If they're only going to do one balancing, do the high speed. Odd that nobody is familiar with the 2-speed balance, it's fairly common around here. Only Discount Tire does the one-speed balancing (low speed too), and their service sucks.

Don't waste your time or money with an alignment unless you've rebuilt your suspension. The chances of getting it dialed in correctly are slim with old rubber and worn joints.

Wait, where are the tires coming from? I thought you were ordering your own and bringing them in or having them shipped to your installer? If so, $400 for installation and balancing is downright criminal!

Haha, yes that would be a proper bank heist at that point!
I meant all included. When i spoke to him he told me they have the exact tires in stock and the price in total is even a little less than doing it the other way since no shipping is involved.

I’m very excited to have fresh wheels! My only concern is if one is bent, since I can only bring four of one kind no matter which I choose, alloy or hub. I’m bring alloy though. Anyways if one is bent I’ll be pretty stuck all of a sudden.

would these look silly on a w123? and how would fitting them work? They're 16". Haven't gotten width info but will shortly.

i've postponed my tire situation and have accepted the fact that i'm never going to be thrilled about the wheels so might as well buck up and get something that i like.
i want 5 spoke somewhat sporty stuff. 16-17 inches.

my interior is blue, so the little blue coloration might work well

They're from a 2013 Mercedes C350 coupe ... totally inappropriate ? They're close by so i can go see them tomorrow probably.

https://images.craigslist.org/00707_...h_1200x900.jpg

I'm no expert on wheels, every vehicle I've owned had the wheels it came from the factory with. That said, you want to make sure the diameter of the tire you're retrofitting is the same as the one you're replacing. If the diameter is different, your speedometer and odometer will be reading wrong.

You also need to be aware of the offset of the wheel. If the offset isn't right, you could have the wheel hit something when turning.

Lastly, at some point, Mercedes changed the lug bolt size. Your existing lug bolts may not work with the new wheels if they're a different size.

I'm not going to derail this thread, but i guess since it's an overall restoration thread then wheels are part of the fun!
I have not been able to find pics of these wheels anywhere else, and they are perfect..
Anybody have any sense of what they could be?
I gotta track them down...!


http://media.spacecasetapeecho.com/wheels.jpg

Here's a better pic of center area. Still blurry though. Anyone able to determine the design/brand by this pic?

http://media.spacecasetapeecho.com/betterwheels.jpg

last wheels related question, and then i'll move on...
Do the 85 300D and 300TD have the same sizing room for wheels?..

I have searched around and found a wheel i am happy with, and they have some 85 models listed as a fit but they only say 300TD in the list. I'm thinking it's just not a full list, since there are so many car models throughout the site and these are old. They list 190D, 190E, and 300TD as fits for the wheel for Mercedes 1985.

Does this safely imply 300D?

It's not derailing to ask .

'Restoration' means one thing only ! : AS NEW, nothing non stock or it's not "restored" .

I love the color of that car but hate the black excess fuel cloud coming out of it .

Whatever wheels _you_ choose and pay for, will be fine .

Haha. Well I can’t choose 11 inch wide wheels and be fine! :)

YES, I love the color of that car too. I’m in touch with the guy. I MAY end up asking him for the color code. But I’m also still pretty excited to get a fresh silver some day.

I’m definitely doing after market wheels though.
I’m pretty much set on 16 x 6.5, 38mm offset, with 205/55 tires. The manufacturer states 300TD fits fine.
300D ok then?

All right it's the first sunny relatively warm weekend this year, so here we go ! I've just taken off work for the weekend.

I had been having some vacuum performance issues.. engine clunking down into 1st when slowing to stop, shifting was a little weird although that was less clear to assess, and most obviously of all.. the engine wasn't stopping on shut off. At least, it would keep running and sputter off eventually yet before i was able to go and open hood and push it off.

So first things first, i opened hood to see if there were any simple obvious vacuum issues that were obvious... and there WERE!! There were THREE OF THEM. haha.

All of them were due to age/rotting/cracking. One of the clear hard lines was simply cracked in half and wide open.. going from the blue flying saucer disc vac thingy over to the ALDA. The other two issues were rubber caps that were so cracked open that they were dangling off. I don't think any pieces fell in the tubes at all though. They were just wide open to the air due to major cracking. But the worst of the two was directly after the break pump and in the path heading out to the rest of the system. So that explains the worst of my issues.

Fixed those three things up and all my issues above are gone. The shifting is something i will nail down over the summer, in terms of perfect for how i want it. But it's completely functional now. Certainly still a bit hard maybe, i but from what i know that's better than the opposite. Down shifts to 1st are not noticeable at all. I'm assuming the turbo is performing better now since the alda line was totally open.

On a side note, I had swapped the VCV of the two cars last year because i had measured that it was behaving sorta half as strong as it should in certain ways. But swapping didn't change anything. So i think it's just time for a full rebuild of all vacuum connections.

But today, i have some other projects...

1. Swapping the whole dashboard of the two cars. From what i can tell this should just involve a bunch of screws and a couple connections. However, i have a rattle in my dashboard when the HVAC is turned off. When HVAC is on, the rattle is gone. So it must be a loose fan in there or something. I'm hoping that doesn't turn into a major project. I've never looked inside so i don't know what to expect.

2. My turn signal doesn't auto switch off after i've made the turns.

3. The interior light doesn't come on when the drivers door is opened. It does when the other doors are opened.

That's a start, and i might get to more stuff today.

My wheels are ordered and should show up around a week or so from now. Tires are ready for me at the shop already. If i have time today, i will get a 3/4 pipe to extend my breaker to get off a wheel and check the size of current wheel to decide if i need 5mm spacers (and longer bolts) for wheels. But i don't think i do.

Look for leaves in the HVAC's fan .

Is this is the engine bay ?

No ;

It's underneath and behind the glove box .

It's an easy job but you should take the time to find an old thread on it before beginning .

When you're swapping the dash proper, take extreme care to fit the rubber boot to the center vents ~ it's very easy to have a bit of it slip and this reduces the center vent's out put sharply .

All right thank you. This is helpful.
First order of Priority is turn signal auto switch off...
Can’t find any threads anywhere on this... so might post a new one.
Any suggestions first though?
Turn signal works fine, it just needs to be manually switched off after making turns, as opposed to the steering motion moving it back into idle position. Same in both directions.
So it seems to be a mechanical issue.