on the tires?

My '16 has 44,500 so interested in others' experience with the ride over time.

badq45t

For sure Runflats are not your friend nor a wheels biggers than 19". Funny I was planning to immediately change out my 19" AMG rims for something bigger but quickly figured out 19" was plenty big. I still have the Michelin MOE's which are a little better than other runflats, but I don't have this issue on a 16" with 39k, while the ride even in sport isn't super stiff (I had a Q45 that rode on coilovers that was super stiff) but in sport I thing is pretty solid.

I just had the B7 service that included a test of the air suspension, so did this just start to happen or has it been like this from the day you got the car?

360 Spyder

The tires are 20" Goodyear Eagle F1 run flats
Front 245/40R 20
Rear 275 35ZR 20
The fronts have a lot of tread but I did find that the rears are just above the tread wear indicators. I'm sorry to hear the 20" wheels are an issue because they are beautiful!
I bought the car 3,000 miles ago so I don't know how the ride compares with new or even with new tires. Now 38,000 miles.
Does the fact that there is an air suspension test indicate that there can be issues that don't trip a warning light or alter the ride height appearance?

Wolfman

20” wheels are perfect for the car. Same discussion for the last 8 years. Some people have an affinity for 18” or 19” wheels but 20” work and look great as long as you have good tires.
Goodyear Eagles on the other hand are crap tires. I would replace them with conventional tires right away. If you are in a warm climate I would get Michelin PS4s, otherwise some all-season option. Sounds like you have air suspension and not MBC. Assume tire pressure is not too high?

360 Spyder

I keep the tires at the recommended pressure of 36 front and 39 rear. Is that possibly too high, especially with run flats? I am in Florida so the Michelin PS4s sound like the ticket.

Tom in Austin

36 and 39? Where did you see that ... look inside the fuel filler door. On my 2016 it says 33 front and rear for "normal" load.

I do think tires generally ride rougher as they age and have less tread. Hopefully you can get a nice improvement just by replacing the rears and adjusting the inflation pressure to spec.Going from run flats to non-run flats would give another increment of ride improvement too.

360 Spyder

It is very odd that my door jam sticker just says the 36 and 39 with one mention of heavy loads but nothing about normal load. The fuel door sticker say 32 front and 33 rear for normal loads with higher numbers for heavy loads. The pressures were all correct for normal load except the right rear had 3 or 4 extra pounds and slightly more wear versus left rear. Hopefully, that and new tires will make a difference

cfmistry

For what it's worth, my car rides much softer (better) with 33psi in all 4 tires over 36+ psi in all 4 tires. It is a very noticeable difference. These are 20" Michelin nRFTs.

Wolfman

Never use the door jam sticker for reference!
Only the fuel filler door has the proper tire pressure numbers listed
The door jam info is the tire pressure rated at vehicle load, as required by the DOT.

SW20S

I have the car on 20s vs 19s back to back multiple times, there is absolutely a difference in ride quality that is noticeable. Whether that difference is an issue for you or not depends on you, but don't listen to anybody who tells you there is no ride difference. I have never driven it on 18s, but I'm sure there is a difference between 18s and 19s too. I refused to buy a car on 20s after testing them back to back.

With that said, I wouldn't buy 19s if yours has 20s, I would just get better tires.

Wolfman

I don't recall anyone stating here that the ride quality is the same between the 2 wheel sizes. But I can state that it is not worse. I prefer 20" wheels over 19" personally but never drive the car in Comfort mode either. The point would be that all are personal preferences only...

SW20S

I think most people would equate sharper harsher impacts from road imperfections as "worse".

Sean._.S

I bought my car with 28,000 miles and it now has over 50,000. I have the 20 inch amg rims pictured in my profile. Though they ride worse than the 18's or 19's, I would never consider the ride to be bad when compared to our Cadillac with MRC (magnetic ride control) or the Rover with its air suspension. I found the ride to even match that of the ghost and flying spur...

Wolfman

Most people? Your verbiage, your assumptions.

There are members here that prefer smaller wheel diameters and others that don’t. Personal preferences as mentioned.

emilner

While we are not talking about a mountain of change- going from 19's to 20's will surely result in a harsher ride. It's physics and we can see antidotal evidence from the many people who say "I went with the 20's even though the ride is a bit firmer/harsher". Going to a smaller sidewall tire has to result in the ride firming up. Now for some they welcome this and like it, but this is a luxury sedan first and a smooth ride is priority #1. For the vast majority we leave the firm ride for the toys...

SW20S

I'm very confident that most people equate feeling harsher road impacts as a ride thats "worse". You can spin your own preferences how you want, but if most people didn't feel that way, they wouldn't design the S Class and other flagship luxury sedans to ride this way.

So yes, the larger diameter wheel, the "worse" the ride. Whether thats an issue for someone vs the other attributes of larger wheels (better looks, sharper handling) is up to them (which I believe I said in my original post). The changes in ride comfort are not positive, If you can find me a review or someone that says "man I love how hard and sharp it slams through the cabin when I hit an expansion joint" then I may re-evaluate. Larger wheels degrade ride comfort, bottom line.

Exactly. Pretending that isn't the case to validate ones choice to run 20 provides no benefit to people deciding what wheels they want. When you choose bigger wheels vs smaller wheels, you are sacrificing ride comfort on some level for looks and handling sharpness. Thats not wrong, but its a reality someone should consider.

Best advice is to drive the car on the different wheel sizes and see what you think. Harder to do now that they aren't new...

360 Spyder

It is a shame that the 19s are nowhere near as attractive as the 20 multi-spoke wheels. Too bad you can't get an attractive 19. MY OPINION ONLY!

Tom in Austin

Depends a lot on the roads you drive on, right? I heard somewhere that roads in Germany are very smooth and well-maintained, so wouldn't surprise me if MBZ engineers optimize their product for those conditions.

Wolfman

I think you miss my point. I have no interest convincing anyone of my opinion. It is simply my personal opinion and preference. As such I like other members to do the same and not assume that speak for "most people".
As for the phrase harsher, your will see that I usually refer to 20" with conventional tires. To me, a 19" S-Class on RFT's will ride harsher than a 20" on conventional tires. I have driven enough of them. We have also owned enough S-Class models/generation to know what I want in a S-Class driving experience and our last one delivered that with 20" wheels.

Coincidently I have also driven the W222 with 18" extensively in Germany & Europe and to me they are not my thing, especially at speed.

Wolfman

A lot of S-Class drivers also leave their stock RFT tires on the car which has a bigger impact on ride quality than rim size.

emilner

I can't reconcile how you compare 20" rims with conventional tires with 19"s and RFTs to then say 20's don't ride harsher than 19's. You changed 2 variables. It's apples and oranges.
RFTs generally are stiffer, especially those made a few years ago. Most people don't have a choice though if they still want peace of mind without having to drop a damn tire in the trunk full time. If you lived in NY/NE you may feel different after going through 5+ rims/tires a year. There's a reason people don't often get 20's in these parts...

SW20S

I think my AMG 19s are good looking, not as good looking as the 20s.

And a 19" S Class on non RFTs will ride less harshly than a 20" S Class on non RFTs. Whats your point? The same variable and impact of wheel sizes exists.

I feel very confident speaking for most people here. "Harsher" = worse.

Zero logic lol