The wheels on the car go "wubba wubba wubba"... - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BenzDiesel · #31 06-23-2008, 10:46 AM

Quote:

The wear is really weird. Two tires are like new. Passenger front is worn on outside otherwise is fine and passenger rear is worn evenly down to wear marks. It just looks like it's been driven for 60k miles even though it has only 17k miles on it. Have been finding accounts of people having to replace Contis after only 16k-25k miles with average to easy driving.

The front tire wearing on the outside has too much positive camber. If it was a toe issue, then it wouldn't be fine otherwise after wearing just on the outside as you described. The rear has perfect camber but the toe is out, probably toed in but which ever way it is excessively toed, the perfect camber allows the tire to wear evenly but at an unsatisfactory rapid rate as you described. I agree, even cheap tires should wear more than 30,000 miles and will if you have a good alignment on all four wheels. On your next alignment, do not let them touch those two tires still wearing like new. Have them work on only the two out of specs.

BenzDiesel

anghrist · #32 07-25-2008, 12:07 AM

The tires are pretty bad now. I went to the shop that I bought them from and they agreed that they need to be replaced and using the treadlife warranty they will credit me $67/tire.

Lessons learned:
1) Make sure you have a good tire shop that will work with you.
2) Buy Continentals only with caution.

I will be replacing the Continentals with a new set of Michelin Pilot Exalto tires. I've been reading reviews and they seem like the best bet. I will also be sending the car in for a new alignment as soon as possible.

Presently the Continentals are fighting one another, much like the Goodyears before them. The car sounds like a truck due to the noisy tires.

nhdoc · #33 07-25-2008, 07:26 AM

Ah, yes, it was tires after all...it seems that tire quality today is pretty poor. It doesn't matter how much you spend either, and in fact, it seems the more you spend the worse the tires are. I am running Michelins on my E300 now (MXV Energy +4) and am very happy with them (so far). They have about 10K miles on them and still look about as they did when new and the ride is very smooth on the highway...not a hint of shake. I criss-cross rotate them every 5K to make sure the right rear doesn't wear prematurely as it did last time.

anghrist · #34 07-25-2008, 09:33 PM

I hope it fixes that darned "pulling-to-the-right" issue as well.

Of course I do have the "new-never-used" Michelin spare on the left front and an outer-edge-worn, severely noisy Continental on the right front. That might have something to do with pulling to the right. Oh, the front tire that was on the right front and also severely outer-edge-worn is now on the right rear. I believe that my worn right tires are causing the car to pull to the right as well as being severely noisy.

The tire store contacted me to let me know that the new tires are in. I will have them installed on Monday.