I got curious one day when switching between my 107 and 164, and measured. The 164's wheel is 15 inches across, the 107's 16.5. You wouldn't think an inch and a half would make that much difference in feel...
I've never cared for the newer generation steering wheels. The whole thing feels cheap in my hands.
Thankfully they started adding back that silver star in the middle. That makes it ok, but not as good as my old school wheel with the star emblem in the middle.
The top one is mine - it's a 400mm W124 wheel that I had recovered (both outside and middle parts) in Germany with slightly smoother leather and shipped over (took nearly 2 months for shipping...) I also had them pad it slightly thicker to make it a little more grippy. I really like the way it feels - the car feels more agile to me, especially in curves but also retains great straight-line feeling. My wife actually prefers the feel of the larger original wheel. To her the size somehow fit the driving style of the r107 more.
I'm curious about the steering box, too - the chap who posted it thought it really made a huge difference making the car feel more "modern" - I guess he means it handles more sporty.
Would be really curious in case anybody here has any experience with the box.
The top one is mine - it's a 400mm W124 wheel that I had recovered (both outside and middle parts) in Germany with slightly smoother leather and shipped over (took nearly 2 months for shipping...) I also had them pad it slightly thicker to make it a little more grippy.
Will any W124 wheel fit? Looking on eBay I see lots of them for a reasonable price. I don't need fancy but at 6'2", I tire of spreading my knees to sit in the seat. I see some say that they fit W124's and R129's My '98 wheel is everything I could ever ask for in a smaller, comfortable wheel. If I could keep the air bag from the stock 560, that would be great too. I have all winter to shop, but I want to shop for the correct item. Thanks to all.
old school style with the black/silver centre star. improves the steering feedback considerably. That original wheel must have been from a lorry. Bought it years ago before they started asking silly money. I have a no-airbag pre facelift 85.
I used http://www.lederlenkradservice.de - very good work and reasonable prices, shipping to the US took a really long time though (2 months if I remember right - could have been bad luck, as I’ve received packets from Europe much faster usually). He had my wheel in stock and seems to have lots in supply.
Yes, that is obviously not the stock steering wheel. I just bought
and installed that earlier this week. It’s a 1998 c-class (c202) Leather steering wheel with a compatible
Air-bag.(well, same plug, so I’m assuming it should work.) It’s also 12 years newer than my
original air-bag, which is probably not a bad thing....
Stock wheel is 16 1/2” where as this is 15 3/4. It is also slightly asymmetrical, so the clearance seat
to wheel is better than the difference in diameter would indicate.
Much improved ingress and egress. It is also quite a bit thicker which I really like.
Paid $50 at a used Euro-parts place. E-bay prices are usually much higher. He initially asked for
a $100, but when I pointed out that this and the other 20 Mercedes steering wheels had an inch
of dust on them he accepted my $50 offer.
3/4” smaller diameter really sounds like, why bother, but it feels 2” smaller in my hands.
Very happy with it so far, It does block the top of the instruments, but I guess you win some and
you loose some. For me, the win-column took this one.
i have a 126 wheel and I tried this; I didn’t like that it seemed to cut off the gauges for the way that I sit in the car.
WARNING: if you play with this, watch the ”clock spring” connections for the airbag and horn especially when mixing/matching years/SEL generations. Mistakes/mismatches…”would be bad”.
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