Ugh. Tie rod touches tire! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

KAdams4458 · #1 06-27-2007, 12:16 AM

I suppose this puts me in the market for some flavour of hubcentric adapter. Upon installing the refinished Bundts and new tires on my 300D, I found a slight amount of clearance between the tie rod boots and the tires. With casual turning, this space vanishes as the sidewall flexes, and the tie rod boots just slightly touch the tires. Crappy, eh?

I've been searching and searching, but I'm still not certain if the 5mm spacers from H&R will solve my issue. For starters, they aren't specifically listed for the 300D. Secondly, I don't know if they have the raised center for the wheel to sit on. I suspect they do not.

Anyone with experience in spacers, and specifically the H&R units are encouraged to chime in. Anyone who wants to just say spacers are evil - well, they can keep it to themselves. I'm well aware of the hazards that poorly designed or wrongly implemented spacers can present, and I'm choosing to use them.

Hindsight being what it is, I know now that I should have just bought aftermarket wheels from TireRack.com and been done with it. I'm now too far invested in new tires and refinished Bundts to do anything but use spacers. So, let's see what we can figure out! I'd like to make a decision and place an order for something within the next two days.

t walgamuth · #2 06-27-2007, 03:51 AM

I am using h and r spacers on my autocrossing 280e. They are perfectly satisfactory for that, but perfect balancing is not really necessary. They do not come with longer bolts as shown in the picture though. I bought longer bolts from a place called nuts.com or similar. I am using my spacers doubled on the front wheels at present.

YOu need to be very careful with your lug bolts. Too long will hit things inside the hub and too short you will risk breaking or stripping them and losing a wheel....not something you would want to experience at speed.

Hope this helps.

BTW what size tires you running?

Did you check to be sure your wheel bearings are tight? They wear loose a bit and this would allow some movement possibly allowing a touch.

Tom W

KAdams4458 · #3 06-27-2007, 06:35 AM

I perceived no movement in the wheel bearings when I checked them. Tire size, in this instance, is a 215/60. Yes, a 205/65 would probably clear a bit better, but not by much. I picked this tire size since the overall diameter of the tire was closest to the stock 195/70-R14's, and with my wheel-curbing wife, I felt it needed a bit more rubber sticking out from the rim for protection purposes. (I sure hope she doesn't check what I post on here!)

I'm thinking I could easily get away with the H&R 5mm spacers. The tie rod will still be close, but not too close. I just wonder if there is enough of the hub sticking out with the spacer in place to allow the wheel to be centered. I guess I need to go pull a wheel off of the car and measure it. I also need to know if the front hub is tapered on these cars. That will rule out the 5mm spacer for sure.

If the 5mm won't allow enough hub for the wheel to center on, or if the hub is tapered, I may just go for a 10mm spacer since those apparently include a lip machined on to the outer face of the spacer.

t walgamuth · #4 06-27-2007, 06:40 AM

Thats pretty wide!

I am not sure how important the centering properties of a spacer is. The lugs may be enough.

Tom W

JimFreeh · #5 06-27-2007, 08:06 AM

Years ago I scored a set of 215/70-14 tires mounted on 6.5" by 14" wheels off a 6.9 and installed them on 240D W123.

Same issue, there was a tiny mark caused by the rubber seal on the tie rod end.

Drove the car anyway.

Never rubbed enough to cause a problem, seemed to just touch, never rubbed any sort of discernable groove into the sidewall.

Maybe if you pumped up the tires a bit more, it would stiffen the sidewall and take out some of the roll.

Also, if you are using the 6" wide wheels, you will have more tire roll than I had with the 6.5" width.

Can you trim the rubber boot slightly? Looked like there was enough thickness to trim back. I had thought about doing that until I realized it really wasn't an issue.

Jim

KAdams4458 · #6 06-27-2007, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimFreeh

Years ago I scored a set of 215/70-14 tires mounted on 6.5" by 14" wheels off a 6.9 and installed them on 240D W123.

Same issue, there was a tiny mark caused by the rubber seal on the tie rod end.

Drove the car anyway.

Never rubbed enough to cause a problem, seemed to just touch, never rubbed any sort of discernable groove into the sidewall.

Maybe if you pumped up the tires a bit more, it would stiffen the sidewall and take out some of the roll.

Also, if you are using the 6" wide wheels, you will have more tire roll than I had with the 6.5" width.

Can you trim the rubber boot slightly? Looked like there was enough thickness to trim back. I had thought about doing that until I realized it really wasn't an issue.

Jim

That's basically exactly the issue I'm having. There's no damage, just a slight "clean" trace on each tire. The thing that concerns me is that the rubbing occurs during turning, and none of the turns I made were hard turns. Living in Seattle, I can guarantee there will be hard turns, since buses like to just magically appear in front of you here without warning.

It's interesting to me that you managed to just drive the car like that without trouble. That makes me think the tires must not flex very much at all. That being the case, I may just go with the 5mm spacers if my hubs turn out not to be tapered.

Thanks for the input!

winmutt · #7 06-27-2007, 09:53 PM

I am running some 8mm shims I bought off ebay. They are two wide for my current application. I really need max of 4mm, had problems with the balancing wieghts rubbing ever so slightly.

cchkaiban · #8 06-27-2007, 10:01 PM

I have 5 mm in the front for the same reason. They also are not hub-centric. I used some Mercedes adhesive to stick them to the hub centering them to the best of my ability. I mounted and torqued the wheels down after and haven't had any issues. I recently removed a wheel and the spacer was still stuck in the same position. There are a bunch of companies out there that sell bolts. Make sure to buy good quality ones...as the cheap aluminum ones do strip. Long ones in the front are OK...it is the emergency brake in the rear that requires a specific length. Good luck.

KAdams4458 · #9 06-27-2007, 10:30 PM

I have a handful of lug bolts that are the correct length without spacers. They thread in 7 turns before making contact with the seats in the rim. I'll measure the threaded length of those bolts and add the thickness of the spacer to obtain the proper length bolt for use with the spacers.

I'm going to try to stick with hubcentric spacers if at all possible. I had an issue once with spacers that weren't hubcentric on the front of an S-10 truck, and I didn't find much joy in losing my left front wheel at 70 MPH. From the time vibration began until the wheel detached was only around three seconds, which gave me enough time to think, "Huh?" before watching my wheel go bounding off across the median and down the opposite side of the highway. Thankfully, I was the only vehicle on the road at the time, and I managed to stop the truck safely. Based on that experience, I will never use those generic spacers again. (Cast aluminum spacers are a bad idea, hubcentric, or not. They're too soft and can distort and squish when the idiot at the tire shop torques the wheel down incorrectly.)

I'm on my way out to the car this evening, and will do some measuring. Results will follow soon.