Analysis of 18 by 8 inch wheels on a 124
My wheels are Carlsson 1/6
Evo
Diamond. The wheels are beautiful and can only be fully appreciated
when
seen in person. The wheels are 18 by 8 with an offset of 35. I have
experienced
some problems with rubbing on only the front fenders and wheel wells. I
have also experienced a little tire damage to the fenders.
As one can see the wheels do not protrude from the front fenders, the
wheels are flush or slightly set back.
Here is another view of the front wheels and the fenders, this picture
may be a bit deceptive because the picture was taken from an angle.
As one can see in this picture there is some damage
to the body cladding caused by the larger 18 inch tires. In the circled
area one can see what damage has been done. The cause of the
rubbing
in the circled area was from hard braking. If one looks at the
protrusion
of the fender highlighted by the arrow, one may notice how the
protrusion
may come in contact with the tire (the other side of the car did not
have
such a protrusion). In fact I did have some tire damage from this
protrusion,
the tire had a small chunk taken out of it which is not that
noticeable.
I have since fixed this problem by bending the protrusion in with some
slight persuasion from a hammer, I now have no new tire damage.
Here is a picture of the fender and body cladding
after
I have bent the fender in a bit and cut away the body cladding. One can
now see that the protrusion has been eliminated, and how the body
cladding
has worn over time.
It is hard to see in this picture but this is
another
place in which the tires rub. The rubbing in this picture is caused
when
going over bumps at moderate speed.
This picture better illustrates the rubbing of the
front
fenders. One can also see that the fender has been slightly bent. The
bend
happened when I was turing into a parking lot and encountered a server
gully. The bend is not that noticeable and can only be seen if one is
looking
for it.
Another picture of the bent front fender.
The final place in which the tires are rubbing on my
car is in the inner fender near the struts. One can see the effects of
the rubbing in the picture above. The rubbing is not that major, the
factory
coating has not even been rubbed off yet. I do not have a solution for
this problem, I have tried hammering out the fender (as is evident in
the
picture) however I did not get any real results from my attempts, if I
spend more time hammering I may be able to get better results.
To fix the minor rubbing problem that I have I
have
rolled the fenders, rolling the fenders has also solve any cosmetic
problems
that I have had. Look here for more information on Rolling
Fenders. It may seem as if 18 inch wheels on a 124 is a big pain
but
it reallay is not, after having the wheels on my car of a few hundred
miles
the frequency of rubbing has been reduced. When the wheels do rub it is
only when I have run over a bump going to fast or making very very hard
turns. Keep in mind that my car is lowered using Eibach springs with #1
pads all around (spring pads are a shim that Mercedes puts on their
cars
for the adjusting of ride height), and Bilstein Sport shocks. For me
the
advantages of 18 inch wheels far out weigh the disadvantages, not
only do I get far greater handling improvements but the wheels have
updated the
look of my E420.
Home