so I was driving home from Sea World with the family at 11:30PM, and all of a sudden I hear something rapidly hitting the front left wheel well. So I think to myself, crap, tire blew. But the wheel was perfectly straight.

I pulled off in Oceanside, and lucky for me, I ended up at the gates of Camp Pendleton. The guard lets me in so I can check out the tire. Seems like the inner portion separated from the tire. Metal exposed and everyting. The tread itself was OK, but it appeared to be the shoulder. Other side was about ready to pop.

I knew I was having tire wear issues, probably from the lowering module, but never realized it was this bad.

I drove the rest of the way home on off road mode cruising at 65 mph. Made it home safely though.

Im bummed because there is still tons of tread on the front tires, but insides are toast. Lesson learned though, get an alignment. Guess I have to roll on stockers for a bit until I can get new ones ordered

 

In the gratuitous advice department, you might also want to recheck the load rating on the tires. A tire with too low a load rating is at risk to have the tread separate, especially on our big, heavy Mercs.

 

Might want to check in to the camber kit for your front end.
My fronts are beginning to scallop on the inside.

 

GOod idea. I aligned mine just to avoid those problem. Right after I installed my module, within about 2 months I noticed major inner wear on the rears mostly, but i could see the fronts were not too far behind, mainly cause of camber.
I put a set of R888's on a bit ago and since the tread rating is only 100 I had to make sure these wore evenly, so I made sure I had an alignment done while in my lowered stance.
I will say I check my tires often and have put about 1500 miles on the tires so far and can visible see I finally have even tire wear!
With these cars as low as most of us like to put them so yourself a favor and get your tires straightened when you buy your next set!!!

 

255/35 19 Bridgestone RE050A. Load rating says XL

 

That's scary. I'm glad you and your family are safe.
Do you think the tread separated due to a manufacturer's defect or due to the alignment?

 

Im pretty sure its alignment since the other 3 tires are showing the same symptom in the same spot. The rears havent separated (yet), but are heavily worn on the insides.

oh on the load rating, I found a different spec and it says 92Y

 

Check out this video on tire separation due to "old tires". Near the end of the video, it explains how you can tell what year your tire was made.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...ide&id=6133554

 

Glad to hear you and yer family made it home safely!!!

 

Glad you and your family are safe. As a precaution, I had the alignment done immediately after I put 20's on. I don't have an ELM.

 

Y is the speed rating, which is 186 MPH. 92 is the load rating, which is 1,389 lbs. That's probably somewhat on the low side.

The OEM Pirelli PZero Rosso tires for my slightly heavier SL are rated at 99 front (1,709 lbs) and 101 rear (1,819 lbs).

FWIW....

 

Sorry to hear that about your wheels.

Are those HRE's in a 19. If they are can you please post more pics of your wheels.

I wanted to paint my HRE all black

 

thats good to know. I just searched on tirerack, and looks like 98 is the max. for that size. For some reason, the bridgestones I have now are 92, but the newer ones are 98.

 

here's some pics. Matte centers with gloss lip.

http://mymbonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10552

they are 19's but they were made for my C32, but fit the E55 perfectly. No rubbing running 255/35-19f, and 285/30 r.

 

You're probably on the mark with the alignment issue but it's always good to go with higher load rated tires whenever that's an option. I've never run into this problem with a car but I have it in spades with my single axle boat trailer where my tire options are very limited.

Safe travels!

 

Order can take no more than 1 day. PM me if your interested in a place near your area I can help you get a good deal

 

glad you're OK...if you don't mind me asking a couple of questions:

1. do you just use the renntech elm to lower or car or do you have links as well?
2. if just the elm, what settings were you set at?
3. how long have you been running on these wheels if they were made for your C32?
4. did you change the tires before you put them on your e55?

i'm conerned cuz i just picked up some dpe's that are coming off a C32 and was actually hoping I could use the tires the wheels come with and eventually replace to 275 and 245's later once their worn but this has got me worried

 

Glad to hear you and your family made it back OK. If I was by myself, no problem. But with family in the car, I'd be worried as hell.

Looks like an alignment is in order.
Was thinking about getting mine aligned at a local shop that uses these laser-mounted cameras or something.

How much do alignments usually cost for all four corners?

 

HAHAH!! Charles was FLYING down the 5 by SeaWorld when this whitre pacifica came in and challenged him.........looks like he paid the price!!



On a serious note, you guys may want to consider literally rotating the tires on the rims. I mean take the front driver tire and install it on the passenger side. this will end up using both sides. On a real note, this shows that you have a smaller contact patch on the ground than ideal.

 

Lol, was that you?? I was thinking what was with the Pacifica with the for sale crap over it! I actually thought it was you when I looked to see who was on my ***!!! For some reason, I thought yours was dark blue.

 

oh, I can't rotate them like that because they are marked with "outside" and "inside", so they would end up in the same relative position

 

Just running the elm only. I think it's 6r and 3f. I've had the wheels on the e for 17k miles. I ran the c32 tires for a little, but not too long

 

Glad your family got back safe. Quick question though, what does it mean "Off road" mode. Is it just the airmatic raised?

 

Screw that, direction matters, sometimes.

 

yup yup..he was scared of the phantom pacifica...