IronMonkey

I've been looking at springs or coil overs (KW V3s) as a way to lower my C63 about .75 inches. One of my biggest concerns is ride quality (I know it seems counter intuitive to asking about lowering the car), I want the car to ride about like it does now (2014 C63 Edit 507 on factory 19s).

Does anyone have relative feedback here? Is one option better than the other? I would really appreciate some of your thoughts here. If there is a thread that I did not find when I searched that covers this please drop me a link to it.

Thanks in advance,
-Adam

-Marlin-

Put a 100lbs sack of dirt in the trunk and get a fat girlfriend.

Problem solved. You can send me a dollar.

bhamg

H&R coilovers will do exactly that.

chrisridebike8

Everyone says H&R springs will lower .75 inches and ride like stock (non-P30). That's why I got them. I haven't installed them yet but just letting you know what I read and expect once they are installed.

Autosport7

Well H&R's will give the perfect 3/4" drop if 17mm pads are used in place of the factory 13mm's, but don't kid yourself, you are not going to preserve an oem ride comfort if oem struts are used in conjunction with H&R springs.

Brings me to a question I have. I know most run oem struts with H&R's but what if I wanted to run aftermarket struts, any input on the best offered for our cars....?

p30amg08

Would this not lower the life of strut considerably?

Autosport7

Some say so. I have never blown a strut on any of my lowered cars on lowering springs with oem struts.

PanzerLehr

For $250 I would risk it and try the H&R springs. If I were to lower my car I would just do the springs and see how good or bad it was before making a big coil purchase especially since selling springs is normally faster than coils.
Every car I have ever lowered has been springs and oem shocks/struts and the only complaint I ever had were potholes.

Roswell

I have the h&r springs with oem shocks for 3 years, perfect drop with the 17mm spring pads.. Ride is very comfy (better than stock IMO as u get less body roll) .. All this for 300$ plus install.

Sidv22

sorry, noob alert here! whats this 17 mm spring pads? where and for much can i get those?
is the drop noticeable on stock 18's?

Roswell

The stock rear spring pads are 13mm, so by installing the thicker 17mm pads u can raise the rear by 4mm to make the drop even with the front.. And most importantly to help clearance if u decide to run spacers on ur OEM wheels or buy aftermarket wheels with an agressive offset.

U can buy the 17mm pads at the dealership. I paid 20$/pair so fairly cheap.

Roswell

And yes the drop looks good even with OEM 18's!!

U can see pics here on page 2:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ml#post5184703

p30amg08

Wow nice I had no idea. Cool

Sidv22

damn you guys! modding is becoming expensive

Thanks Meng

IronMonkey

Ok, so it seems the HR springs is a definite option, and extremely reasonable given the cost. So, anyone have experience with the KW coil overs? Would the net effect there be that the car would feel much stiffer? Seems like I could get the same ride height modification but would end up with more of a "track" feel...

derspi

There is no free lunch. Lowering the stock ride height WILL make ride comfort worse - I don't care which route you go. It's all relative though as the stock C63 ride comfort isn't all that great to begin with. Here's my first hand experience:

I was the second owner and the car came with H&R lowering springs. Couldn't wait to get rid of them - they did only one thing and that was lower the car but it wasn't an even drop. The ride was choppy and although there was less body roll, the handling really wasn't much of an improvement over stock and in bumpy corners, was actually worse. Rode on them for only the first month before swapping back in the stock suspension - night & day difference in ride comfort.

6 months later, I had my trusty set of H&R street coilovers (3rd set in 3 cars) installed and was lowered about an inch and a bit all around. Even at this height, the ride was better than with the H&R springs (not surprising) but not as good as stock (again, not a surprise) but not bad. Marginal improvement in handling but it's clear to me these coilovers were designed with looks and ride comfort first above all else. But for the price, they are worth it if you're not looking for handling improvement.

About a year later, I picked up a set of used KW V3s and with the settings I have for rebound and compression, there's a marked improvement in handling over all the other setups I've tried. Again, there is a price to pay in ride comfort but at least I have the option of relaxing the valving on the struts for potentially, better ride comfort. With the current settings (which was fine for the 2 track days I attended), the ride is a tad stiffer than with the H&R coilovers but better than with just the springs. Liveable by my standards. The big negative for the KWs is the big price tag but at the price I got them at - totally worth it.

Hope this helps.