ARCANE

Well, 2 weeks now and my first disaster...Thanks, Lee Brown (mayor) for those potholes. I ran into one on the Southwest Freeway this afternoon at 40 mph. Totally at random, never saw it because of the car in front, then BOOM!

10-12 minutes later it's pulling left so I pull over...FLAT! I called SOS (worked fine, they knew where I was and sent a flatbed). In the meantime I tried the Tirefit system which actually did get some pressure into the tire, to 40 psi. However, the sidewall had a 1 cm. tear so it wouldn't hold.

Off to Greenway Mercedes and they'll get it changed tomorrow.

One comment: I drove for about 10 miles and really the tire was intact and the wheel was perfect. Probably because of the low- profile Pirellis according to the towtruck driver, but maybe these are RunFlat tires. Anyone know?

mookie

Thats what happens when u drive to close to the car in front of u, no time to react to potholes and what not. You are relying on the person in front. I have the same problem, because I am an aggressive driver I tend to get close to the cars in front of me on rural roads when people drive below the spped limit. The other day right around the corner from my house I was driving when 2 or 3 cars in front made quick movements around something in the road. Luckly I saw them and slowed down to see a large rock in the road. I stoped next to it and got out of the car with my flashers on and removed it from the road. Ends up it was a 10-12 pound boulder around 6-7 in diameter. As I am doing this the car behind cant wait and passes, what a *** hole, maybe it took me 20 seconds to do but he cant wait. Can you imagine the damage that that would have done if I hit it or ran over it. I went home to tell my wife and she had her friend over so I told them both. They said that it was there all day and no one removed it. I asked why they did not and they said we just drove around it. You live and learn!

blueSL

Seems to me the tyre pressure monitoring is worth having just for this sort of event, you'll quickly see if you're losing pressure.

mookie

I agree and if you are a aggressive driver having tires that are under inflated could be a serious problem. A must have in a car like this, or check your pressure every week.

Sammy7783

What is this so-called Tirefit system?

vraa

if i belive correctly those losers witht hte AMG version (haha) dont get a spare tire but get a patch of somesort.

im just clowning with yall AMG guys..

///MB

It's probaby like the BMW M mobility kit, which consists of a pump that plugs into your cigarette lighter and a can of "gunk" that you put into the tire to seal the leak.

vraa

I think your right, i do with there was a post ***** who had a SL55 so he could always keep us informed!

blueSL

That's exactly what it is. Because the SL55 has different sized wheels front and rear, and directional tyres, there's no point in having a spare wheel since it would only be right for 1 of the 4...

This frees up space in the trunk, reduces weight, but the Tirefit system is only good for minor leaks. The tyre pressure monitoring is good because if it's telling you in advance you have a problem, you can do something about it. Won't help if you get into pot-holes though.

UK roads are just as bad; the best roads in my experience are in France, well maintained. German roads are not in very good condition, especially in the industrial heartland and, for all their lack of speed limits, are often only 2 lanes wide.

vraa

bleh, they shoulda given u four tires then!

btw, i haven't experianced n e potholes in houston.. maybe i should learn how to drive first! :P

ARCANE

So, the left front tire got changed @ $222 with $75 for the tow, and now they say the left rear has a "bubble" that needs a new tire. However, the closest one is in Mississippi so I have to go slow until they get it next week.

It wasn't even that huge a pothole, but apparently low profile tires are susceptible to sidewall injuries easily.

The "gunk" with the Tirefit system is really only good for small holes but the air compressor that is supplied is really quite well- made and pumps out adequate pressure to keep you going until the next stop unless it's a huge hole.

They should really make the tire pressure monitoring system standard. In fact, as one reviewer said, why have any options at all on a car of this magnitude? The total options list adds up to around $9,000 or so compared to a list of $113,000...just give us everything and just adjust color and interior fittings.

I will probably get an aftermarket tire pressure monitor installed at some point, the issue is too important.

blueSL

Certainly agree with you about the importance of correct pressures on low profile tires.

I also agree that the tyre pressure monitoring should be standard from a safety point of view. I can understand items like parktronic and distronic not being standard because some people do not like their visual appearance. I did not have distronic for that reason, parktronic I can put up with but it would of course be better to have it without the warts on the bumper covers.

I figure the SL600 will have most of the items as standard and what choices there are left will be down to personal preference.

vraa

I know it seems like a stupid question, but do i have low profile tires on the SL500? It still has the 17" rims stock seven spokes.

awiner

The CL55 / S55 are the same way. Different sized wheels front and rear, and directional tires, however, there still is a full size spare. Of course it isn't a full size as compared to the stock tires, and is undirectional, but a spare non the less.

vraa

what does directional do to anything? i've heard yall talk a lot about that.

blueSL

The tyre tread pattern is designed and optimised assuming the tyre is rotating in one direction only. There's an arrow on the wall of the tyre to show the correct rotation direction when running forwards; that means it works only on one side of the car; if you put it on the other side of the car, it will run backwards and not perform as expected.

The CL of course has a much bigger - huge - trunk compared to the SL so there's no particular space benefit to be had by supplying a one-wheel-fits-all spare.

vraa

Does it actually play a large role on the cars in everyday driving? As in comfort wise and such? Or is it mainly for track use, or when driven hard.

mookie

Does that mean that u do not rotate the tires?

Fedex690

Sorry to hear about the "incident", but feel lucky that you accually have roads that you can drive your SL500's and 55's on, I can't even immagine low cars like that driving here, especially now that it's winter, and potholes!! Oh god you haven't got a clue. Damn Canadian winters!! It angers me! But enough about my pittyfull geographical situation! Those tires questions sound very interesting!!

awiner

Correct. No rotation due to the staggered sizes.

blueSL

Well, I was wrong. I checked the tyres on my SL55 and they are marked with an "outside" on the side-wall which indicates they must be mounted on the rim one way only, but there's no arrow showing direction. I'm confused, need to do some research...

vraa

har har.. they mounted ur tire wrong!

blueSL

Turns out my SL55 is fitted with Pirelli P-Zero Rosso which are asymmetric but not directional. That means each tyre must be fitted on the rim the correct way (with the word "outside" on the side wall on the... you've guessed it... outside) and then the wheel can be used on either side of the car because the direction of rotation does not matter. As we've already said, the SL55 has different wheel sizes front and rear, so you cannot swap front to back.

My Ferrari uses Bridgstone Expedias which are both directional and asymmetric with different wheel sizes front and back again so there are actually four different tyres on the car with the left hand side being mirror images of the ones on the right. Each tyre is for one position only and you cannot change anything. Those tyres have the word "outside" and an arrow showing the correct rotation on the side-wall.

ibrahim83

ARCANE,

i feel your pain, mayor brown has done nothing but ruin the streets and close down businesses, especially in the downtown area.

i saw a couple of posts that if you take some pictures, prices and times of what happened, the city would pay you back. but then again, after seeing how they opened up whole streets and left them empty for almost a year before patching them up, i really would doubt they'd do anything about your claim.

kaneman

You aren't kidding. All the construction downtown is going to kill off the revival down there before it even really gets started. Gimme back Kathy Whitmire.