W202 with Staggered AMG's

[JonathanC250]

Hey everyone,

Since i have put the 17 inch staggered AMG wheels ( as fitted to the c43) on my c250, the car is pulling every which way!

I am just wondering whether this is normal behavior, it pulls over every bump, into camber and in and out of the tram lines, when i have the pleasure of driving on a smooth level piece of road its perfect, but roads like that are few and far between!

Is there anything i should look for?

Ball joints have been done recently and tracking was dont not too long ago, both before i got the new wheels!

Thank you
Jonathan

 

[BlackC55]

Tyres pattern can cause this as well as worn lower arm bushes and poor geometry. Tracking is different to a geometry. The AMG's will make all these possible problems worse as they are wider.

 

[JonathanC250]

Thanks BlackC55,

The front tyres and BFG's 225 45 17 and they are runflats
and the rears are Continental sport contacts, i dont think any of them are directional tyres, just have inside and outside marks.

As for geometry, can this be looked at by places that carry out tracking or is this specialist only procedure?

Would there be any tell tale signs for lower arm bushes? That i would be able to see from getting the car on axle stands ?

Again, thank you for your help, i think you have posted on every one of my questions, very helpful!

Jonathan

 

[BlackC55]

ahhh. Do the BFG's have a ^ pattern?

 

[Alps]

also run flats give a harder ride, also check tyre pressure, too high and they will also tramline.

follow blackc55`s advise, worth tracking and geometry, but get the wishbone ball joints checked.

 

[JonathanC250]

The bfg's do not have the arrow type pattern
as for tyre pressure they are on 34 psi all round.

Thanks for your advice, will get it seen to!

 

[Cen]

What are the original ET's on the C250? You say you have taken the AMG wheels off the C43 and they are staggered.

I have staggered offsets on my vehicle and on one occasion a few years ago I got a set of wheels given to me where the offsets were the same. My ofsets were ET38 and ET30

The wheels given to me were all ET38 I fitted them on the car and like yourself found the car did not like track lines and the odd bump, also original wheels had 205's fitted whereas the new had 225, I'm sure this did not help.

It may be worth looking at the wheels ET and tyre widths before undergoing expensive geomitry work.

 

[RBYCC]

Thanks BlackC55,

The front tyres and BFG's 225 45 17 and they are runflats
and the rears are Continental sport contacts, i dont think any of them are directional tyres, just have inside and outside marks.

As for geometry, can this be looked at by places that carry out tracking or is this specialist only procedure?

Would there be any tell tale signs for lower arm bushes? That i would be able to see from getting the car on axle stands ?

Again, thank you for your help, i think you have posted on every one of my questions, very helpful!
Jonathan

Mixing tire manufacturers, compound and tread pattern is never advisable as it will effect handling.
Can get a bit wild on wet road surfaces

 

[JonathanC250]

My original wheels were the standard ones from the facelift 202 sport, which were 16 inch and had 205/55/16 fitted to them, i am unsure of the offset on these.

The AMG wheels, are front 225/45/17 ET35 and rear 245/40/17 ET30,

This are apparently the correct set up for a 202.

Also, to correct myself, the are not BFG on the front, they are bridgestone potenza!

I had a word with a friend of mine who is a mechanic, and he seems to think its just the wider wheels doing it, and said i'll get used to it, but we will have a look over the weekend just in case!

Thanks

Jonathan

 

[BlackC55]

Check out the castor bushes for splits. You will have to lever the arm over and look closely.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
Are the tyres new or did they come second hand with the wheels?
If second hand the donor car could of had worn the tyres excessively in certain areas and now there running on a car set up differently they feel "weird", I had the same on my C230K when i fitted staggered 17"s, a few thousand miles later they were 100% better.
Personnally i would,nt worry bout it for a couple of thousand miles.

 

[JonathanC250]

Yes, the tyres were already on the alloys, with more than a reasonable amount of tread left on them so i thought i would use them!

I didnt even think of that!

Thanks

Jonathan

 

[matty.13]

might be worth having alloy wheel alignment done , cost around £60 to do but i had the same problem on my old bmw and it sorted it out

 

[DRBC43AMG]

I had similar problems when I fitted the same size and staggered wheels on my W202 C240T. The car pulled all over the place on poor road surfaces when the tires where at least 50% or more worn out. It was so noticeable that my wife refused to drive the car, as she was scared of falling off the road This was specially true with the 4 Pirelli PZeros I had on the car at the time. Changed to Michelin SP2's and I had fewer problems when the tyres wore out. Had the geometry checked and aligned which helped somewhat. My C43 doesn't do so much movement except on very worn out and bad surfaced roads, but then the car has a tendency to jump around, which is due to the stiffer suspension