this car has a vin#WDBPJ74J86A047141.

i am the second owner[driver]. i purchased it as a cpo'ed car from M-B SFO.

vehicle was originally sold[leased] by the M-B dealer in Monterey, Ca. apparently, it was specially ordered as it had at least two unusual options...

1. the intererior was finished in java. an upcharge was assessed for this non-standard interior.

2. another upcharge was assessed for what were identified on the monroney as 19" monobloc alloy wheels.

now, these wheels were very bright, but it did not occur to me that they were chrome-plated as it has long been my understanding that M-B did not countenance chrome-plated wheels.

however, over the last several years[car has approx. 48,000miles now], some of the wheel/tires have exhibited slow rates of leakage. especially, the right rear which always displayed some "curbing" by the previous operator.

recently, that leakage resulted in an overnight flattening. assuming that i had picked up a nail, i ordered a replacement tire from tire rack and took the car to my friendly porsche dealer for mounting.

but prior to mounting the new tire, a leakage exam was conducted. the results were that the tire had no puncture, but that the leakage was occuring around the wheel's sealing bead. tire was rotated around this wheel until the leakage stopped.

discussing this with the pretty knowledgeable service manager, he attributed the problem to the flaking of the chrome plate around the sealing bead. first i had learned that the wheels were chrome plated.

continuing the discussion, he advised me that he was surprised that mercedes had fitted chrome-plated wheels as original equipment since everyone knows that chrome-plated wheels have "leaking" issues.

just for my knowledge, we checked the part numbers on the wheels.

fronts: m-b star logo in circle. A2204001502. 19X8.5, ET44

and a trademark: cromodora

rears: m-b star logo in circle. A2204001602. 19X9.5, ET46

and a trademark: cromodora

BASED ON MY RESEARCH, THESE CROMODORA CHROME-PLATED WHEELS WERE FITTED BY MERCEDES-BENZ AS AN ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT OPTION FOR THIS CAR.

today, from M-B, these wheels are not available by M-B part number, but are available by vin#. but, as i understand the M-B dealer parts guy, these will not be chrome-plated, will not be manufactured by cromodora.

they will be AMG wheels.

very pricey. and to make the worst leaker match the other three, it will have to be chrome plated.

A. now, my porsche wheel guru, advises me that these chrome-plated wheels cannot/should not be stripped, re-machined, then re-chromed.

his advice is that i replace all four[4] of these wheels.

B. M-B dealer service dept thinks that this worst leaker[curbed] could be stripped, machined to repair the sealing bead, then re-chromed. true?

i went to cromodora. though they still offer this wheel, it is no longer bright chromed. it is now "shadow chromed" - which would not match the other three[3].

C. though the monroney doesn't identify the wheels for this car very accurately, they are two-piece wheels. which makes replacing them with the current AMG offerings quite pricey.

although i must tell you that AMG offers this wheel with a painted finish, identified as mercedes sterling silver[paint spec 9709]. so, i wonder if this painted finish would pass as the o.e. cromodora bright chromed?

D. finally, i have no love for the two piece wheels. i could live with the one-piecers that AMG offer in these sizes. BUT, i have one puzzle...the one-piecers all have different ET specs[offset]. if the oem whees are 44 front, 46 rear can i run 43 all around?

all ears.

thanks for your help and information.