SRQLAW

Let me start. I LOVE MY SL55!

Background: Some of you know I bought a set of Vossen Forged 3pc wheels (20's) for my car. Wheels were made by Vossen Forged and were purchased from Vossen dealer in Tampa with brand new Toyos (last fall). The ride has been poor since they were installed. A ton of vibration with primary being in the rear. Local tire shop took a look. Tried to roadforce balance. Told me I needed tires. This was a month after getting the Vossen's installed. Car has been back to Vossen dealer 3x. On the 3rd time, they sent wheels back to Vossen Forged to be rebuilt (apparently). Problem NOT solved. Still far too much vibration. My wife's X5 with 22inch OZ's rides better.

Present: I am having to put air in tires regularly - like every 2 weeks... PISSED (and the ride still terrible).

Car is up for B-Service at local MB shop so I tell them to align and balance. Hell, maybe that can do better. The also try to roadforce balance and apparently come up with some crazy #s (60? - not sure what that actually means in tire world) but they also say that car needs tires (not b/c they are worn out as there is plenty of tread life left) b/c they cannot get balanced.

Vossen has pulled their name (which was apparently only licensed to the manufacturer) as the company that produced the actual wheels "Vossen Forged" is out of business. Figures. Vossen dealer tells me he has had all sorts of issues with the Vossen Forged wheels. No doubt! He will sell me at cost new Vossen (1pc) if I want them. They look decent and are comparatively cheap compared to the 3pc. Still may have a tire issue assuming my current Toyos are messed up and/or defective (per MB Sarasota).

So now what???? I am temped to let MB Sarasota put new tires on and see if that solves the issue. I will know as soon as I drive it home up I75. If not, then I turn around and make them take the tires back. Then I can deal with Vossen dealer about the f-ed up Toyos.

Or, I can take wheels back. Have someone else disassemble and rebuilt again and/or just take the Vossen 1pc and get rid of the Vossen Forged. Note, I still may have to replace the tires with the new Vossen 1pc - if MB Sarasota and my local tire dealer are to be believed...

i just want to be able to enjoy my ride... Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

BTW - anyone know if the roadforce balance would show or otherwise indiate if this was a wheel issue vs. a tire issue????

Thanks
David-

lkirchner

I am far from an expert on tire balancing but it appears that the tires are out of round. I changed out the wheels on my SL55 to 20" HRE's with Hankook tires. Out of 5 rear tires there were 3 that were out of round. The installer did a road force balance on the tires and the 3 that were out of round showed 30# + on the three. They tried to balance the tires and it was impossible. The 2 that ended up being installed were at about 20# and they perform well. At 60# the ride has to be horrible and at higher speeds the car should be shaking pretty bad.
To me it sounds like a tire problem. However the air leaking would make me wonder about the integrity of the wheels.

grane

And forget this aftermarket junk.

Www.my mercedesparts.com

For real parts.

SRQLAW

Thanks. I have been suspect of the tires for some time. I have heard people that love their Toyos and perhaps they do make a decent tire, but so far I am not impressed.

However, it is tough to figure out which one of these "experts" actually knows anything. They tend to point fingers at one another which only leaves me shaking my head. Should not be rocket science, but apparently it is... I am leaving towards replacing all 4 tires and then see where we stand at that point. I know that I will get getter service overall from MB Sarasota than the Vossen dealer.

The air is another issue... I am not at all sure what is required to reseal the wheels. Keeping in mind that they were supposedly rebuild by Vossen-Forged a few months ago... I mean for all I know it is something dumb like valve stems of TPS sensors leaking which have nothing to do with the integrity of the rim.

As for Grane - there is something to be said to stock MB parts... keeping in mind I have the stock wheels sitting in my garage waiting for new rubber...

What a mess. Next time 1pc wheels!!!

SRQLAW

and as for the ride... my butt goes numb from it and my Starbucks gets well shaken!

SRQLAW

ok - just stopped by the dealer - apparently there are also some issues with regard to the ride height so... I am going to have the remove the lowering links and am going with the new RennTech lowering module. Being that they support RennTech - at least I can get the ride height totally dialed-in (i hope...)

Anyone have any experience with the tablet that RennTech sell for this?

alx

your balance culprit is simple.

find another shop with roadforce balancer. the one you are using now is not calibrated/ maintained properly

that... or you could have 20 other things wrong with your car...

but start simple.

my bet is bad road force balancer... and dont even think about non-roadforce balancer being capable of balancing your wheels. anything over 17" can be done properly only on a roadforce equipment.

SRQLAW

Thanks ALX - the only reason that I am comfortable that it is not "...20 other things..." is that it runs fine with the stock rim/tire and I had some beat-up loaner wheels from the last time the Vossen-Forged were shipped back and even those ran far better. So I am pretty sure this is not a drive-train or related issue.

cal1

Sorry to hear you are still struggling with this problem. And I am probably the guy that swayed your decision to Toyos. I have had two full sets now and no problems. I do run the stock 18 inch wheel and stay at stock height just because of issues I have read about and because of the pot hole riddled roads up here.

I have seen out of round tires from the factory before though. I once fought with a tire store over a set of Bridgestones. They told me the bad ride was everything but their tires. We fought and fought. They finally sent all four tires back to Bridgestone. Bridgestone said three of the four should have never left the factory.

SRQLAW

hahaha. I knew I would finally find someone to blame for my issues... just kidding. The tires have actually worn well (so to speak), but for whatever reason this set appears to be "flawed" to say the least. I was at MB this AM and they are goin to go ahead with the Michelins, so we will see if that solves the problem. From what I read on various blogs over the weekend, the fact that they were pulling 60s on the Roadforce machine - indicates that these tire (at least the rears are totally f-ed...

cal1

Haha, It does sound like a bad set of tires. I wonder if the wheels can be road forced before the tires go on? It seems like it would expose a wheel issue. It also would be interesting to see a tire (Toyo) mounted on a stock wheel and roadforced.

SRQLAW

well - once they put on the new tires they will be roadforced - so we will see what kind of numbers they getthen . I do not know what a "good" number should be. I would need a set of stock 20s to find out if it really is the tires. On the other hand if they are stil getting high numbers with the new Michelinss, then I am going to guess that the wheels are going to need some attention as well...

Benz-O-Rama

Wait, Vossen Forged is out of business? You sure? They post here almost daily, and they're always showcasing new wheels/customers.

cal1

yeah, I guess I missed one little part of the equation.

SRQLAW

Vossen, in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, makers of 1pc cast (I think) wheels, which I happen to like, licensed their name to a company that made 3pc forged wheels i.e. Vossen Forged. That company has apparently gone out of business. If you go to the Vossen web-site - there are no longer any forged wheels on their site... I also emailed Vossen and they confirmed this. So... my guess is that the posting is from Vossen and only related to the 1pc wheels.

This is to the best of my knowledge.

Benz-O-Rama

Oh wow. That's good to know. Vossen Forged were actually on my short list as a next set for the SL600 or Range Rover.

Yet another fly-by-night Miami wheel company.

SRQLAW

Again, I am just sharing my personal experience. I have had good service to the extent applicable from Vossen. I love the look of the wheels that I purchased, but they have turned into quite an issue... I just want to get this taken care of. It is a real drag to have to keep dealing with this. I can now appreciate why people choose to go 1pc wheel.

amok55amg

Hmmm – I had experience something similar with tires going bad. Manny years ago I wanted to shine-up my rims and had a standard local company to take-off my tires …… and after I had done the rims, then I had them put them on again but then my car was shaking like a roller-coaster. It turned out that the company did not know the art of putting big tires on big rims the correct way and they all got an almost invisible bent which cursed the trembling. I had to buy four new tires and of curse also find another wheel company. I did find an expert which worked with dragsters and similar machines and have never had a rim/tire issues since. In other words; it’s important to find people who really know what they are doing

SRQLAW

AMEN!!! the funny thing is that the wheels (bought new) and tires (bought new) came from a Tampa Bay dealer that Vossen sent me to. I did not order this from some random place. This was the Vossen recommended dealer who I would "think" should know something about wheels and tires... (or not).

A couple of months ago, I even asked them about the whole tires business (i.e. could the tires be the issue)... but I was assured that was not the problem.

oh well - could be worse... I could be driving a Prius...

SRQLAW

Tires and RennTech module arrive tomorrow. I want my car back!!! I am driving an 2011 E350from dealer ...

cal1

Did you get your car back? The best thing about driving MBs loaners is getting back into your beast. Mine always feels fast as ***** when I first get it back.

SRQLAW

I actually just got the car back a couple of hours ago. They finished last night about 6PM, but i was already part way home for the night and there were pups waiting to be walked, so I went down today to get it.

First thoughts, the ride is MUCH better. I wish I could say that it is perfect, but I can say that they tires have made a world of differnce! I think the problem is that I am now so focused on the ride that every time there is a vibration (which could be the road) I think is it he wheels/tires. So, $1,700 later and I am happy with the PS2s. I wanted a print out of the #s that were pulled with Roadforce machine with the Toyos and then with the PS2s, but I wil have to see about getting that on Monday.

As for the RennTech module... as you know I had the lowering links on the car. The problem was that the car was not in fact even all around as per Starr Diagnostics so to cut this issue out I had them put in the stock links (which I had saved) and the RT module. When I 1st saw the car i thought it was sitting too high. However, I realized that 1 light was lit on the ride height button. At that height (1 light) it was probably close to stock - maybe 3 fingers all around. Then i dropped it and now it is a very tight 2 which seems to be a good setting. When the car is any lower the ride tends to suck However, the system appears to be very adjustable, so I am doing to roll with it for a few weeks and see how it feels. Also, I do not know what settings were selected in the programing for the module as there is RennTech setting and then you can program your own in terms of height (each wheel can be done individually) and then the speed setting at which the car resumes normal MB operation.

Otherwise, after a B-Service and 2 valve cover gaskets (under warranty) i am feeling significantly lighter in the wallet, but so far the 1st impressions are good.

SRQLAW

oh - and I am not sure if anyone here has the tablet from Renntech but I would be interested to hear any comments about using it or if I should just hook up the laptop since I really do not see myself making programming changes on the go...

SRQLAW

Car is riding MUCH better!!! What a big difference the tires make.

cal1

Hopefully that was the issue. Try and relax and enjoy for awhile. I know when I have a tweaked wheel created from the crappy roads, it is all I can think about even if it is minor.