help! buckled wheels

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shrimo

New Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2014
Messages
9
Location
Saffron Walden
Car
CLS 500
So I take my cls 500 in for its first service since I've owned it, gave it the 79 quid diagnosis since I had a few squeaks and rattles. Turns out I need new ball joints (which I had a feeling I did), but also 3 out of 4 wheels are buckled with one of the rears 'badly' buckled, the service assistant said should be ok if I feel no vibration of which there is the tiniest amount. However I'm looking to now get new wheels, do I go with the same as what I have or change to after market or to a different style oem wheel, bearing in mind they are 19" staggered can't remember exact size, and it's raining outside so I'm not checking.

Any help or ideas is much appreciated.

Cheers
 
Are your 19's replicas?
 
Thanks for the link, might have to wait til wallet fills up from xmas though lol

I had this problem with my first CLS 219 in 2013, it may be that is difficult to spot the corners in a CLS so maybe more have buckled wheels than imagined.

However unless you want to go down the new wheel route and assuming the wheel is not showing major signs of damage a good wheel refurb merchant should be able to sort you out for say £50 -£80 a corner all up.

Had mine done and glad I did - look and feel like new wheels on the car when collected.

ATB
 
I had the exact same problem when I bought my 59 reg CLS from Mb of Manchester - but I had bad vibration at anything over 80mph.
As I had just bought it they swapped the wheels for me, not brand new though, from another donor car.
Alloy wheel repair is now getting better and better, they will cook the alloy to get it nice and warm, then it goes onto the machine, where after identifying the "high spots" it applies pressure to push the wheel back concentric.
If you have ever worked on a lathe, its a bit like tapping the bar using a DTI until it spins concentric, to within your desired tolerance.
 
I bought my CLK with the most hideous aftermarket rims on it and got a really good discount on the car (like half price). I subsequently paid this saving to my insurance company as the car has after market alloys which turned me into a confirm boy racer (which I still am at 60) and a bad risk. The aftermarkets I have were cool 3 years ago but now look seriously dated. If you like your current wheels I'd go down the refurb route or buy something that will stand the test of time and get the insurance company view prior to purchase too!
 
Cracked and/or buckled wheels can be straightened out now quite easily. They pop them on a rig and lightly heat the alloy and nudge the lip true again with a pneumatic dolly. A good place will then shot blast and re-furbish the wheel inside and out.

Good places can even turn them round inside a day, which is impressive.

Back in the long and distant past I had a spell as an alloy wheel repairer (in the early 2000's) It's not a difficult job to do. My own CLS55 went in for the Mercedes comp health check and also came back with all 4 wheels buckled. One was actually cracked, which we repaired here in my home workshop. The rest aren't really noticeable as buckled at the moment so i'll leave it for now.

I will say though that AMG alloy wheels specifically have always been notoriously soft. They also have a very high silicone content.
 
I will say though that AMG alloy wheels specifically have always been notoriously soft. They also have a very high silicone content.

Silicone is a man made polymer that's used for various things including ruining the shape and feel of ladies fun bags. Silicon is a metalloid element [/pedantic] :D

All cast aluminium car wheels and the vast majority of aluminium castings in general have a high silicon content as silicon is is both a very useful alloying element with aluminium and improves 'castability'. The eutectic composition for AlSi alloys is ~13% but silicon content can go a chunk than that... hypereuctic pistons and cylinder liners for example can be up around 18% Si

MB claim their wheels are made from GK-AlSi7 which is a partial designation covering various flavours Production: the best quality from excellent suppliers - Following strict Mercedes-Benz guidelines | Daimler Global Media Site > Brands & Products > Mercedes-Benz Cars > Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars > Special Topics
From the heat treat temps mentioned in the article i suspect they're actually a356.0-T6 or a357.0-T61 or something very similar. Other common flavours wheels are cast from include AlSi10Mg, AlSi10Cu... Compomotive use the former and O.Z. (they've made wheels for MB/AMG) use both the later and AlSi7Mg for castings and 6082-T6 for forgings

Something to bear in mind with heat treated aluminium alloys is that anytime they're heated to temps higher than the origional 'aging' temp the properties will begin to change, obviously depends on the alloy and it's origional temper but typically they'll begin to soften due to 'overaging' or grain coarsening
 
Silicone is a man made polymer that's used for various things including ruining the shape and feel of ladies fun bags. Silicon is a metalloid element [/pedantic] :D

All cast aluminium car wheels and the vast majority of aluminium castings in general have a high silicon content as silicon is is both a very useful alloying element with aluminium and improves 'castability'. The eutectic composition for AlSi alloys is ~13% but silicon content can go a chunk than that... hypereuctic pistons and cylinder liners for example can be up around 18% Si

MB claim their wheels are made from GK-AlSi7 which is a partial designation covering various flavours Production: the best quality from excellent suppliers - Following strict Mercedes-Benz guidelines | Daimler Global Media Site > Brands & Products > Mercedes-Benz Cars > Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars > Special Topics
From the heat treat temps mentioned in the article i suspect they're actually a356.0-T6 or a357.0-T61 or something very similar. Other common flavours wheels are cast from include AlSi10Mg, AlSi10Cu... Compomotive use the former and O.Z. (they've made wheels for MB/AMG) use both the later and AlSi7Mg for castings and 6082-T6 for forgings

Something to bear in mind with heat treated aluminium alloys is that anytime they're heated to temps higher than the origional 'aging' temp the properties will begin to change, obviously depends on the alloy and it's origional temper but typically they'll begin to soften due to 'overaging' or grain coarsening

Yep - that's what i meant by Silicon.

:bannana:
 
What I did with my 4 curbed 18'' AMG wheels is exchange them like for like for refurbished wheels, for what I think was a reasonable £315 plus £10 extra for each of your old buckled wheels plus new centre caps if required which included valves, refitting your existing tyres and balancing.
Price may be different for 19'' alloys and your style of wheels.
The company I used was: First Aid Wheels in West Hampstead, London. check out their website, I recommend these guys.
 
Sorry its been a while in replying ive been mega busy with work commitments and stuff. Thanks for all the comments and advice, think the refurb route is what im going to take, i just haven't had the time and got round to it yet. I'm in Saffron Walden so if anyone knows a decent refurb place around there any tips would be massively appreciated, and if anyone knows of a good exhaust place so i can get a x-pipe and 2nd cat removal done that would be cool too.
 

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