Woe is me

Tontastic

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ML 270 CDI 2001 ; C180 1999
If nothing else, read this and learn from my mistakes.

ML 270 ... flat tyre while down at the beach a mile or so from my holiday home. No immediate sign of why it is down. Woe. No big deal, i will just change the tyre, i know there is a space saver in the boot.

I set about getting the space saver out from underneath which is not the biggest task in the world but fairly mucky i have to say given the amount of dirt that has accumulated in there. Get the tyre out, it is a wee bit flat. Woe again. No big deal, i send for a little electric pump.

In the process of changing over the alloy to the space saver I crack each of the nuts while it is unjacked, and skite the wrench across the face of the alloy leaving a score. Woe is me again. I should have paid more attention and done it carefully.

I use the jack and *almost* jack it up in the wrong place but finally figure out what the little circle notch is for before i puncture the plastic sill. Almost a woe there.

When the alloy is finally released from the car it falls flat on its alloy face in the gravel leaving even more score marks. I have never had an alloy that marks as easily as this... or perhaps it is the style of alloy where the centre of it protrudes ....

With space saver on and electric pump fetched i try to attain the 61 psi that the fuel flap suggests for the space save only to be greeted with a hissing noise as air escapes readily from around the steel wheel. It does inflate and settles around the 40 psi mark with no more leaking. Slightly worrying but i guess it is just doing its best to get a seal at a pressure that it likes after perhaps a long time with no seal.

I give the original flat tyre some air from the pump and there would appear to be a sidewall puncture rather like the point of a knife jabbed into it. Hey Ho. I'll never know if i just side swiped a bank with something sharp in it as i turned somewhere or if something more malicious was on the go.

Truck up the road home at end of holiday at 50mph. End up at 20psi upon my arrival. Hey ho. Off to get a new tyre tomorrow ...

So ... check your space saver ... and be careful with your alloys!!!
 

LYNALL

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Was sidewall damaged inside or outside wall? if inside wall check you spring hasnt broken and caused the damage.



Lynall
 

kebo57

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ml270
Hi I had this two weeks ago, corrosion on the bead of the rim, cleaned it painted it & still leaked air so I fit a tube job done.

Another thing you can check & inflate the spare in suite if it is rotated into the correct place also there is a fare bit of rattling from that plastic sheet that the wheel sits on nothing that a few holes & cable ties can't cure

Kevin
 
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Tontastic

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Was sidewall damaged inside or outside wall? if inside wall check you spring hasnt broken and caused the damage.



Lynall

Just the normal outside face. Not a gash or anything serious, just a very thin cut which appears to penetrate far enough in to let out all the air.
 

television

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2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
Not a good day then :(:(
 
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Tontastic

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Not a good day no. Took it to a Tyre company in Carmunock/Glasgow who proceeded to really badly scratch the punctured wheel's alloy and also chipped in a few places the other front wheel that i decided to get done at the same time since it was down to about 2-3mm. Of course when i raised this immediately with them they all agreed that it couldn't possibly have been them and it must have been like that.

One thing I would definitely say about my ML alloys is that they are incredibly soft, mark very easily and protrude beyond the tyre in the centre of the wheel. A recipe for disaster ...
 

Juddian

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W124CE/1996/3199cc/LPG'd
Not a good day no. Took it to a Tyre company in Carmunock/Glasgow who proceeded to really badly scratch the punctured wheel's alloy and also chipped in a few places the other front wheel that i decided to get done at the same time since it was down to about 2-3mm. Of course when i raised this immediately with them they all agreed that it couldn't possibly have been them and it must have been like that.

One thing I would definitely say about my ML alloys is that they are incredibly soft, mark very easily and protrude beyond the tyre in the centre of the wheel. A recipe for disaster ...

Had exactly the same problem with getting tyres put on the Toyota pick up...the alloy wheels on that are shaped with a curved spoking slightly protruding.

My tyre man now uses a plastic (possibly nylon) fitting that goes over his machines lever arm, should it catch then it does no damage.
The problem being that 4x4 tyres are much stiffer to remove, so the arm is 'pulled' onto the wheel face easier as the tyre is being forced off.

Incidentally that same curving and deep heavily cast wheel 8 or 8.5 x 16 causes great difficulty for the balancing machine, they can't get the taper cones to fit properly.

Difference being my tyre man saw he'd done the damage and got them refurbed....methinks time you seached around for someone a bit more competent/honourable in the tyre world.
 

television

Always remembered RIP
Joined
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Your Mercedes
2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
Had exactly the same problem with getting tyres put on the Toyota pick up...the alloy wheels on that are shaped with a curved spoking slightly protruding.

My tyre man now uses a plastic (possibly nylon) fitting that goes over his machines lever arm, should it catch then it does no damage.
The problem being that 4x4 tyres are much stiffer to remove, so the arm is 'pulled' onto the wheel face easier as the tyre is being forced off.

Incidentally that same curving and deep heavily cast wheel 8 or 8.5 x 16 causes great difficulty for the balancing machine, they can't get the taper cones to fit properly.

Difference being my tyre man saw he'd done the damage and got them refurbed....methinks time you seached around for someone a bit more competent/honourable in the tyre world.

Yes I agree,,when my guy is changing my tyres,,I bung him a fiver to fit a new plastic slide to stop any rim damage
 

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