New W205 C63S owner

[mikemacuk]

Hi guys, I've been away for a while, but I've recently picked up a lovely C63s (saloon) in brilliant blue.

Now, I have a quick question regarding tyres. The car has Royal rain sports 3s's on the front, and pirelli p-zero on the rear. I know there is a a lot of power to put down, but man the back end is stepping violently out in comfort mode with barely any throttle. Do I need to swap the tyres out? The current wheels are 19"

Also, the road/tyre noise is very noticeable, and any kind of small pot hole or those ribbed paint speed reducing things rattle the car a goodun! This is with suspension in comfort mode.

I had pilot sport 4s on my Giulia Quadrifoglio and they seemed very good, perhaps I should upgrade?

Or maybe I should step down to 18" wheels, would there be any issues (apart from looks) going down to 18"?

My wife will occasionally need to drive the car, but as it is, and in the wet I'm afraid she'll easily find her way into a hedge!

Any help much appreciated.

 

[David20]

Welcome mate

 

[Steve84N]

I had a Fiesta many years ago that for a short time had Eagle F1 on the rear and Toyo T1-R on the front due to the F1 not being available come replacement. I was going round a steady radius corner at modest speed and got a big kick of oversteer, simply because there was a differential in wet grip. Had the car been on Toyo T1-R all round then it would have had lower overall grip in the wet but would have understeered first.

Pirelli often don't fair well in wet weather testing but the Rainsport does. You are likely experiencing the result of this mismatch as described above.

You need to get all four tyres matched. I'd suggest Rain Sport 3 on the rear if the front has lots of life, or otherwise swap the lot for PS4S or Goodyear Eagle F1.

 

[mikemacuk]

Thanks guys. I'm reading good things about the michelin crossclimate plus tyres, which are very well suited for winter weather in the UK, cold and wet, very occasional snow. I'm wondering if they would be better on the rear for the winter months, and if they don't perform in the summer, get some dedicated summer tyres such as the PS4s.

Anyone here tried the crossclimate's?

 

[Skd884]

Hi guys, I've been away for a while, but I've recently picked up a lovely C63s (saloon) in brilliant blue.

Now, I have a quick question regarding tyres. The car has Royal rain sports 3s's on the front, and pirelli p-zero on the rear. I know there is a a lot of power to put down, but man the back end is stepping violently out in comfort mode with barely any throttle. Do I need to swap the tyres out? The current wheels are 19"

Also, the road/tyre noise is very noticeable, and any kind of small pot hole or those ribbed paint speed reducing things rattle the car a goodun! This is with suspension in comfort mode.

I had pilot sport 4s on my Giulia Quadrifoglio and they seemed very good, perhaps I should upgrade?

Or maybe I should step down to 18" wheels, would there be any issues (apart from looks) going down to 18"?

My wife will occasionally need to drive the car, but as it is, and in the wet I'm afraid she'll easily find her way into a hedge!

Any help much appreciated.

A lot of reviews rate the Alfa over the Amg,how was your ownership experience?

 

[mikemacuk]

A lot of reviews rate the Alfa over the Amg,how was your ownership experience?

The Alfa was a fantastic car, the engine and handling was one of the best I've ever driven. But unfortunately it was in and out of the garage too often. Plus experience with Alfa dealer wasn't very good either, as they were too far away from me. If I was a single male with no family commitments then it wouldn't have been as much an issue. The build quality wasn't anything on Mercedes, plus very low technology in the Alfa, but that made you more connected to the driving in my experience. Plus the warranty was about to run out. Was sad to see it go, but the C63s has more than made up for it, well it will once I get some decent tyres on it!

 

[AMGeed]

I have the same problem with Pirelli P Zero's on the rear of my E63. Dreadful things now its a bit colder and even the slightest squeeze of the throttle and they spin up. Got a pair of Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 5's on order for the rear and the fronts will be changed as soon as they have worn down a bit more.
A very poor tyre for a supposed premium brand.

 

[unimog]

Welcome!

I think two sets of tyres on a high performance car in Northern Europe is a must, with 500+hp to put down expecting to go with a one size fits all approach is flawed. I don't have much experience of Pilot Sport 4s on AMG cars in the warmer weather but they definitely don't work in the cold weather. I used Nokian WRA3 and 4 winter tyres for the last 7 or 8 years and rate them highly, they were tolerant of higher temp days and didn't wear too much, on a CLS350 SB never had any issue on snow and ice in Europe getting the torque down on steep hills.

I went for Conti Winter Contact TS860 on my current car, they are OEM Winter spec tyres for Porsche and they have no problem with harsh acceleration and tail wiggle.

Also, A lot of US AMG forum users and Insta C Class AMG cars are wearing one section wider (295 as oppose to 285) on the rear in both winter and summer for a bit of extra rubber and apparently it does make a difference. I would say down sizing the wheels is not really necessary.

 

[mikemacuk]

Thanks again for the experience guys. I managed to get two 255/35/19 Crossclimate plus tyres for £300 delivered. They should be on the car by the end of the week so I'll post my experience with them. I'll leave the Uniroyal Rainsport 3s on the front for now.

My default trye size is 265 on the rear, am I right in thinking putting 255 on won't cause any issues?

 

[clk320x]

My default trye size is 265 on the rear, am I right in thinking putting 255 on won't cause any issues?

why don’t you fit the right size?

 

[Steve84N]

The CrossClimate is an excellent tyre. I kind of wish I had them this winter as it's not been wintery enough to warrant the full winter Alpin 4 tyres I have.

However, I would strongly recommend you put CrossClimates on the front as well because they will have different grip levels and probably leave you with weird handling. If you drive in snow with that setup it'll be a disaster as the CrossClimates work but the Rainsports would have a lot less grip.

 

[mikemacuk]

why don’t you fit the right size?

They don't come in 265

 

[unimog]

Thanks again for the experience guys. I managed to get two 255/35/19 Crossclimate plus tyres for £300 delivered. They should be on the car by the end of the week so I'll post my experience with them. I'll leave the Uniroyal Rainsport 3s on the front for now.

My default trye size is 265 on the rear, am I right in thinking putting 255 on won't cause any issues?

I honestly thought the C63s saloon on 19’s had much wider tyres, what do the current tyres look like on the rim, are they stretched? 255 might look a little spray on and you will need to watch your rims parking! They shouldn’t cause you any problems but it might still be easily overwhelmed under acceleration still due to reduced contact area.

Do you have the forged alloys or the standard 5 double spoke ones? IIRC these are fitted with 265 section OEM tyres but can be upsized to 285 without issue when running Michelin tyres.

 

[Steve84N]

The rears are 9.5J so 265 is the ideal width but can also be safely run with 255 or 275.

 

[rs67]

I know there is a a lot of power to put down, but man the back end is stepping violently out in comfort mode with barely any throttle.

Mine doesn't do this in comfort mode. Even in sport mode I need to be fairly abrupt with the throttle to get it to step out. I've got the 20 inch wheels on the rear. My individual mode is comfort suspension, but I run the engine in sport mode all the time with the dynamics in advanced mode and still it behaves in a well-mannered fashion unless I'm heavy on the right pedal.

In comfort mode, it should really only step out if you floor the throttle while not going in an entirely straight line (or on a wet surface) and the box kicks down.

That said, it's been pretty cold and this does make a difference to tyre grip. I drive fairly carefully in this kind of weather.

I had pilot sport 4s on my Giulia Quadrifoglio and they seemed very good, perhaps I should upgrade?

I have Michelin Pilot Super Sports on my car. Perhaps this is making the difference.

 

[mikemacuk]

OK so new Michelen Crossclimate+ tyres were put on last night, and as soon as I drove out of the garage I could feel the difference. Even on the 1st few miles, in the wet the grip is sooo much better, I only managed to get traction control light on a full kick down. It's still dog shite weather here in the south so will have to wait before I can test them in the dry.

Road noise has been greatly reduced too, and I can't see any visual difference going from 265 to 255.

So for cold wet UK weather, so far so good, so selling the useless PZero tryes and will get some MP4S in the hot summer months...

 

[MrRight]

glad it is working out for you with the new tyres. I'm having an interesting problem with one of my cars that has better gripping tyres in the front (MPS4) and conti sc3 on the rear tyres. all is well until it gets really cold and then the fronts grip the road hard and the rears have noticeably less grip , it makes the handling very odd indeed and the car quite hard to drive in a straight line as the rolling resistance in the front impedes the car quite a bit and creates a odd balance problem. I haven't replaced the rear tyres yet but would use the same tyre model on the back if I did.

when my c63s was new, the car wasnt in tune with me and I wasnt in tune with it and i used to get a lot of wheel spin from the rear wheels on the MPSS tyres but the rear wouldn't step out as such in comfort mode. after a few k miles the car really settles down nicely and behaves much better. in sport mode when new the car snapped sideways 45 degrees once when the rear left went over standing water and luckily I got the car to quickly snap back. i since drove a bit more carefully on roads with uneven standing water and since then I fitted winter tyres last winter and this "winter" too (if you can even call this a winter) . I would have much preferred michelon crossclimates to winter tyres but I couldn't find them in the correct size at the time. let us know how you get on with the tyres and what you think of the car too .

 

[effy37]

When I purchased my C63s it had Dunlop Sport max on the rears, I left them one for 2k miles as they were brand new but after struggling to get any kind of traction in dry and wet I swapped them out for MPSS 4s from then on it was like driving a different car, it's transformed it, even after the remap I don't struggle to get the grip down ......IMO superb tyres

 

[simB]

I put coupe 20/19 wheels on mine and a 285/255 MPSS. The fronts were machined 7mm to reduce the offset though as they are much wider on the coupe. Car looks so much better too. Might be an option worth considering for summer tyres.

 

[Athey]

I’m about to fit PS4’s again all round. Had them on when I bought it and have had these on a Lexus. Summer grip is good but not good when winter comes,