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  #1  
Old 09-05-2002, 09:36 PM
BlueBabyBenz's Avatar
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 151
Oh my god they looked hideous!

I have been considering buying wheels for my 190, and had visited the tirerack site and selected wheels and tires that were plus sized by 1"

According to my manual, my tires should be 185-65/15.

What I actually have at the moment is 215-60/15.

Haven't done the math yet, but yes, I know they are the wrong size, and put my speedo/odo numbers off. I plan to address that.

I had my car into the mechanic this week for some other work, and mentioned to him that I was looking for new wheels and tires. He had some there which, off the car looked interesting, so I asked him if he would mount them on one side so I could see if they looked alright.

Well, to make a long story still moderately long, they looked really tacky.

First, its evident that lowering the car by 1-1.25" would certainly help.

But secondly, the tires and wheels stuck out way too far.

So here's what I was thinking...

Those wheels which my mechanic claimed were designed for my car had an offset of 35mm.

My original wheels have an offset of 49mm

Since I believe ideally I should be looking at something like 205-50/16's, doesn't the fact that my existing rims with 215-60/15 tires have no rubbing, suggest my clearance would be ok with rims that stayed closer to the 49mm offset, thereby reducing the stick-out factor?

Luke, if you are reading this, I couldn't find any indication of offsets when I went looking for wheels.

Any opinions?

Thanks in advance.

__________________
MB 1986 190D in my past
MB 1987 300E on the street
MB 1994 'Smoke Silver' E420 in my driveway
1999 Mazda Miata in the fun stable
1964 E-Type Jaguar Coupe- Sold
1970 E-Type Jaguar Coupe- Sold
1968 Corvair Monza Conv. with Turbo Transplant- Sold
1986 Merkur Xr4ti- abandoned
various mundane American autos

If I'd known then what I know now...

Hell, I'd probably still have done it anyways.
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  #2  
Old 09-06-2002, 10:10 AM
Fimum Fit
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By my (rather old) spec book,

a 185/65 X 15 should have a diameter of 621mm, and a 215/60 X 15 should be 639mm, a less than 3% difference, subject to manufacturers' variations from nominal industry specs which are almost that large.

205/50 X 16 should be right around 600mm - 620mm (not given on my chart), but you do need to get wheels closer to the proper offset or you may have wheel bearing problems in short order, and lots of steering kickback and a tendency to follow grooves in the road.
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  #3  
Old 09-06-2002, 04:11 PM
Brian16V
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On my 190E 16V I'm running 215/50ZR-16 on my 35mm offset AMG rims (car lowered with H&R springs). Before lowering, I was running 215/45ZR-17 on 35mm offset chrome AMG rims. BTW, those 16" AMGs were at one time mounted to a 1984 190E AMG with 205/50ZR-16 (lowered with AMG springs). None of the above scenarios had/have any rubbing problems.

Hope this helps.

Brian16V
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  #4  
Old 09-06-2002, 04:22 PM
BlueBabyBenz's Avatar
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 151
Thanks for the input.

The problem as I see it is that the 16V has fender flares that make a 35mm offset visually acceptable, because the tires do not come as far out of the bodywork as they do on my stock 190 lower body.

That's one of my issues.

Clearance I'm not so concerned with. I think the oversized tires I currently have demonstrate that clearance is available, at least until I lower the car.

The other advantage of staying close to the designed offset is of course the fact that the whole assembly is designed to work with the eccentricity of 49mm. As one responder pointed out, varying from design eccentricity will place extra stresses on wheel bearings, rotors, etc.

So I'm thinking my question boils down to...

How do I determine the offsets of the wheels at tirerack?
__________________
MB 1986 190D in my past
MB 1987 300E on the street
MB 1994 'Smoke Silver' E420 in my driveway
1999 Mazda Miata in the fun stable
1964 E-Type Jaguar Coupe- Sold
1970 E-Type Jaguar Coupe- Sold
1968 Corvair Monza Conv. with Turbo Transplant- Sold
1986 Merkur Xr4ti- abandoned
various mundane American autos

If I'd known then what I know now...

Hell, I'd probably still have done it anyways.
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  #5  
Old 09-06-2002, 08:36 PM
Fimum Fit
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Call or email Tirerack

Their salespeople generally have offset information at their fingertips.
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  #6  
Old 09-07-2002, 07:02 PM
Dave Sw
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16" Wheels

Hi:
If you are looking for 16" wheels, I a set of Lorinser RS90's as new, trued, polished, and laquered. They are 16 X 7, ET 37. The Lorinsers were designed specifically for the 190's and the C-Class. These are 100%, never mounted.
They are available for $850 plus shipping (actual).
Let me know if you are interested. I'm in Southern California.
Thanks, and good luck to you.
Dave Swerdlin
949-493-0526
e-mail swerdlin-associates@cox.net

photos available

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