Club 80-90 Forums

OK - so Ive spent the last few evenings trawling the Wiki, The Samba, Brickyard and other random sites and studied the black art of alternative wheels !

I bought some Merc alloys today (set of 4 with good tyres for £50 off ebay ) with my new found knowledge and need advice from a Wheel Guru.

The wheels are Merc E class 7.5J x 16H2 ET41. The tyres are Bridgestone 215/55 R16 97Y.

Am I right in thinking to fit these I will need 10mm spacers and longer wheel studs??

If I'm right then happy days - if not then feel free to hurl abuse (as long as its useful!)

Yes 10mm spacers....you can fit 15mm ones on the rear to fill the arches out a little more but that is down to personal choice.
Longer rear studs.
Longer front bolts...the front stud conversion would be better for ease of wheel fitting and then you can use wheel nuts all round.
The tyre load rating is perfectly ok.
Being 215/55/16's they are slightly smaller(11mm)than the standard 185R14C set up but exactly the same as 205/70/14's so they'll make very little difference speedo/gearing wise...a proper bargain at 50 quid with those fitted!

The only thing to check are the bolt holes....they may require drilling out to 14mm if they're 12mm?

Cheers g60steve - you are a true Wheel Guru ! good to know I got it right ! Gonna sort the studs etc this weekend - might even post a pic and show em off

Thing is you researched before purchase instaed of the other way round.it .saves all the embarassment

Sizes and ET are roughly the same as my merc alloys (I researched too before buying them) and they also trump my £150 bargain

The ET on mine is 45 and I ran 10mm spacers on the front but I found that on full lock they were rubbing a little on the upper wishbone (even after having all the tracking/camber etc checked) so instead of butchering the wishbone with a grinder I bought some 20mm spacers and had them machined down to 15mm at work.

Thought it useful to post an update for all those going down the road of changing wheels

Wheels now on (see pic) using 15mm spacers front & rear (originally bought 10mm but these were rubbing on the front).
Parts from Brickwerks : 80mm conversion studs on front, 60mm long studs for rear & chrome radiused nuts.

Wheels also needed drilling out to 14mm (originally 12mm). Took a day to do it all - left the van on axle stands overnight whilst the threadlock went off - then put wheels on following day.

Sits pretty nicely - was expecting it to look way higher - will look to get a 50mm AVO set of springs/dampers next year and lower the ol girl

Lovely

How easy is changing the rear studs? Did you DIY or pro?