Hi Guys,

I recently picked up a 2019 E63s 4matic+ sedan, and I love it. A few days ago, I got a notification for low tires all around.

Between the sticker inside the door, the chart in the gas cap, calling a MB service advisor, and asking a couple friends I have received incredibly mixed responses. I have been told:

1) Use the pressures stated in the door

2) Use the minimum load pressures stated inside the gas cap

3) Use the maximum load pressures inside the gas cap +4 psi if you have been driving (this is from the service advisor)

I am located in Los Angeles, and use the car as a daily driver. I was wondering if any other local LA owners are on this forum, and what tire pressures you use on your w213 e63s?

Thanks!

 

I run 42 up front and 33 in the rear. Michelin PS4 on the car currently but ran the same pressures with the original equipment Pirelli tires.

Live in San Diego and don't generally drive above 155 or with a full car, so don't run the max pressures.

When I picked the car up in Germany during the European Delivery, I noted the tire pressures were lower, around 38 psi front and 32 on the rear. Not sure if that was due to the temps dropping a fair bit after delivery. Much of the time it was in the mid 40s (F) for the two weeks we were driving about.

These pressures work fine for me.

 

This continues to be a challenging topic for some people, but it's really straight forward. Tire pressure is a function of load and speed. The heavier the car, the higher the tire pressure and the faster you want to drive it the higher the required tire pressure. First off, all these pressure are cold pressures, meaning the car should have sat in the shade for at least 3 hours before checking them. That said, there are two recommended tire pressures at the core. The first is called normal load tire pressure and the second one max load tire pressure. These refer to how much stuff you have the car loaded with. Normal load means daily driving by yourself and 1-2 additional passengers, with mostly an empty trunk. Max load means the car is stuffed full of people and cargo. There are variations on these based on speeds above 155 mph, sometime even for above 100 mph and the type and size of tires. All that is detailed on the sticker inside of the fuel door. Pick the one that applies. For most of normal daily driving in the USA, you pick the normal load pressure for speeds up to 155 mph. Change that if you go on a trip with 4 people and a ton of cargo in the trunk or if you plan to go drive at 180 mph. The normal load pressure will give you the best comfort, contact patch and tire wear for a normally loaded car. It's as simple as that. Feel free to go higher if you prefer, that's up to you. As far as the door sticker is concerned, that's a sore spot for me. The door sticker in the USA always lists the highest recommended tire pressure only. This goes back to the Firestone/Ford Explorer flip over and people dying incidents. The root cause was found to be incorrect choice of tire pressure based on the load of the car, so the tires overheated and the tread separated. In reaction to that the DOT decided to make the door sticker simpler by only listing the highest recommended tire pressure, because it's the safest if you can't trust the driver to know what they are doing. The consequence is a rougher ride than necessary and some premature tire wear, but at least they won't get into the situation where the tires overheat.

Best advice I can give is ignore whatever is listed in the door and make sure you understand the fuel door sticker. Sometimes the two tire pressures are spelled out as normal load and max load, other times it uses people and luggage symbols, but it's not rocket science. If you rarely have 4 people in the car and trunk stuffed full of heavy cargo, go with the one that only has 2-3 people and 1-2 luggage next to it. If you load up the car with 4 people and everybody brings their heavy luggage with them, then go with the one that indicates so.

 

in ideal world and with smooth asphalt one could make a page of recommendations for different loading and speeds
due to the potholes I use a simple rule similar to your service advisor’s suggestion:
my tires are inflated up to middle point between min and max for regular commute with two people in the car
When driving to LA on I-5, with 4 passengers and full trunk would inflate slightly above the max fuel door values and rarely would exceed 110 mph

 

I PREFER to keep it on the higher side - around 44.
Come to that after trying different combination and reading this forum

 

Thank you. Are the 42 and 33 numbers for "cold" tires?

 

Tire pressure should almost always be set cold for on-street driving.

There are some limited cases such as racing where the pressures are adjusted hot but for us normal folks - cold is the way to go.

 

MB has 4 recommended sets of pressures for this car. Two passengers only or full rated load, max speed 155, then same two for max speed 186. I use 44F, 38R.

 

I had my Michelin Pilot Sport 4S set at 36 cold all around. With my new drag radials I’m trying 30.

 

One other thought that just came to mind. As many have noticed, the front tires on the E63 are prone to wearing first at the inner edges of the tire. I wonder if this is exacerbated by lower than the recommended tire pressure?

Both of our Honda Odyssey minivans suffered from the tire edges wearing first. The wear was more even on both sides, and in part due I think to the tire profile which had less tread near the edges, but I started running higher pressure up front and this did improve the tire wear somewhat while not having an appreciable impact on front end grip.

My car was delivered with the Pirelli tires and the front tires were toast by 10,000 miles. Replaced them with Michelins and have been running them at 42/33 as noted previously. Only have a bit over 15 k miles on the car now so don't know yet if I'm going to see better life out of this set.

 

I tried a lower pressure but once the fronts were @ approx 45lbs I started getting low pressure warning on the DIC. Is there a setting?

 

the car is pretty heavy... I wouldn't run anything less than 40 in the front... or you could find yourself with a blowout as I did on the NJ Turnpike... and of course you don't have a spare or a jack for that matter!

 

Here are the four MB recommended tire pressures based on load and speed for the E63S Sedan.
Max speed 155mph.
41F/33R 2 passengers
41F/39R Full Rated Load

Max speed 186mph
51F/42R 2 passengers
51F/49R Full Rated Load

 

Agree. Heavy car with low profile tires is asking for trouble --> lost once the new front tire - pothole was not visible on a rainy day = cut in the sidewall. Luckily rim was not damaged.

Higher inflation also improves gas mileage.