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8.5 & 10x17 Oz 3-piece tire sizes

9K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  281lxm 
#1 ·
I know I should research, but my wheel shop just sent me pics of the wheels they refurbed for me (unexpectedly), and I can't stomach putting used tires on them. So I'm open to a different tire selection than the 265/40/17 and 235/45/17 (perfect diameter match), which I've located in Bridgestone Potenza. I need to buy one rear tire still anyway. So I might as well consider all options.

What is the best tire size for the AMG oz 3-piece wheels that so many people put on w126 cars?

My wheels are fittipaldi, not OZ, and the offset is 2mm higher on both the front and back. So minor outside running might be less of an issue, and if I need, I can run 2-3mm spacers to get the AMG figment.














These will be going on my 1985 500se AMG which could possibly be lowered. I don't know.


 
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#5 ·
I have 245/45 and 275/40 on my 560SEL but I must warn anyone who goes this route with a lowered W126, you will have to roll your fenders and sort of "expand" it so that it won't rub. In the beginning, any bump in the road would cause it to rub the fenders.

Its safer to go with 235/45 up front.

AMG's catalog calls for 235/45 and 265/40. I went wider and I'm OK.
 
#6 ·
Warning!!! I had a set of 3-piece AMG OZ's with the same dimensions. I bought new tires and took advice from this forum with the 245 front 275 rear. Biggest mistake ever. Spent over $1k on Michelin Pilot Sports and could never get the rears to work. Rubbed on fender and inner body. Way too much tire. Sold that set to someone that was willing to buy new tires if needed. He had late model 560SL. When I do get another set I will put 235's on front and 255's on rear. My car is SEC, maybe different with a sedan. Taught me a big lesson "forums provide a wealth of information, but never believe everything people write on forums". Mike
 
#7 ·
Wow. Thanks guys! Looks like I better stick to my original plan. I guess this will likely save me a few bucks because I already bought three used but good condition Bridgestone Potenza, one of the only tires I can find that make both 235/45/17 and 265/40/17 (which were fine on my 1985 500se in Ancient Pirelli tires) which came off a smashed 1976 280slc. So I know you can make that tire size fit a 107 (with some messaging?) too. Since I have two 107s, there's some benefit in that smaller tire size too.
 
#11 · (Edited)
8.5 & 10x17 Oz 3-piece tire sizes





Wow. I'm very sorry to hear. That is terrible.

I will have my wheel repair shop (who is also a very large tire dealer) install whatever goes on these wheels. I initially planned to just get the shop to strip off the front tires and make sure the front wheels were straight and the curbing was fixed in the front lips. Since I repaid the owner a debt I owed him for a pile of r107 and r129 hard tops, I guess he felt it would be ok to put me back in debt to him again by refinishing the wheels for me. They did such a nice job, I decided I definitely won't be installing tires on these wheels, as I had intended to do myself on the tire machine and balancer at my friend's shop where I have most of my tools and a few cars. I had basically planned on burning up what was left of the rear tires, pretty much expecting a rear blowout. I guess that plan is over. Now the wheel set is getting four good tires, and will probably be always handled with kid gloves.

Always mind the date codes.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Mike, those 3-piece wheels (which you got from me) - the rears wound up being improperly assembled. The center discs were sandwiched between the inner and outer barrels causing the offset to be way off and causing the tire rub. The center discs on the OZ wheels must be under the the two barrel mating lips.

Mark Pearson put those wheels on his 560SL after fixing the rears and all was good.

I never noticed the incorrect way the rears were put together and had never mounted the wheels.

Al
 
#12 ·
17 x 10" ET17 rear rims with 275/40/17 should never rub on the inside wheel well
The wheel arch lips do require rolling (tucked up in a U shape) on both front a rear panels.

17 x 8.5" et18 front rims
245/45/17 will rub if the car is lowered
235/45/17 is the better choice and still requires lip rolling and will still make guard contact on severe bumps with lowered cars if you have the narrower front wheel arches versus the wider by 1/2inch 560 wheel arch design seen on most Gen2 560 SEC/SE/SEL's that allowed for wider tires

Back in the day AMG fitted 255/40/17 rears but i suppose 275/40/17 were not even available back then?
 
#13 ·
This thread had me all set to pickup my tires from the warehouse and drop them at the wheel shop for them to mount and save me a few bucks with the smaller used tires. But the time I got to the shop, three of the wheels were already wrapped in the new 275/40/17 and 245/45/17 riken raptor tires.






This was also in the parking lot. Not too shabby.


I didn't pick up the wheels yet as they are still working on the center caps, and I'm broke too. LOL.

I dropped off @CDO 's Lorinser LO for a fresh refurb too. ;)
 
#17 ·
I'm a new SEC owner with 3 piece wheels and I've had this same question. I'm wanting to get a good fit without spacers

My car seems to have oversized tires on it. I think the fronts are 245 and the rears are 285s. Someone took out the stock sway bar and replaced with a custom red one which ends up raising the back end up. On top of that, the sway bar linkages are mixed; R107 on drivers side and C126 on passenger side. The rears for sure are using spacers (because the tires are too large) and the front seems to have a custom spring in it, which also is taller than the stock one

It's always interesting getting your hands on a new car and seeing what the previous owners did (pics below)
 

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#19 · (Edited)
8.5 & 10x17 Oz 3-piece tire sizes

It's always interesting getting your hands on a new car and seeing what the previous owners did (pics below)

I'm interesting in learning about the 126 models altogether. The first thing that caught my attention is that it's not the anti-squat rear end. I would have figured any euro 5.0 and any 5.6 would have gotten the anti-squat rear end with aluminum control arms. It would match the r107 cars if the US 3.8, and I guess the detuned US 5.0.

But your profile says 1991 560sec. Interesting. No anti-squat on a 1991 560sec?

I'm not sure why you'd think there are spacers without taking the wheels off. And you don't mean spring shims. Right?

The use of different sway bar links hopefully is not to compensate for an issue of some sort. I'm going to look at your other posts to see if there's more info on your suspension in other threads.

Edit:
Hijacking my own thread. I looked in the EPC for the 126 (later) part number for the aluminum rear control arm (left side only to simplify), and filtered on North America. This control arm is on my euro 500se. I see it applies to these US models:
107.048 (560sl)
116.036 (450sel 6.9)

And these US w126:
126.045 (560sec - up to model year 1987.... ah... I see... eliminated it for 1988+)
126.039 (560sel, but not for safety vehicles, and only to 87)
126.044 (500sec, which I guess was done for the US by 1987)
126.037 (500sec, also gone from the US by 1987 I guess)
 
#22 ·
8.5 & 10x17 Oz 3-piece tire sizes

That is a fiend Motorsport 19mm swaybar with polyurethane bushings, w116 links and it is the sls adjustment to compensate for the taller and wider rear tires. PO did not get grease fittings for the bushings, they were offered. Check the front swaybar and bushings as well.
 
#23 ·
I saw the pics on my pc and see that you have 126 links
 
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