mis3

I have been researching for new 17-inch wheels for my 2004 CLK320 coupe.

For the staggered setup for a CLK500, the front wheels are 17x7.5 and the rear are 17x8.5. I do not care for the staggered setup so I was looking for 17x7.5 wheels. I noticed that some wheel manufacturers do not make 17x7.5, they only make 17x8.

I then talked to a tire salesman and he told me that it should be fine for my car to install wheels of 17x8 with bolt pattern of 5x112. I can then use 225/45-17 tires all around.

Is this right?

meanie

I'm running 225/45/17 on 17 x 8" rims.
Perfect !!!!!!!!!

BklynBenz

yeah that works. how come you dont want to go larger? 18 x 8 or 18 x 8.5 all around?

mis3

2 reasons why I plan to go only 17-inch:
1. I frequently visit Montreal and the roads there are terrible. 40-series or 35-series low profile tires will be damaged in no time.
2. The CLK320 has only 215 HP. 18-inch tires will make the car seems underpowered.

Meanie: What wheels and tires are you running?

Harris

#1 is not correct - any wheel, regardless of size, will get damaged pretty easily on bad roads. I have a set of 16" Volvo stock wheels, when I brought them in for refinishing, the shop told me all 4 wheels were bent.

#2 is not very correct either - if you choose VERY heavy 18" wheels, maybe. But 18" wheels will give you better handling and a more "stable" feel.

I would suggest you not to change anything if you were to get 17's only. IMO, it is a waste of money.

mis3

As compare to the stock all-season tires, I am sure the performance will improve with 17-inch summer high perfromance tires. The bigger the tires, the better the performance.

I am no expert but I thought that the lower profiles tires have less cushion when going over potholes. Therefore, the wheels will be easier to get damaged.

For the under-powered part, I read it somewhere that it would take more power to move smaller tires than bigger tires.

BklynBenz

you say you only visit montreal, its not like you live there. and i know myself living in nyc and other members living in other big cities who have bigger wheels experience roads and potholes that are 10 times worse than montreal. potholes here are called craters and can suck your car in, just make sure you drive around them, thats all!