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So I finally have all of the components bolted on, sorted out, tweaked, measured, and as of today all four wheels are aligned.
Brand new Ceika coil overs all the way around, brand new wheels & tires, brand new front tie rod ends, brand new brake rotors, brake pads, brand new steel braided brake lines, cleaned & painted brake calipers. All of these components have less than 50 miles on them.
I also put new guibo's all along the drive axle and a bunch of other new parts underneath, including a full tune up & service - she runs like a demon.
The tires and rims were tested for trueness & balance and they passed with flying colors
I’m running hub centric 5mm spacers up front and I had to shave off a good bit of metal from the front brake calipers to make the wheels fit without the spokes banging into the caliper as she rotates, but I got it done.
I’m picking up a slight vibration in the steering wheel and the alignment technician explained why:
“Even though all of my components are hub centric, and perfectly balanced, apparently the 5mm spacers don’t allow enough of the inner ID bore of the wheel to properly sit/center on the hub.”
I’ve seen the trick about taking flat tin foil and placing it over the wheel hub on the inner mating side (before mating it to the face of the rotor/spacer/hub) to take up the clearance to make everything center but I’m not crazy about that idea.
Like many of you I have searched high & low for a 5mm spacer “with” a 66.6 lip but I can’t seem to find any and at this point as they all seem to come without a lip.
I’d be willing to have a machine shop make a set for me that has lips but I’d much rather just buy an off-the-shelf pair with the lips and call it a day.
I’ve searched the forum for threads on this, but I didn’t find the info I need.
Do any of you guys know of such a manufacturer that sells 5mm 5x112 bolt patter spacers that would have a 66.6 lip?????
I'm sorry but you lost me with 99% of your reply......
All of the body work on this car is what came with the car, and if the front bumper cover is incorrect I wouldn't know it as I'm brand new to these cars and still learning them.
I have no complaints whatsoever about all of the suspension work that was done, my issue is getting the front wheels to engage more on the hubs to center them - to get rid of the wobble.
I have no idea what "SA" brakes are, but if that's some from of upgrade I'm happy with the stopping power the car has now.
My dilemma (that I just discovered today) is that the amount of material from the front wheel hubs don't protrude (stick out) long enough to engage the inner bore of the wheels.
The hub lips on these things slightly taper off at the end at that tapper is my enemy..........
That slight taper is killing me because it's just enough of a taper to make the front wheels not seat properly which is what's casing my vibration coming through the steering wheel.
There is no spacer can I put on that will work because both the spindle hub and the inner wheel bore is exactly 66.6 in diameter.
If I eliminate the 5mm spacer I'm good, but I need it to back the wheels off just enough to clear the brake calipers (and I've already shaved a ton of metal off the front of the calipers to make the 5mm spacer work) So that won't work, because I have to maintain spacers to maintain that clearance.
I can go radical and take the wheels to a machine shop to cut in a 73.1 inner wheel hub so that I can get spacers that go from a 66.6 wheel hub to 73.1 inner wheel hub but.........that's radical and costly.
The only thing I can think of at this point it to fit different hubs with slightly longer lips that will engage into the wheels. To me that's the simplest solution (if can find such an animal)
I'm seriously stuck on this one......any ideas?????
The short answer is, I like the original wheels but (politely) after all of the money, time, energy, sweat, blood, and literally tears I put into making the car look the way it currently looks.....there's no way I'm just going to walk away from all of that just to back to stock over an issue that I'm sure I can overcome & fix.
I believe I've found an answer to my issue.
If I can find aftermarket front wheel hubs that are a pinch longer than stock, it would remedy my issue.
See my latest posting titled: "Front Wheel Hubs with Longer Lips" and you'll see what I mean.
Here's a shot of the front of my car, obviously I bought it used and as I stated, I'm still learning a lot about them, so I would have never known that the bumper I have is not correct.
I like the way it looks and I'm not a purist so it's not something I'll be changing any time soon.
Thanks, I do like my car too. I'm a sucker for the classic Benz silver livery and Exclusive grey leather interior cars.
Your wheels seem a little proud compared to the fender openings. There is a chance of interference.
I've seen a few cars with mixed body work, it happens every so often.
I wish you luck with finding better fitting front hubs. Do the rear rims fit better? When using non-stock rims, sometimes there is an issue with the wheel bolts not engaging enough threads. Have you checked, or are you using custom length bolts?
You've addressed many of the routine maintenance items on the car, it should be fun to drive for quite some time. I wish you many miles of enjoyment.
I had my wheel's custom made, they're copies of Ronal wheels but not the real thing. Ronal wheels are insanely expensive and I wasn't about to spend $6,000.00 dollars on rims but I absolutely love the way they look.
The company that made the wheels did a great job but my measurements for the front wheels (regarding the offset) was a bit off.
When I received the wheels, the rears bolted up fine but I did put 10mm spacers on them to get the "stance" look I was after, and they don't bump or rub against anything in any driving conditions.
The front wheels were knocking into the brake calipers so I decided to shave some off the material off of the face of them hoping that would work without the use of spacers. I got them a lot closer in but I still needed a spacer to prevent the spoke's from knocking into the calipers.
I tried several sizes of spacers until I finally settled on the 5mm spacers because they gave me just enough room to keep the spokes from banging into the calipers - while keeping the profile of the wheels as close to the the inner fender as possible.
I don't mind that "proud" look as you put it because it makes the car look a bit more aggressive (in my opinion) and I get tons of compliments on her.
She sits about three quarters of an inch lower than stock with a wider stance. I really, really love the way she looks, and believe it or not I don't have any issues at all with any of the wheels rubbing or bumping into anything over rough roads or through the twisties.
The other nice thing about the coilover's is that I was able to dial in just enough height to keep everything clear from everything.
I didn't think that the 5mm spacers would have taken up enough hub material preventing the inner ID bore of the wheels "not" to engage & center properly but they do, and that's because Mercedes in their infinite wisdom decided to make the hub lips as shallow as they are.
I didn't have this issue with my 89 BMW 635CSI, those hub lips are much longer.
All I need to do now is either get a set of aftermarket wheel hubs that have slightly longer hub lips that stock, or take the wheels to a machine shop and have the inner ID bores opened up to 73.1 - then have that same machine shop make me a set of 5mm spacers with an inner bore diameter of 66.6 with an outer lip bore of 73.1 to snugly seat inside the wheel bore's
I know it sounds like a lot of pain but I've been going through this for months and I'm almost there, the hard part is truly behind me.
Not afraid of hard work to get the look I'm after, thanks for the replies........
These are the Ceika coilover's I have, they're great by the way if anybody is interested in putting a set on their SL.
Rather than machine the wheels, how about machining the hubs, taking a little off the face ' perhaps 0.030", and leaving the 'lip' extending a little more? There is plenty of 'meat' on the face of the hub and chucking the hubs using the bearing inner races will ensure everything is 'true'. It should be a very easy and low-cost machining job.
That's a really good idea that I hadn't thought of but I'm actually all set.
The shop that performed the 4 wheel alignment did a lot of testing and found that the reason why I was getting a vibration up front was because (even though the spacers were only 7mm thick) they were the flat type with no lip, and the remaining exposed lip from the hub was not long enough to fully engage into the inner bore of the wheels so that they could center properly. That's why I was in here asking folks if anybody knew of either longer lipped hubs or 8 to 10mm spacer's that had the 66.6 ID to 66.6 OD configuration. I eventually found some 8mm & 10mm spacers with the 66.6 to 66.6 configuration and now and she rides very smooth with no vibrations.
They did a really good job and even with the shipping costs it was a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $6,000.00 for genuine Ronal Rims.
They're pretty much identical in every detail and the quality is good.
So I finally have all of the components bolted on, sorted out, tweaked, measured, and as of today all four wheels are aligned.
Brand new Ceika coil overs all the way around, brand new wheels & tires, brand new front tie rod ends, brand new brake rotors, brake pads, brand new steel braided brake lines, cleaned & painted brake calipers. All of these components have less than 50 miles on them.
I also put new guibo's all along the drive axle and a bunch of other new parts underneath, including a full tune up & service - she runs like a demon.
The tires and rims were tested for trueness & balance and they passed with flying colors
I’m running hub centric 5mm spacers up front and I had to shave off a good bit of metal from the front brake calipers to make the wheels fit without the spokes banging into the caliper as she rotates, but I got it done.
I’m picking up a slight vibration in the steering wheel and the alignment technician explained why:
“Even though all of my components are hub centric, and perfectly balanced, apparently the 5mm spacers don’t allow enough of the inner ID bore of the wheel to properly sit/center on the hub.”
I’ve seen the trick about taking flat tin foil and placing it over the wheel hub on the inner mating side (before mating it to the face of the rotor/spacer/hub) to take up the clearance to make everything center but I’m not crazy about that idea.
Like many of you I have searched high & low for a 5mm spacer “with” a 66.6 lip but I can’t seem to find any and at this point as they all seem to come without a lip.
I’d be willing to have a machine shop make a set for me that has lips but I’d much rather just buy an off-the-shelf pair with the lips and call it a day.
I’ve searched the forum for threads on this, but I didn’t find the info I need.
Do any of you guys know of such a manufacturer that sells 5mm 5x112 bolt patter spacers that would have a 66.6 lip?????
They did a really good job and even with the shipping costs it was a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $6,000.00 for genuine Ronal Rims.
They're pretty much identical in every detail and the quality is good.
07-14-2022, 05:16 PM
