I bought my 300SDL in April '17. Today I put on the spare for the first time. I had to take it off again, the wheel wouldn't spin when partly tightened. I has 15 'holes' like the 4 wheels that work but there are subtle differences, the most important being that the shoulder on the inside starts to bulge out 3 inches in from the outer edge of the inner rim. The circular lines in the first pic are from contact with the caliper body when I was spinning it after slightly tightening it up.

With a bit more tightening, I couldn't turn it by hand at all. I examined the wheel that had been in that spot, the shoulder doesn't bulge out until close to 4 inches from the edge.

The tire's OK, not great, but the wheel is cherry. It's of no use to me, I want to sell it. I'd try to sell it as a spare but I don't know what vehicles it fits or what it's called.







Here is one of the other 4 wheels:



Re the flat spot, a small and odd accident at the mouth of an off ramp tossed a piece of wood, maybe 5"x6" into the offramp lane slightly below where the accident took place. I was looking at the accident and missed the wood in the road (darkness); missed seeing it that is. Ruined wheel and tire. Found a wheel for $20. Pick and Pull score. Lucky for me, it lost air slowly, I was able to make it home, woke up to find it flat. I discovered the spare didn't work from the comfort of my driveway.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Like mine yes . You will find all original merc wheels will have the right dim stamp inside the wheel , then in the sale advert put a picture of the inside part of the wheel with the size mark showing . Do you see any dimentions inside the wheel .If so what are they i will check for you.

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I find 2 sets of these wheels - one - 15 x 6.5 J
And the other fits the Sportsline at 15 x 7.0 J any good ?

If it's an OE Mercedes wheel it should have all the information cast into the wheel's inside surface.

There should be a ten digit number xxx xxx xx xx somewhere and there should be some specifications somewhere 15 / 6.5/ et 26 or et 49 or something along that line.

the first three of the ten digits will spec the chassis model 126/124/etc., then the other numbers will spec the wheel diameter i.e. 14/15/16, its width, 5.5/6.0/6.5and its offset 23/26/49 etc.

That wheel looks to be a late 80s early 90s, what's usually referred to as a "15-hole wheel".

The Dutch call them putdeksels => Manhole covers!

I don't know what the Germans call them

Anyway - these are an original Mercedes style - they were fitted to W201s W124s W126s and possibly on some W140s (I think the W140s are super rare super desirable 16 inch versions - all the others are 15 inch)

There are loads of different offset sizes - so be aware

I've recently sourced a set for my W201 - these are the rarer 15 inch ones with the correct W201 offset (the value of which escapes me at this moment in time)

If you are going to strip to repaint - DO NOT sand blast - the flat front is easy to damage. Use a quality paint stripper such as POR15's POR-strip (but as always with acid based stripper wash 'em off quick - don't let the stripper sit for too long [also great life advice as well "don't let the stripper sit for too long" - very interchangeable])

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Specs for the wheel are written on the inside. You likely got a w201 or w124 wheel. All 15 hole wheels are not the same.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Great information, much thanks. I was busy yesterday just getting back on the road, I didn't look closely at the wheel in question, it was clearly different than the rest. I now see that even in the photo I posted above of the inside of it you can see stamped in numbers. Here are the two that matter:





Also stamped are what looks like a manufacturers logo, the letters 'SN', an odd box looking thing with the number '92' at the front of it. Also 'K6' at another spot.

So I guess it's pretty conclusive - this is a 15" wheel for a W124. Not sure if other than 15 inch are used, probably not stock would be my guess.

I saw one advertised on eBAY for $229 + $46 shipping. Good luck on that one. One yard here that has a collection of various rims told me by phone that if they had the one I was looking for (W126) it would be $75. I need one more - front wheel damaged, spare wrong. I'll hunt the pick and pulls a bit more.

Looking at mine again, it's not a complete cherry, little bit of road rash on the rim, not too bad.

The 205/65 tire looks to maybe have 60% of its life left. $75 might be a good Craigslist asking price.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Why not just find a w126 in the junkyard and pull the wheel off of that.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

There should be an ETxx code near the embossed wheel size. ET is negative offset in mm.

Rectangular holes are a hint it’s a 124/201 wheel. 124/201 wheels have an offset of 48- or 49mm. Sometimes too deep for the rear of a 126. Just to add confusion, early 124 wheels have oval holes.

126 wheels come in 6.5” with 21.5mm offset and 7” with 25mm offset. Either size fits any 126.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

Without a picture, I'd bet that is the manufacturer's date code

Easier said than done. I did get lucky and find a really nice wheel in the spare bay of a '91 gasser w126, the tire was bald on one corner, no charge, $20 for the wheel.

They take the wheels off most of them now at Pick and Pull. I don't get it. They started assembling the good tires a few years back - I bought an excellent Michelin yesterday for $20 but the only wheels they sell are the uber flashy 17 and 18 inch variety with tires mounted, usually a set of 4.

Dorris auto wrecking has a huge collection of alloy wheels but they'll cost about 4 times what you can pay for one at pick n pull if you find it. I don't mind combing their yards as I find other stuff while I'm at it.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Could be, not much code there:

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Dang, missed that. ET48.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The SJ north yard has a bay with many wheels presumably removed from cars in the yard. I understand selling matched wheel sets at the lobby but why not keep wheels with the car so everyone knows what they fit?

I don’t see such a pile at the Newark or SJ south yards.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

The German description of the wheels is also manhole covers (Gullydeckel).

I tried to hunt down a single 7 inch wheel for my SDL. The yards by me generally remove the wheels and finding a 7 inch version was proving impossible.

I ended up purchasing a single wheel from a from a forum member here. (Ridgerunner if I recall correctly). There is an SDL being parted out right now in the parts forum so that might be worth a peek.