I am looking at getting new tires and rims for my 99' C280. I currently have stock 15" tires and rims. I would like to upgrade to 16" tires - has anybody made a move like this. If so, did you notice any significant difference in ride quality, performance, etc. Any thoughts are appreciated!

 

A few months ago I had the good fortune to borrow some 16" stock mercedes C Class wheels/tire for my 99 C280 which have the 15". They were from a sport package C280. A mechanic friend had them and let me try them on for size. The tires mounted were Mich. The car did ride a bit rougher, and I hate Mich tires with a passion, so that being said. With a good set of rubber 16" tires should be fine. What I did to improve handle was go up i size in tire with on the 15" cheaper then buying new wheels and tires. I also pumped up the front tires to 32lbs and the back to 32lbs psi, and believe me or not the car handles better then with the stock tire and air.

PS: The 167" do fill out the wheels wells nicely. But I got some eibach spacers for my 15" and it has almost the same effect.

 

I have thought of doing the same. Do you know if the fancier 15" rims from any version of Merc (say E class) will fit easily on a C class (1997) - same offset, etc? Did they change in any particular year? My current offset I think is 5 -112.

 

The offset of your wheels is correct, but and E Class doesn't have 15" wheels. However best thing to do is go to www.tirerack.com and use their virtual wheel and tire site and it will give you what 15" wheels are avaiable and you can click on the wheel and it show you a pic with the chosen wheel on your car.

 

That tirerack site is good but doesn't cover the C180 model that we get her in Australia. It starts at C230 and I'm not sure if the wheels are the same. I understand there is also an ET number on the rear of the rims in addition to the 5-112 number. Is it the ET which is important for the offset?

 

That is a good question and I don;t know the answer to. Most of the sites that have wheels for the C Class and 15" just show the offset. What the ET stands for is a mystery to me.