I cracked 5 rims in 4 years living in he DC area, suburbs, not much city driving.

I do not drive fast, I drive the limit 99% of the time, really taking it easy on this car.

I had the stock 19x8.5 & 19x9.5 rims, and I never lost a tire, just cracks to the rims. The repairs would last maybe 1 year, usually less, average 5 months before the weld leaks.

I switched to Enkei PF01, all 4 wheels are 18x9.0. I can now rotate them anyway because I also went with 255/40R18 YOKOHAMA ADVAN SPORT A/S+ on all 4 wheels.

I purchased from TireRack and bought new TPS 433MHZ TIRE PRESSURE SENSORs, they mounted and balanced them so when they arrived I could just bolt them on.

This cost me $2,691.87, and I saved all 4 stock rims and tires, I just replaced the 19" tires so I have 4 new ones when I sell or trade the car.

What killed me the most, other than the frequent cracks, was if you bought a new rim, the lead time was a month+ from my local dealer. Nevermind the $1,500, but I could not drive a car without a spare, and not on a run flat. I did buy a donut and jack kit from modernspare.com. I also got a deal on a non-matching 19x8.5 rim for $105 new on closeout, it is black in color. So, I have 2 spares, I bring the donut on trips.

In the rain recently, I hit what must have been a really square hole in the road that knocked my phone out of the holder and I almost hit my head on the roof, I am over 6' tall. I can assure you this would have been another stock rim if I was running those.

What I really like is that one of the TireRack warehouses is in DE, and even UPS ground is only 1 day away 90% of the time. So, if I need another rim, I can order it and have it on the car in usually 2 days. Much better than a month.

I had to custom make the Mercedes caps for the Enkei rims, the cap is 65mm and not 75mm like the stock ones. Also, the caps that come with PF01's are not flat, so you cannot mount a decal without a flat surface. Finding the right caps that were flat and what I learned when making a custom caps that stay on the car (I lost a few decals and caps, /doh) and does not fly off is another post entirely. It took me over 6 tries and many sets of caps until I found the ones that worked. I considered making and selling these caps, but I would not want to do it for less than $75 a cap. Tt actually costs me 1/2 of that for the really good, metal logo 100% matching decal caps to be made. Not to mention the time, I had to make a jig to hold the cap & decal in place when bonding them together.

So, my original question... how many rims in what time frame have you cracked? I ask the 19" crowd because I believe, and risked almost $3k, that the 18" rims would not crack as often.

Thanks as always for replies.

PS - My Enkei's look great and like stock, I did not want rims that looked aftermarket. Not SL400 stock, I think they look like the Gull wing model Mercedes rims.

 

I put Mandrus (made by TSW) wheels in stock sizes on my 2019 SL450 right after purchase as I did not like the look of the OEM wheels. No issues with them in 15k miles.

OEM:


Mandrus:

 

Four on factory 5 stars. Zero on aftermarket. Both 19"

 

One on my '06 SL55 with the factory modular wheel, but none on my '14 SL63.

 

In the five years I owned my R231, I had three rims crack during the first two years; switched to the same 19" staggered wheels made by Avant Garde. The last three years I had zero rim issues. Photo with Avant Garde wheels.



With the Avant Garde wheels.

 

I know that since I live in Southern California, that our roads are usually not subject to the severe weather conditions experienced by all you folks living back east, but in my many decades of driving, I have never had a cracked wheel. And, I’ve never had wheels larger than 19’s on any vehicle. These are 19’s all around on my SL.