**uregnt help please with w209 wheel sizes**

[pauljones699]

Hey everyone, 1st off I have had a quick search around already but am still left confused. I am seeking anyone with a bit of knowledge on wheels and offsets etc...

I have a 2004 CLK 200 Coupe.

I have purchased a set of 19" Merc wheels. Front - 8.5J, ET42 (Offsets) Back - 9.5J ET42

I took them to a tire place and was recommended 235/35/19 on the Front and 255/30/19 on the back i think he said.

He then took my current wheels off and popped a new wheel on and it hit the suspension straight away at the back.

He said i would need longer bolts and spacers, his words were 'it wont be pretty and it wont drive as well"! He admitted he wasn't a wheel specialist so i am just seeking help.



Can i get spacers to sort this out, the place i bought the wheels suggested I buy 2 x 5mm spacers taking the ET of the Front and Back down to 37?? Will this work, will it be safe, drive OK, will it pert-rude much, are the tyre sizes right.

Make no mistake I no VERY little about wheels or car modding, this is a genuine plee for help!!


These are the new wheels, i love them and would to get them fitted on!! Calling all Merc Wheel Gurus!

 

[redbaron]

The wheels dont fit your car? Did you not check this before purchase? If you did and the seller said they would fit - return them. Or you will need proper bolt on hubcentric spacers - and the outer arch lips rolling.

Dont worry about spacers not making your CLk drive right. It wont drive right with 19" wheels with or without the spacers - you will need to replace the suspension with something setup more suitably for 19" wheels or it will look silly and not handle correctly.

 

[rawc43]

Hey everyone, 1st off I have had a quick search around already but am still left confused. I am seeking anyone with a bit of knowledge on wheels and offsets etc...

I have a 2004 CLK 200 Coupe.

I have purchased a set of 19" Merc wheels. Front - 8.5J, ET42 (Offsets) Back - 9.5J ET42

I took them to a tire place and was recommended 235/35/19 on the Front and 255/30/19 on the back i think he said.

He then took my current wheels off and popped a new wheel on and it hit the suspension straight away at the back.

He said i would need longer bolts and spacers, his words were 'it wont be pretty and it wont drive as well"! He admitted he wasn't a wheel specialist so i am just seeking help.



Can i get spacers to sort this out, the place i bought the wheels suggested I buy 2 x 5mm spacers taking the ET of the Front and Back down to 37?? Will this work, will it be safe, drive OK, will it pert-rude much, are the tyre sizes right.

Make no mistake I no VERY little about wheels or car modding, this is a genuine plee for help!!
View attachment 35821

These are the new wheels, i love them and would to get them fitted on!! Calling all Merc Wheel Gurus!

your new wheels are about 12mm to far into you arches so you need 10mm spacers as the offset for your car is ET30 for the front and ET31 for the rear. but the best all round would be to get the right wheels

 

[pauljones699]

Hey guys thanks for the quick reply back, i am gutted to hear this news

I bought them off mad*for*motors (based i birmingham) on eBay and the auction has a model compatibility checker and it said there OK for my car.

When i emailed them to say they were hitting the suspension he said just get 5mm spacers. So in your wisdom is he basically just taking the p***? and there was no way these would ever fit the car anyways?

Am i right in saying 19" will never fir my car then? So i basically have to look for 18" wheels with a ET30?? I have seen pictures of a CLK 2004 coupe with 19" wheels on though??

Thanks again for all your help its VERY MUCH appreciated as no one seems to know what their talking about when it comes to alloy wheel selling!!

 

[redbaron]

19" will never fit easily and look right.

5mm spacers will not cure the problem.. as mentioned above you need 12mm. I would go for H&R hubcentric 15mm as these bolt to your hub properly and are not just shims. You will need to lower the car and prob roll the arches to get it to not look like a monster truck.

 

[pauljones699]

OK that seems like way to much work for what I'm after. Assuming I can return the wheels the company also has these wheels, will these OK, or again will i need a spacer? I'm after something that will go straight onto the car with any dicking about, especially lowering it and rolling body work.

18" TWIN 5 SPOKE ALLOY WHEELS FITS MERCEDES CLK C209 COUPE 02 11 | eBay

Thanks again for your input!

 

[redbaron]

Yes they would be more likely to fit... but bear in mind they are still too wide. A 209 should be 7.5 fr and 8.5 rear.. those are 8.5 / 9.5

You would be much better buying proper merc wheels than these cheap copies.

Does your car have AMG styling / suspension they may look odd on an elegance / avantgarde with std susp

 

[pauljones699]

Thanks Paul, no it's just a standard Avantgarde, i boought the car about 6 months ago and I don't like the standard wheels, plus 2 are curbed so i just wanted to swap them over to something a little bit more stylish. I have swapped out the headunit for a Dynavin MC2000 and it looks great inside, i have de badged it on the outside, changed all the lights to xenon style white lights. All i have left is change the wheels!! And it's proving the hardest thing!

The picture at the top of the thread is the style i want, if you can offer any suggestions that can get me close to that without having mods done and without breaking the bank, i would gladly paypal you £10 for a few pints!!! I just need help/advice about getting it sorted/

Looks like I'll be ringing mad*on*motors tomorrow and giving them a piece of my mind!

Thanks so much Paul ,

 

[GP801]

19s will fit but you need an 19x8.5 ET30 for the front and 19x9.5 ET31 for the rear. I think the ride will be pretty dreadful though.

 

[redbaron]

these fit.

They are off the SLK 55

AMG alloy wheels | Genuine new 18" AMG V 16-spoke | fits Mercedes CLK Class 209 | Alloy Wheels Direct Ltd

 

[pauljones699]

They look great but the over £2,000 without tyres! If i had that cash flow I wouldn't be driving a elegance model. Thanks for the suggestion but i need to keep wheels and tyres under £1k mark i just can't afford that.

Can you clear something up.....you said my car suggests Front ET30 Back ET31, yet these are ET37 rears yet they'll still be OK without spacers. So what is the tolerance on these ET numbers. What ET measurements can I get away with without spaces etc?

Thanks again for all the help! Really appreciate it guys

 

[redbaron]

you have some tolerance on ET but that is dependent on the width of the rim.

 

[pauljones699]

Moment of truth

Should be interesting......

I rang the place back to get a refund on the basis 'I've asked multiple garages and experts about these 19" and everywhere said they wont fit".

Their response was simply, we sell these all day long with no complaint they fit!

So i said right well I'll drive down to Birmingham and you fit them for me without rolling arches! So I'm going down on Sat morning to either, get wheels fitted to my car, or they will realise they don't fit and their selling incorrect products to which case I will be refunded on the spot.

I'll let you know how I get on and upload pics too if they end up being fitted.

Thanks again for all the help!

PS He also gave me a link which suggested my car's recommend ET was 37. So he's gave me free 4 x 5mm spacers and longer nuts. So their proposing 37mm all around setup on these 19"s?? We will see.....I took someone's advise though and bought the more expensive Hubcentric spacers instead incase theirs are cheap and flimsy.

 

[pauljones699]

Hey guys, OK so finally good news got my 19's finally fitted! Loving them!

Not as complicated as everyone made out, no arches rolling, no suspension dropping, no perturbed from the arches...

I figured I would just note my experience swapping my wheels in the aim that maybe it may help someone else out one day.

1st off, I was recommended a garage in Birmingham called Tyretraders in Birmingham Cheap Tyres Online | Van 4X4 Car Motorbike Tyres | TyreTraders UK and they were absolutely outstanding, i drove from Liverpool to see them and very glad I did, thanks to Chris and the guys!

A reminder my new wheels are......2 x 9.5 19" ET42 Front Wheels & 2 x 8.5 19" ET42 Rear Wheels.

1st off they tried a combination of tyres depending on sizes price range ect, the first combination was 245/35/19 on the front and a fat 275/30/19 on the back, the back went on fine no problems but the front literally had about 1mm clearance from the shock absorber.

2nd choice and the ones i went for was a matching set of Kaiser 235/35/19 front and 265/30/19 rear (budget range tyres)

3rd problem - The front wheels rubbed up against plastic guard (behind the bumper) so they removed the wheels and applied the heat gun to the guard to arch it 'outwards' allowing the wheels full movement without rubbing.

4th problem - The standard offset of 42 was never going to work, tried a few spacers ended up with a 15mm on the rear and 10mm on the front. So that brings the final offset to 32ET on the front and 27ET on the rear.

5th problem - BOLTS!!! This was the most frustrating problem, had the car on and off the ramp several times looking into this, turns out non of the 'standard' size bolts fitted, they all poked through just a fit too much and slightly caught the handbrake cable which makes that annoying and loud 'clicking' noise when the wheels turns. The guys were great and got the bolts on the grinder and took a few mm's off each bolt to get them right.

FINALLY all sorted!

I am no expert with cars and don't know if this appears right in theory or on paper, maybe each case is different but i can tell you, my car drives well (a little firmer ride with the low profiles but honestly not bad at all, i drove 90mph back on the M6 and it was fine!) and there is no noise, no suspension lowering needed, i think the 19's fill the arches fine and no rolling of the archers.

I can't thank the guys enough they charged £300 for 4 new tyres and all the fitting / modding not to mention they spent about 6 hours on my car!! All in all this has cost £900 for new wheels, new budget range tyres, fitted, and spacers and bolts. I am delighted and love my CLK even more!

I've added some pics in case anyone is interested in the outcome. Thanks again guys for all you help in this matter. Great site, with great members!

The old wheels look like toys now!

Paul,

 

[jotter22]

if you know your off sets and standard wheel sizes you can jggle this about to get your ideal size!
1010TIRES.COM-wheel offset calculator

Tony.

 

[pauljones699]

Cheers Tony could have done with that last week! Nice one

 

[pauljones699]

Cheers Tony, could have done with that last week! Nice on

 

[br0ke]

Keep those 16"s and put winter tyres on them. They're the same as mine and makes driving round in the snow and ice almost normal.

+ you'll find the tyres cheaper and you won't drive through the salt and grit with those lovely 19's

 

[pauljones699]

Love this suggestion, never thought of doing that, sounds like a plan. Seems like snow in UK is an every year occurrence lately! Cheers,

 

[Pittnathan]

I just bought some 19" 8.5's and 9.5's for my clk55. They're the sl63 triple spoked style. I hope to god my out comes like yours! Got the same offset problem aswell. I have had larger than oem size wheels with spacers on previous cars with no problems though.