mikdivad

I just put some 18" Brabus MB VI's on my C32 AMG. I bought them off some guy on ebay, so I don't know exactly what happened to them but they looked okay when I received them today. I put the wheels w/ Pirelli P7000 tires installed and went from a drive. Immediately some rubbing noises came from the rear wheels. I took it back to my garage and checked it out. It seemed like the sound was coming from the rotor rubbing against the metal shield that covers the rotors from debris. I tried to find where it was rubbing and bend it back, but it made no difference. I went back to the stock rims and the rubbing was gone.

Any ideas as to whey this is happening??? HELP!

mmgrad

the problem you are facing here has nothing to really do with the wheels...

simply put, your bolts are too long in the rear. Inside the rear rotors, there is very little clearance for the bolts, so they have to be exactly the right length.

I will bet you money that if you remove the bolts in the rear, you will see that the tips of the bolts have been shaved off.

Why? because your bolts in the back are hitting your emergency brakes... if you look through the holes with a flashlight, you will be able to see the damage

I hope you didn't drive too many miles with these new wheels... else, you are looking at a $5-600 repair... and this WON'T be covered under warranty...

A simple fix is to remove the wheels, take the bolts out, and cut off the amount that is making contact. Either that, or find out EXACLTY how long of a bolt you need, and buy replacement bolts. But, I think cutting your bolts would be the cheapest answer

hopup

Bolts are likely to be too long and they are rubbing against the e-brake.

The easiest solution is to grind/shorten the bolts by a few mm and it should do it.

mmgrad

oh, and if the space allows... your other alternative would be to get spacers put in... but that all depends on how much space you have to work with in the fenderwell...

just my .02c

mikdivad

Thank you so very much for the info. It worked out, but there is quite a story that goes along with the installation. I don't have time to tell it right now, but I will when I get a chance. Let me just say that it's really weird watching your rear wheel fly off your car WHILE YOU ARE DRIVING and continue on for half a block while you come screeching to a halt. Poor rear brake rotor. Got them installed properly now though. What a morning!

Anyone know a good place in Chicago to get dinged up rims refinished?

mmgrad

uh... are you saying that your wheel came off while you were driving? dang, that sounds scary... kinda like that movie 'Changing Lanes' with Ben Affleck

Hope everything turned out ok and no one got hurt... if that was really what happened to you....

mikdivad

I figured out what was wrong, unfortunately I chose the lazy way to fix it and I TOTALLY paid the price. As I found out the hard way, the lug nuts for the rear need to be shorter than the ones in the front. If you use the longer ones in the rear, they go all the way through the rotor and hit the e-brake as it goes by. That was the cause for the sound. Now the guy I bought the wheels from didn’t label which bolts went with which wheels (and I’ve never heard of front or rear–specific bolts before) so I just used any random bolts putting the wheels on. That’s not the worst part though… Once I found out I had to use shorter lug nuts for the rear, instead of doing the proper thing and finding the shorter lug nuts from the front wheels, I chose instead to use the lug nuts from my winter wheels. They were considerably shorter, and it didn’t occur to me (DUH!!!) that only 3 turns before the lug nut got tight wouldn’t be enough. So after putting in these super-short lug nuts in, I go out for a test ride to make sure everything was ok. I take it around my neighborhood and about half a block before I get home the most surreal thing happened—My rear left wheel goes flying off and continues to roll down the rest of the block while my C32 is coming to a grinding halt. To make a long and embarrassing story short, I finally get the wheel back on (after chasing it down and having it all dinged and scratched on the side facing outwards). I was able to bring it home and get all the RIGHT bolts sorted out.

Now everything is put on correctly and no sounds from the rear. The rear rotor where the car was dragging on is probably a bit warped, but there haven’t been any adverse effects thus far. I’ll get it checked out later this week. Well that’s my pathetic story and now I need to find a place that can repair the wheel and probably in the end pay the same amount I would have if I bought the wheels brand new. Oh well… live and learn.

mikdivad

Once again... Does any one know a good place to get wheel refinished in the Chicago area? TIA

CarlssonCRS

hahaha this level of stupidity makes people lazy to reply.

amg1c32

hey mikdivad what tires sizes did u use i am looking to buy the same wheels. what setup do u have et's and sizes thanks so much