bent wheels
 

AT the tire shop trying to solve a vibration in my 97 s500 , I discovered 6 of my 8 wheels are bent. not bad just a slight blip on the inner rim. I had to by new wheels . Is this a chronic problem.?
In any rate I found a source for OEM replica wheels for cheap. adsitco.com.
I can get my wheel repaired but the cost is about the same.

FOG

If it was me .
most of those wheel balancing machine's need to be cleaned and calibrated every few months , in which many shops fail to do. You said 6 of your 8 rims thats a high percentage. do you drive the on rough roads a lot? hit a lot of curbs? i would get a 2nd opinion before i shelll out a few grand. do you have a vibration in the steering wheel you cant get rid of?

bent wheels
 

slight vibe? Yes escalating to severe at 70 MPH. Roads here in the Ozarks are remarkably smooth actually.
The truth is My car had a ersatz set of mongrel tires ans the wheels were badly deteriorated. I bought several sets of wheels and tires from Ebay, that were supposedly almost new, one being a never on the road spare.
They seemed to ride good for a couple of years ,then slight vibes set in then severe.
I purchased a set of New AMG pattern wheels from the above mentioned source, These will match the ones on my SL55, so I'll just take the 10 bucks or so the scrap yards will pay for junk alum.

FOG

I dunno boss , sounds like a 4 wheel tire balance and with the tire wear also sounds like its in need of a alignment. i would also go with a 4 wheel alignment just to be safe.

I had the wheel off and on the spin balancer. you could see the tire hop and the inner rim bent, no doubt.
4 new wheels arrived yesterday,so it off to the tire shop to play musical wheels/tires.

FOG

damn , that sucks. how bad does your luck have to be to have 4 bent wheels? i will go ahead and answer that for you = (pretty bad)

new bent wheels
 

OK 4 brand new wheels arrived yesterday. Off to the tire shop. We first spun the new wheels on the balancer and found 3 of the 4 to be also "bent".
I put bent in quotations because at this point I started to think my standards were too high. (old retired tool maker who can see .002 run out).
SO I start to look for a trueness standard for wheels.
None to be found yet,
Talking to the tire mounters , not rocket scientists for sure but guy the see a lot of wheels every day.
They tell me the look about the same as many they've seen,........Hummmm.
So I call the seller of the new wheels, who has nothing to offer ,but to their credit they say they will honer the wheels if I mount them and are still not satisfied.
OK we mount 2, the third tire, A Michelin Energy OEM tire (albeit 18 years old) is disintegrating. the breaker bead (steel ) is bulging in 1 spot.

New delima. I now have ordered 4 new tires to be fitted to the new wheels and we will test.

I'm beginning to think I have just created a monster.
Should have let the wife just take it to the man and say "fix it".

I think my personal instructions to the tire guys were the principal cause of this quandary..

Lesson : don't look too hard for a problem, you might just find one.

FOG

The bent wheel problem is becoming more prevalent with the advent of low profile tires. However, since yours is a '97, I'm guessing that isn't the issue. Before more on that, let me say that running a tire that is 18 years old is an invitation to disaster, especially on a heavyweight like an S Class. I never run tires more than 5 or 6 years regardless of the mileage. As for the wheels, going the eBay route is risky, you never know what you'll get and you have no way to validate the quality beforehand. If you are stuck with some bent wheels and cannot afford to replace them you can go to shops that repair and straighten wheels. Not my first choice but there are reputable companies that do this for about $150 to $200 per wheel, depending on the scope of the problem. I would also suggest when doing the balancing that you find someone who has a road force balancing machine and check to be sure that it has been calibrated recently. Surely Little Rock must have a decent company. Maybe check with the local racers, they usually know the good techs.

New wheel & tires
 

OK 1000 miles on the new wheel and tires, with no problems. Seems the 70 aspect ratio tires are capable of absorbing slight wheel run out.
As I stated before My standard were just too high.
I Think there might be issues with my SL 55 AMG when the time comes as it is fitted wit 35 Aspect ratio tires. Oh goody.


FOG