Tuigamala
New Member
Hi Guys & Gals,
Just picked up this CLK 320 a few weeks ago and was hoping someone could give me a bit of advice. Generally everything's fine apart from some rubbing issues with the wheels. Fronts seem to cause some rubbing on the front of the wheel well as it has a shiny patch on both sides of the car (only on full suspension travel i guess) and also slightly catching the very bottom of the bolt in the top ball joint. Rear driver's side has rubbed a whole in the wheel arch liner near where the fuel filler pipe goes down to the tank. As well as the rubbing there's uneven tyre wear on the inside edges so I'm thinking there's camber issues and the car skips a bit on full lock (but probably due to the rubbing/clearance problems).
Had the car up on the jack and taken the wheels off. From what I can tell the wheels are replica AMG's and the suspension's been lowered with an Eibach Sportline kit. #5 shims on the front, which I think is standard for the Avantgarde model, but couldn't tell for the rear. Here's the specs of the wheels & tyres:
FRONT: 19x8.5 ET35 (235/35 R19)
REAR: 19x9.5 ET35 (255/30 R19)
So, I really like the wheels and the stance of the car but need to sort the rubbing issues and tyre wear, but I don't know what's possible and whether either the suspension can be adjusted (changing spring pads etc) or if the Eibach springs will have to be ditched or whether I'll have to give up on the wheels.
For the rear, I've heard about various camber correction bolts that can sort out the camber, from MB, K-Mac etc. Will this sort out the wear issue on the rears and by straightening the wheels will this then sort the slight rubbing at the back since it's obviously the top inside edge of the tyre that's rubbing the arch liner?
For the front, I'm thinking that the clearance is just too tight and maybe these wheels just cannot fit on a lowered CLK. The gap around the tyre seems much less than the rears. Should I just ditch the Eibach kit and go back to stock Merc springs? Is there another lowering kit that's not quite as severe as the Eibachs? Also, would switching the dampers to aftermarket ones (I'm pretty sure they're just the standard Avantgarde ones) reduce the chances of the wheel rubbing with the top wheel well? Will correcting the camber stop the rubbing with the ball joint?
Alternatively should I try dropping to 18" rims in the same style wheel thereby giving a higher profile tyre with more rounded shoulders?
The tyres need replacing anyway so are there any particular models that are better than others for tight situations? I was looking at Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's
A lot of questions I know, but hopefully someone with more experience who's been there and done it can help me out. This is my first Mercedes so I don't really know an awful lot about them and I'm no mechanic by any stretch.
Thanks.
Just picked up this CLK 320 a few weeks ago and was hoping someone could give me a bit of advice. Generally everything's fine apart from some rubbing issues with the wheels. Fronts seem to cause some rubbing on the front of the wheel well as it has a shiny patch on both sides of the car (only on full suspension travel i guess) and also slightly catching the very bottom of the bolt in the top ball joint. Rear driver's side has rubbed a whole in the wheel arch liner near where the fuel filler pipe goes down to the tank. As well as the rubbing there's uneven tyre wear on the inside edges so I'm thinking there's camber issues and the car skips a bit on full lock (but probably due to the rubbing/clearance problems).
Had the car up on the jack and taken the wheels off. From what I can tell the wheels are replica AMG's and the suspension's been lowered with an Eibach Sportline kit. #5 shims on the front, which I think is standard for the Avantgarde model, but couldn't tell for the rear. Here's the specs of the wheels & tyres:
FRONT: 19x8.5 ET35 (235/35 R19)
REAR: 19x9.5 ET35 (255/30 R19)
So, I really like the wheels and the stance of the car but need to sort the rubbing issues and tyre wear, but I don't know what's possible and whether either the suspension can be adjusted (changing spring pads etc) or if the Eibach springs will have to be ditched or whether I'll have to give up on the wheels.
For the rear, I've heard about various camber correction bolts that can sort out the camber, from MB, K-Mac etc. Will this sort out the wear issue on the rears and by straightening the wheels will this then sort the slight rubbing at the back since it's obviously the top inside edge of the tyre that's rubbing the arch liner?
For the front, I'm thinking that the clearance is just too tight and maybe these wheels just cannot fit on a lowered CLK. The gap around the tyre seems much less than the rears. Should I just ditch the Eibach kit and go back to stock Merc springs? Is there another lowering kit that's not quite as severe as the Eibachs? Also, would switching the dampers to aftermarket ones (I'm pretty sure they're just the standard Avantgarde ones) reduce the chances of the wheel rubbing with the top wheel well? Will correcting the camber stop the rubbing with the ball joint?
Alternatively should I try dropping to 18" rims in the same style wheel thereby giving a higher profile tyre with more rounded shoulders?
The tyres need replacing anyway so are there any particular models that are better than others for tight situations? I was looking at Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's
A lot of questions I know, but hopefully someone with more experience who's been there and done it can help me out. This is my first Mercedes so I don't really know an awful lot about them and I'm no mechanic by any stretch.
Thanks.