[R129 SL] Looking to upgrade my wheels

[Norm and Pat Waleke]

On Friday, July 1, 2005, at 03:11  PM, George Jenner wrote:

> I am considering going to AMG wheels for my 1996 SL500 which has 
> stocker 16" standard wheels.  I found a set of AMG OEM 18" wheels.  
> All four are identical 18X8.5 with offset to ET44.  Does anyone have 
> any experience in this kind of wheel swap?  I know the 18" AMG wheels 
> were furnished on my car as an option with the sport package but they 
> came an inch wider in the rear than on the front.  Question is would 
> 8.5 wide rims all around make any difference?

We upgraded the wheels on our SL500AE to 18" AMG monoblock, but as you 
stated we went with wider in the rear. I did some checking on the 
TireRack website [http://www.tirerack.com] and found a set of AMG 
wheels with an offset of ET44 but they fit an S class. The SL offset is 
smaller ET31 or ET25 depending on the style of the AMG wheel. You might 
give the folks a call at TireRack 
[http://www.tirerack.com/about/contact.jsp] to be sure you get the 
proper offset. As far as 8.5" all around I don't think there is a 
problem, but you might ask the guys at TireRack that question as well.

Hope this helps,

Norm and Pat
New Mexico, USA
'89 M-B 560SL 42.8K (his) "White Knight"
'93 M-B 300E Sportline 52.8K (ours) "Green Hornet"
'97 M-B SL500AE 6.3K (hers) "Red Baron"
'98 M-B SLK230 9.7K (ours) "Slick"
'00 Honda S2000 6.7K (his) "Ichibon"
'01 Chrysler PT Cruiser 6.3K (ours) "Salsa"
'01 Plymouth Prowler 1.4K (hers) "Pumpkin"
'03 Nissan Frontier 2.8K (ours) "Bulldog"
photos: http://www.zianet.com/SLlover