LovinMercedes

Gentlemen,

IMHO, this is the best option for both your cars. Will look absolutely gorgeous, especially if you get them in the SL65 color which is hyperblack. You can also get them in the regular silver color. They are 19" inch wheels so you would have to replace your tires which you should do anyway as the Michelin Pilot sports are much better.

Happy hunting...

jeffreyy

I have them on my SL55 in the silver color. They look way cool.

Jeff

RadSteve

There are Michelin Pilot sports on there now actually, but of course only18"

LovinMercedes

Funny how you got the Michelin's and StephenK did not.

Wonder why?

RadSteve

After i looked at StephnK's post i had to go back and look again at my tires...yes mine ARE Michelin Pilot sports...that is totally bizarre. So you think those are relaly that much different from the Pirelli's? I had the Pilot Sport's on my old roadster and liked them very much, so I'm familiar with them, but not with the Pirelli's.

RJC

Love Pilot's, had them on many cars even from way back when the MXX3 first came out. My 04 CLK500 came with Pirelli P Zero's so I had the dealer switch rims and tires from another new 500 that had Pilot's. I recently was in the market for the new '05+ AMG wheels; I wanted direct take off's from an 05 and insisted they had Pilot's.

MB uses a few brands of tires, as of late the most commom seems to be Michelin, Pirelli, and Conti's with the Michelin's being the most expensive. The guy's on the E55 section don't have the kindest words for the new Conti Sport 2's but they all seem to love the new Pilot PS2's.

LovinMercedes

Pirelli makes a nice tire. If you are talking ride comfort and stability, nothing compares to the Michelin Pilot Sport. If you put on either Conti's or Pirelli's you would be able to tell the difference. The Pirelli's are much better than the Conti's.

Amazes me the cars were built so close together yet they have different tires. I know Mercedes uses all three depending on which is the best deal at the time but just surprised they could be so close and yet have different tires.

Something in my head is telling me that they only rotate between the Michelin's and the Pirelli's on the SL600's but when it comes to the SL500's that the Conti's are part of the rotation.

I remember when my SL600 was coming in I had the dealer order a set of Michelin Pilot Sports just in case the Pirelli's came with the care. I wouldn't have taken the car with the Pirelli's. That is when I believe they told me I had a one in two chance, not a one in three like on the SL500's.

jeffreyy

I have to say that I got the Bridgestone RE050s on the 19" AMGs. They're the only tires you're supposed to use with the 19's especially if you plan to de-restrict (which I don't). Anyway, ride quality and noise are fantastic as well as grip.

I haven't had the opportunity to try the new Pilot Sports. On a previous BMW, I had the Pilots and they were quite hard and noisy, but I'm sure they've improved a lot since 1994.

Jeff

LovinMercedes

Bridgestone actually make a great tire. I believe Ferarri's have Bridgestone but I am not positive. I know I asked my Aston Martin dealer about Bridgestone for my Vanquish S but unfortunately they have specially made and sized tires for the car by Yokohama. Go figure.

It is my understanding that Bridgestones are great for reducing road noise.

jeffreyy

Yep. They're quiet alright. Surprising that actually now that you mention it, I don't even think I hear much of any road noise. Mainly engine. I deflate a little bit to 31/32 rather than 35/36 as the factory suggests. You'd never know there were 30 series tires on the car. Basically, no road noise at all and a nice ride. ABC is awesome.

Once the tires heat up a little they're at 34/35 psi according to the TPM. I would like to put Nitrogen in, then I think i could start with a higher base pressure. Nitrogen expands less so there is less pressure swing between hot and cold.

Jeff

jeffreyy

BTW, I saw a AM in Monaco. Whoa! What a beautiful shape. Very nice exterior detailing. Much more of a single piece look than the SL. Of course, it doesn't have the drop top, but still, I'm sure your AM will be gorgeous.

Jeff

LovinMercedes

Thanks Jeff. That is actually a picture of a DB9. Mine will be the Vanquish S which has the same kind of look yet more muscular. Has more hand made shaping in the body.

Same single piece look which can only be accomplished by being hand made.

FThornton666

The vanquish looks much fuller than the DB9. Looks better you know, the DB9 is sexy, but the Vanquish is Adraina Lima.

jeffreyy

Oh, yes I know it's a DB9. I haven't seen a Vanquish S yet in real life.

J

Gunther

When I took delivery on my car my SA came out to look at it as well - she's become a good friend.

She remarked that I had the Michelin's on my car - which was good. She then told us - per what other's have said here too - that MB has several tires they put on the car from the factory. What you get is based upon what is in supply at the time of your build and not relevant to what is listed in the brochure for the car.

CASL55

What makes you think so?

Ideal gas law: P*V=n*R*T, Where P=pressure, V=volume, n=number of moles present, R=universal gas constant, and T=temperature.

For a given amount of any gas, n and R are constants, so put them both on one side of the equation and you have: P*V/T=n*R.

So, for the same amount of any gas at two different temps, volumes and pressures: P1*V1/T1=P2*V2/T2.

Jim

jeffreyy

Nitrogen Instead of Air
Nitrogen is a dry, inert, non-flammable, enviromentally friendly gas used for years to inflate airplane tires, off-road truck tires, military vehicle tires, and race car tires for improved performance. Compressed nitrogen contains less moisture than compressed air. When the tire heats up, moisture in the tire vaporizes and expands, causing the pressure inside the tire to increase. Even small changes in tire pressure can noticeably affect the handling of the car. By using nitrogen instead of air, race car teams have more control over how much the pressure will increase when the tires heat up.

Nitrogen Tire Filling Benefits...
Nitrogen permeates through the tire 3 to 4 times slower than oxygen - tires maintain pressure longer for better fuel economy, better tire life, and increased safety.
Nitrogen reduces oxidation to tire rubber and rims caused by oxygen in standard compressed air.
Nitrogen filled tires run about 20% cooler than tires filled with standard compressed air - tires last longer.

http://www.talontire.com/nitrogen.html

CASL55

Jeff, with all due respect. There is some stuff in here that makes sense, but there’s a lot of garbage.

This is more a function of the pressure to which the gas is compressed than the gas itself. Gas compressed to a higher pressure can support less dissolved water vapor. It is also a function of whether the gas is dried after compression. Undried compressed air distribution systems are filled with air saturated with water at the temperature and pressure of the containment vessel. At a constant temperature, one cubic foot container of air at atmospheric pressure can hold the same amount of water vapor as a one cubic foot container of air at 3000 psi. Thus, when you compress air, water comes out. The more you compress it, the more water comes out. When you expand the air back to lower pressure, you get drier air than you started out with. Scuba divers are familiar with the dry mouth that results from breathing compressed air. So, while it may be true that the nitrogen you get in your tires is drier on average than the air you get in your tires, it’s not because nitrogen is essentially drier than air, it’s because of differences in the way the nitrogen got made and compressed compared to the average low-pressure, high-temperature, undried tire compressor.

There will only be condensed water in your tires if you filled them with hot air from a compressor with low pressure and no dryer, and now they’re cool.

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s accept this as true, even though I don’t know it to be so. Say you fill you tires with air, which is roughly 4/5 nitrogen and 1/5 oxygen. After a while, most of the oxygen is gone (leaked out through the tire), while most of the nitrogen stays. You top it off. The process repeats itself. Pretty soon your tires are filled almost entirely with nitrogen.

This makes perfect sense to me.

I can’t figure out why this should be true. Can anyone enlighten me?

BTW, a lot of the sites that I visited make the point that [big] airplanes use nitrogen in their tires. I suspect that the reason that they do so not only worries about oxidation, but also that anybody involved with aviation doesn’t want anything that supports combustion better than air (and compressed air supports combustion better than uncompressed air) tucked up in the wheel wells of their planes.

There is a lot of money to be made in selling equipment to fill tires with nitrogen. There is money to be made in charging consumers for filling their tires with nitrogen. Therefore, there is a lot of money to be made in convincing people that nitrogen is a good thing. The N2 hype machine is operating effectively. There look to be some advantages: lower oxidation, perhaps lower leakage. But, in spite of web sites that say things like “nitrogen doesn’t expand or contract with temperature” (http://www.woodalls.com/cforum/index.../14872995.cfm), with respect to obeying the ideal gas law when used to inflate tires, nitrogen and oxygen are essentially identical.

It’s a fascinating story of science meeting marketing. Marketing is winning.

Jim

RadSteve

Isn't that weird. By the way TPMS does not display the tire pressure from what I can read in the owner's manual, and when I pushed lots of buttons trying to get it to do it based on older manual instructions...now it's just an idiot light to tell you there is a problem with a tire...not even WHICH ONE, from what I can read! Anyone know any more about this?

vraa

CostCo fills your tires with nitrogen for free. It's lighter IIRC then the same amount of oxygen.

Or something like that.

LovinMercedes

I can't believe they would have eliminated the TMPS from 2005. In my 2005 SL600 you could move the buttons on the steering wheel and get the read out below. Is it possible they eliminated this...that would be really poor? I thought this was a great featrue.

vraa

I hated TMPS because it never works.

Always telling me to Visit workshop.

I HATE THE WORKSHOP, DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!!

LovinMercedes

I had problems in the beginning and then found out they had an updated module. One they replaced the module it worked perfectly.

vraa

Oh our works fine. It's the weather in Houston that sucks. And we park in an air conditioned garage at home and at work. So whenever you're on the road, you'll get an error. Of if you calibrate it for the road, you'll get an error in the garage.

jeffreyy

Mine works fine. The only drag is it likes a higher base pressure than I like to run at, so it complains about that on occassion.

Jeff