W210 E220 CDI Wheel Upgrade

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neihig

New Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2011
Messages
18
Location
Wallingford, Oxon
Car
E220 CDI
Hi All,

This is my first ever post on a forum.

I got my first MB four months ago, a silver 1999 (facelift) E220 CDI with black leather interior and only 93000 miles on the clock.

I've done 5000 trouble free miles already and love it.

Today i upgraded the alloys to W208 Cygnus alloys:

Front 205 55 R16 7J ET37
Rear 225 50 R16 8J ET32

They seen to fit fine with no rubbing etc., even my existing alloy wheel nuts fit.

The alloys I replaced were W208 Corvus alloys but with 205 55 R16 7J ET 37 front and rear.

I believe the original factory alloys were 215 55 R16 7.5J ET 41 front and rear.

The reason for my posting is because so far i've done 40 miles on the new cygnus alloys, but 5 miles into each of my journeys i get 3 malfunctions, ABS, ESP & BAS.

Never had it before with the old corvus alloys.

Is this a coincidence or do you think its due to my new wheel setup?

The car seems to handle and drive fine...

I am a complete novice and new to mercedes benz.

Can anybody help or offer advice?, yours hopefully...
 
You must make sure that the circumference of the front and back wheels are the same (or very very close). Are all the tyres new?
 
Thanks for the reply.

The tyres are good, all evenly worn, not new but with approximately 5mm tread on each.

I've checked a few tyre calculators on line and they all concur that my new cygnus wheel set-up is not that much differant from my previous corvus wheel set-up with the following results:

Differance = 0.08%
Diameter = -0.5mm
Circumference = -1.57mm

And this is only on the rear as the fronts were identical between new and old.

What do you think?
 
Yeah, i checked with that website before i won my new cygnus alloys.

But my old corvus alloys which were on the car when i bought it were not listed as a fit either. After emailing that website they said that there was not much differance between the corvus and cygnus wheel specs.

I bought the motor of a reliable indy merc specialist who sourced and serviced the car for many years, for the previous owner. He said that the old corvus alloys had always been on the merc for as long as he had known the car, and there has never been any problems.

I haven't had any problems either until changing the wheels today.

The only significant differance between my old and new set-up seems to be on the rears where the rim size has jumped to 8" and the offset reduced from ET37 to ET32, this makes a differance of:

8mm less clearance from the inside of the wheel to the strut housing, and they extend out an extra 18mm

But they do not rub or interfere with the brake calipers or wheel arches.

Although the tyres are 225 50 R16 they do not increase the circumferance or diameter by more than 2mm from previous set-up.

Do you think the abs, esp & bas malfunctions are coincidence or related. Could we have disturbed a sensor when changing over wheels or could brake dust have caused a problem?

Can the brain of the w210 be reprogrammed with the new wheel set-up?

The wheels look and feel fine when driving but is the staggered set-up causing a problem with the sensors?

How serious are these malfunctions and will i make it worse by continuing to drive with these errors?, the car seems to stop and start, turn left and right ok, just like it did before...

Forgive me for the onslaught of queries but i am a real newbie at all of this...
 
So long as all the wheels are the same you should not have a problem. The differences are too small. It could be just coincidence that this happened when you got the new wheels.
 
Possibly. What about the malfunctions, am i causing the merc any harm by continuing to drive with the abs, esp & bas lights on?

I've looked at some old posts and its seems these malfunctions can be tricky to eliminate, anything from a brake switch, wheel sensor, or even a new battery...
 
No, probably not.

Does your ABS etc work. Does cruise control work. Start looking for what's not working.
 
Alternatively could I go to my local tyre fitter and have 205 55 R16 fitted to the rear 8" rims, replacing the 225 50 R16's?

This would make all four tyres, diameters and circumferences the same, just wider rims on rear (8J ET 32) than front (7J ET37)

Are 205 tyres suitable on 8J rims?

If so this could be another option...

Perhaps my new second hand alloys aren't balanced, could this cause the malfunctions?
 
Cruise control, air con and everything else seems to work ok, not sure how to test if abs still works but the braking of the car when approaching roundabouts etc. doesn't feel any differant than before...
 

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