Will wrong rear tyre size damage CLK w209? Worried!

[pigSTi]

Hello all,

I am a newcomer to Mercedes ownership having bought one 2 weeks ago. The car is a 2003 CLK 320 W209 with 58k on the clocks if that helps?

I bought it with 18" AMG alloys, have no idea which type though. Anyway, I have noticed today that the rear tyres are exactly the same as the fronts, something like 225/40/18..

Coming from Subaru ownership, I know that mismatched wheels can cause damage on a AWD car - but can they damage the Merc?

What effect will they have on handling? The car feels pretty weird to drive if I am honest, had the tracking done and the front wheels balanced but still feels pretty poor. Twitchy steering at times, doesn't like poor road surfacing at all and it tramlines pretty badly.

I am taking it back to the garage tomorrow to show them the tyres so I would really appreciate any feedback before I get dazzled and fobbed off with their sales bumph again (been back with issues already!)

Also - the front suspension sounds like an old creaking mattress when I go over certain bumps... what on earth is this?

Thanks very much in advance

 

[pigSTi]

These are the alloys I have Mercedes 18" Refurbished AMG IV Alloy Wheel Genuine Front 8.5J CL C215 | eBay

 

[GP801]

As long as the tyre is the correct size to give the right total diameter then no problem at all. Front and rears being the same is fine. They were not all staggered.
It should not creak. Possibly suspension bushes - a known weak spot on W203/W209s.
Not sure if the odd tracking is a function of the 18inch wheels or possibly the tyres. If its any help ours on 17inch wheels has no wandering or tramlining

 

[Shude]

There is no problem with running the same sized tyres front and rear on either same-width or staggered alloy widths.

 

[Wilfie]

Hello all,

I am a newcomer to Mercedes ownership having bought one 2 weeks ago. The car is a 2003 CLK 320 W209 with 58k on the clocks if that helps?

I bought it with 18" AMG alloys, have no idea which type though. Anyway, I have noticed today that the rear tyres are exactly the same as the fronts, something like 225/40/18..

Coming from Subaru ownership, I know that mismatched wheels can cause damage on a AWD car - but can they damage the Merc?

What effect will they have on handling? The car feels pretty weird to drive if I am honest, had the tracking done and the front wheels balanced but still feels pretty poor. Twitchy steering at times, doesn't like poor road surfacing at all and it tramlines pretty badly.

I am taking it back to the garage tomorrow to show them the tyres so I would really appreciate any feedback before I get dazzled and fobbed off with their sales bumph again (been back with issues already!)

Also - the front suspension sounds like an old creaking mattress when I go over certain bumps... what on earth is this?

Thanks very much in advance

Had much the same problem with my W208 with 18" alloys, WIM gave it a clean bill of health and I then had to play around with tyre pressures, it's much better now but no where near perfect, believe its just a result of fitting oversized wheels and star in reading agreed when they drove it.

 

[grober]

IRRC the standard set up for the AMG ALLOYS on the CLK was

7.5Jx18 ET 37 225/40 tyres front

8.5Jx18 ET30 255/35 tyres rear

So the wheel offset is wrong- the tyres size is wrong for the rim and the front wheel size is wrong. Dare say they will work OK but may explain the strange handling.
Alloy Wheels Direct Ltd | Fitting Chart Index

ps funny sound over bumps could be broken front springs or tyres rubbing.

 

[pigSTi]

That's a great response guys, thank you all very much for the information - my mind has been put at ease.

I will leave them as they are for now then and look at replacing them in the future if I still have the wheels - tempted to get some OE 17s but will give it thought.