W124 estate tyres

[sidevalve]

Hi all

I have just joined the forum after buying my first ever Mercedes, a 1995 220TE with 108000 miles and a remarkable amount of history. I am a retired Lancia restorer and rust specialist (now, what makes you think those two things might go together...? ) and I like beautiful quality (stay with me here - from the 1920s until the FWD cars came out in the early 60s, Lancia were pretty much up there with M-B in quality...), and so far I am really pleased with the car - but I have only done about 200 miles in it. It has a few things that need looking into, but nothing that seems serious - the biggest is a very hard and bouncy ride at the back, which, going from posts on this forum, looks as if it is probably the accumulator spheres in the rear suspension. I am not worried about those and can fix them myself, although it is probably a good idea to source the parts in the UK as they are cheaper here, although I suspect there might be the odd vendor in Germany... (see below for why I need to do this).

But I did have one slightly bizarre experience - the first long drive I did in it was north from Leicester up the M1, and soon after I had got onto the motorway there was a horrible vibration and noise from the front end. It felt to me for all the world like a wheel bearing breaking up, and as I had no breakdown insurance I got off the motorway sharpish, because I thought that if I was going to break down it would be better on an ordinary road. However, as soon as I got off the motorway the vibration disappeared! I went back on the M1 after reassuring myself it was OK, and the problem didn't return on the rest of my journey, to Yorkshire via the M1 and M62. I have concluded that it must have been that the M1 has a horrible surface there (well, that bit isn't in doubt!), and that the problem must have been a combination of that and the tyres, which are A N Other brand, and I wondered if anyone else had info to share on this. I usually change the tyres on cars when I buy them, as I had a blowout and rollover 15 years ago in a car with 'unknown' tyres on it. So I am intending to bin these and buy a decent set, but I thought I would canvass y'all's opinions before I did.

I see that Nick Froome, whose posts both here and elsewhere I have found very knowledgeable and entertaining (and your website too - thanks!) uses Continentals, and I wondered if this was just personal choice, or if you or others had had the same kind of issues as me and had settled on those in consequence, and/or if these cars were very 'tyre-sensitive'.

All contributions gratefully received - I live in France and am only in the UK for two weeks prior to going home and starting the nightmare that is registering a car there, but as tyres are about half the price here that they are there, if I am going to buy 4 quality tyres I would rather do it before I go home!

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome

If it’s been sat awhile it could have slightly off round tyres which can show up as vibration at speed.

 

[js190d]

Hi, i use Michelins on my w201 190d size 195/65/15 and have never had any issues with them. You can quite often get good deals on Michelin tyres through ATS euro master, so much so that they are not much more expensive for 4 than any other brand.
https://www.atseuromaster.co.uk/consumer
As you live in France can you not get deals if you pop along to Clermont-Ferrand?
Vibrations/ noise can come from many sources but personally i would be checking lower front ball joints (especially if your steering feels stiffer than it should), top mounts (very easy to change) and the steering damper.
Best of luck, w124's are great cars.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Welcome - yes as above always fitted Michelin to my 124TE and no problems over 90k miles

 

[LostKiwi]

I use Rainsport 3 (Uniroyal) on my 1993 r129 500SL. Work perfectly and just grip and grip and grip.

 

[sidevalve]

Hello and welcome

If it’s been sat awhile it could have slightly off round tyres which can show up as vibration at speed.

Thanks - good point! The one we crashed had been sitting in a damp yard for years (we didn't know this until afterwards!), which had caused the apparently perfect Toyo tyres to delaminate! This one has done very low miles for the last 5 years or so, but by 'low' I mean 3-5000 miles, which I would have thought would be enough to keep em round (although the miles could have all been compressed into a little part of the year).

 

[sidevalve]

Hi, i use Michelins on my w201 190d size 195/65/15 and have never had any issues with them. You can quite often get good deals on Michelin tyres through ATS euro master, so much so that they are not much more expensive for 4 than any other brand.

As you live in France can you not get deals if you pop along to Clermont-Ferrand?
Vibrations/ noise can come from many sources but personally i would be checking lower front ball joints (especially if your steering feels stiffer than it should), top mounts (very easy to change) and the steering damper.
Best of luck, w124's are great cars.

Firstly, re the 124s are great cars - I absolutely agree! I love things that feel as if they are made like a Swiss watch, and this is the only car I have ever owned besides my 1937 Hudson and my 50s Lancias that feels like that. I shall not be selling it!

Next - Michelin are absolutely the most effective company in the world at locking down their prices and making sure none 'leak out' at discount prices at tyre places etc. Maybe if I lived in Clermont I could hang about by the gate and chat people up, but I am about 250 miles south-east of there! But thanks for the recommendation - I use Michelin Xs on the 50s Lancias, but the places that sell them cheapest are Longstone Tyres and Vintage Tyres. I don't know what it is about France and tyres, but the prices are insane!

Re. the noises - thanks also! Those sound like cheap and easy jobs, and I am going to get it MOT'd by a British friend who does MoTs, before I go to France - it has a current MoT but I am going to get him to redo it for me and see what is 'waiting in the wings', because I can register (but not drive) it on a UK MoT, and my friend is a good guy who will look it over and tell me what it really needs (I have no vehicle lift back home, so if he diagnoses and I fix, that works really well).

 

[sidevalve]

I use Rainsport 3 (Uniroyal) on my 1993 r129 500SL. Work perfectly and just grip and grip and grip.

Thanks - I have Uniroyals on an old Volvo 940 estate that I tow with, and they are good tyres

 

[d215yq]

I would be surprised if it's caused by road surface. The W124s ride in a certain way that although you feel the bumps there are almost zero vibrations/jarring at all. The dampers are weaker than on newer cars so they can feel a bit uncomposed if there are a big series of undulations at a certain spacing/speed but never vibrations/jarring. If anything anytime I get in another car that isn't a W124 (including brand new ones) I have to get used to the vibration over road surfaces.

 

[Blobcat]

I would be surprised if it's caused by road surface. The W124s ride in a certain way that although you feel the bumps there are almost zero vibrations/jarring at all. The dampers are weaker than on newer cars so they can feel a bit uncomposed if there are a big series of undulations at a certain spacing/speed but never vibrations/jarring. If anything anytime I get in another car that isn't a W124 (including brand new ones) I have to get used to the vibration over road surfaces.

Decent sidewalls on 124’s - no stupid fashion wheels

 

[js190d]

I would be surprised if it's caused by road surface. The W124s ride in a certain way that although you feel the bumps there are almost zero vibrations/jarring at all. The dampers are weaker than on newer cars so they can feel a bit uncomposed if there are a big series of undulations at a certain spacing/speed but never vibrations/jarring. If anything anytime I get in another car that isn't a W124 (including brand new ones) I have to get used to the vibration over road surfaces.

Mercedes of the w124's era (designed during the 1980's) have softly damped shock absorbers combined with very long and highly compressed springs (and spring pads of varying heights) which combined with a tyre with a large sidewall give a great ride on todays bad roads surfaces.
It is quite difficult today to actually get the correct springs for your car as they were spec'd depending on what equipment was on your car. Modern cars could learn a thing or to from them.

 

[js190d]

Decent sidewalls on 124’s - no stupid fashion wheels

Steel wheels with an original Mercedes hub cap look best imho.

 

[Blobcat]

Steel wheels with an original Mercedes hub cap look best imho.

Agreed

Mercedes of the w124's era (designed during the 1980's) have softly damped shock absorbers combined with very long and highly compressed springs (and spring pads of varying heights) which combined with a tyre with a large sidewall give a great ride on todays bad roads surfaces.
It is quite difficult today to actually get the correct springs for your car as they were spec'd depending on what equipment was on your car. Modern cars could learn a thing or to from them.

It does make me wonder if we’ll wake up and realise that what fashion currently demands isn’t appropriate for our roads. I believe Volvo are trying to design cars for the roads we have rather than what they try to sell us in the adverts.

It appears that there’s never another car on the road, be it town or country and the surface would put a race track to shame for smoothness. I’ve yet to find those conditions anywhere in this country.