so, i acquired this 2006 vintage cl55 two years ago. from the sfo benz dealer. car had one owner[lessee].

car had chrome plated wheels. and they show up on the monroney. so, i assume that m-b fitted them as an oe fitment, even though benz is not a fan of chrome plated wheels. and neither is the tuv. could only be used for export vehicles, i think.

these are two piece wheels. they were manufactured by cromodora who tells me that they supplied them to benz for these 2006 amg 215 series cars.

for only that model year[true?].

6-7 years later, they are all leaking. seems to be typical of chrome plated wheels[i.e., chrome plate begins to flake off, leaving voids in the sealing bead].

i have benzophiles that try to tell me that m-b would never have fitted chrome-plated wheels. i don't know about that opinion. my research tells me that in the 2006 model year for the cl55amg, cl65amg that benz did to that. t or f?

anyhoo, i have to replace all of them. they have all become leakers. right rear worse than the others.

these amg wheels had these offsets....fronts: an ET of 44. rears: an ET of 46.

tire rack offers wheels for this car, but none that i would acquire with similar offset specs.

those that i might acquire, OZ's, seem to only offer ET 35.

can i use wheels of this different offset spec?

all ears.

Albert, recommend buying genuine MB wheels with the proper offset from the MB dealer that gives you the best price. Also, verify that the lug bolts you currently have are the proper length, and have the proper seat contour for the MB wheels. You want to avoid any problems with long lug bolts contacting the emergency brake components inside the rear discs.

__________________
Fred Hoelzle

well, LUKE[tire rack] isn't going to like this one.

i found my best information concerning AMG wheels for this vehicle at a UK site. ALLOYWHEELSDIRECT.NET

very conscientious about taking vin# so as to verify suitable wheel specs.

they recommended sticking with the oem offset specs.

Benz dealers when it comes to wheels are clueless. i have yet to find a service rep or a parts guy who can tell me about the criticality of the offset spec.

just for the hell of it, i checked out TIRE RACK for wheels for this car. the only wheels offered for this vehicle with the same offset spec are made in china. supplying engine parts to china, seeing similar parts manufactured in china, the way i drive, i wouldn't consider a chinese replica wheel.

so, i telephoned TIRE RACK to discuss this offset issue. my call was fielded by CY. his response to my question was this....

if we list these wheels for your car, that they have different offset specs is immaterial. we wouldn't list them if they wouldn't work.

then i mentioned that my benz dealers all recommended that i should acquire replacement wheels with the same offset specs as the oe wheels.

he repeated his script...if we list these wheels for your car, that they have different offset specs is immaterial. we wouldn't list them if they wouldn't work.

is there anyone here who can discuss offset differences?

for instance, my oe wheels have offsets of 44, 46 millimeters. yet TIRE RACK is recommending wheels with 35, 35.

what should one think about those differences?

Discussing offset without including rim width is like discussing tire size without including the aspect ratio.

If you post your OE specs, width and offset (fronts will be narrower than the rear) and the specs of the proposed replacements, then we can give you some useful information.

Good luck.

Also, you might check into wheel refinishers and get a quote for stripping the chrome and painting them factory OE silver.

Won't be cheap, but at least you know you'll have quality wheels...and they will look correct, too.

I don't think you would be satisfied with either the appearance or driving dynamics of the Tire Rack wheels. Assuming they are the same diameter & width as the stock wheels, the smaller positive offset will move them outboard approx. 0.5 inches.

It's impossible to say with certainty how the change in offset will affect the steering & handling of the car, but most likely it won't be beneficial. Mercedes appears to use zero or near zero scrub radius on their models. Zero scrub radius is when the steering axis (kingpin, if you will) intersects with the center of the tire contact patch at road surface. Zero scrub radius minimizes the leverage of the tire in sending road surface impacts back into the steering system. Changing the offset will add scrub radius which will increase kickback in the steering.

my apologies. i thought that these o.e. wheel specs were known.

fronts are 19x8.5 et44

rears are 19x9.5 et46

as i said previously, for some reason, m-b fitted cromodora two-piece chrome-plated aluminum wheels as an option for this amg coupe in 2006. previous owner[lessee] bought into that option.

these chrome-plated wheels are no longer available from either benz or cromodora.

the current AMG duplicates are B66031375, 1376. available only in germany. painted mercedes sterling silver.

my local benz dealership service employees, and mbusa, who have known me[and my benz collection] for 37 years made me an offer last friday. which i accepted.

the chrome-plated cromodora's will be replaced. and i can keep them. this is not an exchange deal.

it was a good pr decision.

the vp parts has given me a source for unplating the chrome, remachining the wheels, then rechroming them. but, they cannot be disassembled. will have to be rechromed as if one-piece wheels.

the cost is not prohibitive. and i might do that so as to offer up the wheels on ebay.

personally, i think that i should scrap them. i think that no one with a high performance car should ever have them shoed with chrome-plated wheels.

the strangest part of all this is how impossible it was to acquire the one-piece AMG wheels suitable for this vehicle. perpetual back order.

which is what caused me to ask my old benz friends for a favor. first time i ever did that.

and they obliged.

but tell me, what was/is the rationale for these two-piece wheels? cosmetics?

anyway, the situation has turned out great. the car will retain its oe appearance with the non-chrome-plated two-piece wheels.

and after this replacement occurs, i think that i can drive the car with no fears of sudden decompression from rim bead leakage. especially after hard braking when the tire moves on the rim.

Glad to hear the situation has been resolved to your satisfaction. I share your sentiments wrt chrome plated wheels.

Is it not possible to strip the chromed wheels and refinish them in a more traditional Mercedes painted finish?

I was unsure of the purpose behind multi-piece wheels, so did some quick reading. Three piece wheels consisting of hub section and inner and outer rims halves are widely used on racing cars. The advantage is that rim widths can be changed to tune the car for specific tracks, and rim damage can be repaired without replacing the entire wheel.

On street cars, there is no advantage to multi-piece wheels, they exist solely to give the appearance of race wheels.

yes, it was/is cosmetics.

similarly the reason for a different wheel size/tire size front and rear on this model.

also cosmetics.

concerning the stripping of the chrome plating: my benz sources know of an outfit that will strip the chrome, but it will not be done with a disassembly of the two-piece wheels. as i understand it, the wheel will be stipped, perhaps remachined around the sealing bead, then re-chromed.

i have the name of the outfit that does this somewhere in my data banks, but the fact that the wheels will only be re-chromed does not appeal to me.

however, if someone wants to buy my cromodoras as they are, i would be more than willing to make that service available. as i recall, the process would cost $1800 for the 4 wheel set. but the lead time might be as long as 6 months.

well, today, i picked up my cl55 from m-b sugarland with the retrofitted AMG painted in m-b sterling silver, two piece wheels[replacing the cromodora chrome-plated, two piece wheels that m-b fitted for the us market for the 2006 215 cl55amg model year].

looking at the car with either one of these wheels, i think i would like an answer: dear m-b, why did you ever fit chrome-plated wheels to this vehicle.

m-b sugarland, perhaps in connivance with mbusa, did me a great favor in replacing those chrome-plated wheels.

one of the most interesting aspects of this procedure was my retaining the chrome-plated ones. and sending them off to an outfit in fresno, ca[wheel creations] to have them stripped, remachined, rechromed[?].

my porsche dealer did not know of this outfit. nor the process.

personally, i shall never want a chrome-plated wheel on any of my benzes. still, if i ever put this cl55 up for sale, it might just include those chrome-plated wheels.