Tasnik Khan

Good afternoon MbWorld,

A few months ago my car blew an ABC hose and has been sitting in my driveway while I began saving for my ABC conversion kit. I now have the money and have the freedom to choose between the Yellow Speed Racing kit from the East and the Strutmasters kit from the US.

Pros of the Yellow Speed Unit:

- Cheaper when shipped to Canada (I am located in Ontario)
- Adjustable Heights
- Local dealer located in Montreal

Pros of the Strutmasters

- North American
- Uses Cold Rolled Springs so not much sag over the years
- Lifetime Warranty

Cons of the Yellow Speed Unit:

- Possible Chinese product and could be of questionable quality
- Previous memeber Aarkah states that the shocks have to be set close to it's limit due to the weight of these cars
- Warranty is probably only offered by the dealer and not the parent company

Cons of the Strutmasters

- Noticeably more expensive due to the US-Canadian Exchange rates (sitting at 2100CAD shipped including taxes and duties)
- No adjustability whatsoever and photos show the rear of the car sitting too high

In addition to that, the Yellow Speed kit has a choice between a "Flat topped Mount" and an "Oblique Mount". Does anyone know what that is referring to and what it means.

For all my Canadian friends I am planning on ordering them from Xtreme Vision Imports in Montreal. Anybody have any experience with the company?

Over the next few weeks I hope to fill this thread with a wealth of information and if you guys would like to speak to me or give me any advice feel free to do so. It will be my first foray into suspension modifications on these cars and I could use all the help I can get.

Would love to get this stickied as I plan on videotaping the whole process as well. Not many people are able to make the effort to undergo such a conversion and I'd like to make it easy for all my readers and viewers

renault12ts

I asked the UK agent for Yellow Speed about the flat top v. oblique...he didn't know.

I surmise that it might be to do with fitting a roll bar using W220 lower arms. The bottom of the strut has to be pushed out if this is used...maybe the oblique top is to accommodate use of these arms.

Looking forward to your thread.

Tasnik Khan

Hey renault,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to ask your dealer in the UK. It seems like they are referring to the top mount of the shock as evidenced on this link here

http://www.yellow-speed.com/products...37&pc_parent=1

I look forward to informing the community. This conversion kit is one of the reasons i bought the car in the first place.

tusabes

Supposedly there were two different abc strut tops and you have to take your old ones off first before ordering to see whether you have flat or angled tops

I think I would go with yellow speed , not only is pricing lower but there's height adjustability

You should also be able to recover almost all the cost of your conversion by selling the old abc parts. Arnott will even buy the blown struts and eBay is the best place to sell the good ones

Tasnik Khan

Hey Tusabes,

I am curious as to why the Strutmasters kit makes no mention of that though.

Although recovering the costs would be a happy side-effect I'd probably keep the money handy to replace all the suspension components, I'd like to take this car on a trans Canada Drive and it'd be a heck of a way to go with the massaging seats

biker349

interested in your decision. does anyone have yellow speed available in, or around the u.s.?

renault12ts

They are referring to the top mount and offer both for the w215:

http://www.yellow-speed.com/products...=MERCEDES-BENZ

Tasnik Khan

Hi biker349, I messaged Yellow-Speed directly on Facebook and they pointed me to a dealer here in Canada. I'm sure you could do the same. Here's the link

https://www.facebook.com/Yellowspeed...0094702049146/

Renault12, I assumed as much but i am curious as to why Strutmasters does not offer this choice and is there any way I can find out the correct information about my own shocks without having to remove them?

renault12ts

They are on Facebook and Twitter. Let's all send messages about this to get a definitive answer.

Tasnik Khan

I asked them the question with no answers. Would you guys mind trying?

biker349

hi, i contacted the link you provided for canada. no reply as of yet. do you have an actual address, or phone # for them, or a u.s. distributor?
thanks

renault12ts

This is the answer I got when asking about the difference and if they'd post some pics:

"Hello it's different from the shape of OEM upper mount.
then sorry we don't have the photo.. Thank you."

Helpful...not.

biker349

still no response to my 2 inquiries.

Tasnik Khan

Hi Biker349,

Sorry about that. They usually respond to inquiries within a few days. There was another owner who already ordered the oblique mounts and he's waiting for his delivery to see if that's the right fit. Either way, I'll have an answer for us soon enough and we can put this stupid myth to rest.

They are a taiwanese company and their english isn't always the best so I can see why we are having trouble here

supermgm

Hi guys,

I've just got delivery of my "slanted" yellowspeeds. Still in Germany at the moment, but I shall be starting the conversion hopefully the start of next week, so I will let you guys know whether or not I have made the biggest mistake possible. However fingers crossed, and will keep you posted on the conversion.

Morgan

Tasnik Khan

Hello Morgan,

I spoke to aarkah, a fellow yellow speed convert as well and he got the slanted ones as well. You have nothing to worry about.

supermgm

Taz,

You've made my day! I did have an 80% feeling they were correct, but ya know, doubt sets in slowly...

If you guys want and when I get round to doing it, I could post some photos up of the conversion if it helps?

Tasnik Khan

Anytime Morgan. The people here are truly wonderful to work with and open to literally speaking on the phone when messaging doesn't suffice. Please do post your pictures as well on your thread. The more we have the better it'll be as all our experiences will be different and I certainly will begin after you do as I am just ordering my parts now.

Do you by any chance, have a part number for the shocks you have ordered? My dealer needs a specific part number and although I can find that on the internet, I just wish to verify.

Thank you for your continued support

supermgm

YS01-MB-DPS007-2-SLANT < This is the only number I found on my invoice that resembled something of a part number. It may be wrong mind you.

It'll be a pleasure to inform others as well as document the conversion too. I think the phone conversations could be tricky with my being in the UK! But thank you guys for the warm welcome. I won't let you down!

Tasnik Khan

That number seems similar to the part number found on their Taiwanese site. I will place my order and I will update you on it as well.

Are you going to do the conversion yourself? It will be a more personal experience than our peer aarkah who gave it to a professional.

Regarding conversations. Skype man. tis the ****

supermgm

I'm gunna be tackling it with a good friend of mine. Copious amounts of beer and a late evening or two. I'll try and take as many photos as I can, but this can't be promised with many scraped knuckles and more blasphemy than a catholic church. Yet it does seem like a fairly straight forward procedure.

Ahh you've got me there, the internet is a wonderful thing!

Looking forward to any updates your side

biker349

love to see the pictures and details of the procedure. also your impressions of the system, especially compared to abc.
found a u.s. distributor.
yellow speed: patterson performance parts, llc
10931 pellicano dr.
el paso, tx 79934
contact person donald patterson 915-228-9920
$999.00 shipped

Tasnik Khan

Good afternoon Guys,

Thank you so much for all your patience and holy crap did this take a while. I was laid off from work and was unemployed for months! I finally got a job though and am loving it hence I started work on this conversion again.

So far, here's where we're at. I have ordered the Slated topped Yellow Speed Coilovers today and Getting ready to begin my conversion video. There aren't many videos showing it's conversion well so I wish to make it easier for you all. It cost 1000USD and the lead time is one week. I am expecting the coilovers in the mail today via DHL. A note to fellow Canadian Buyers, Yellow speed ONLY uses DHL for shipping and sometimes they charge VERY high brokerage fees. Try self clearing your package through CBSA. There's a lot of information out there which allow you to do this and this can help save you a lot of money in the long run

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy from ANY Local suppliers here in Canada. They are all incredibly greedy and give me a quote which was WAY higher than it should have been and when I mentioned that his costs are too high he "Challenged me to try and get a better price." Needless to say they didn't get ANY of my business. Please deal with Donald Patterson at Patterson Performance, those guys are honest, patient and very easy to deal with. Avoid all other sellers completely.

More coming soon. I haven't embedded images before so I'll probably try uploading them to a network drive in very high res so you guys can really see how the whole process turns out.

In the meantime. Please feel free to reach out to me. I love to talk to members of the community and if you wish to speak to me, send me a pm and I will shoot you my number or skype ID so we can share

kdmoe64

Hello guys I'm new to the forum. I was checking on others conversion from the ABC system in the CL500. I too encountered the ever going problems with this system with a cost of almost $6700. to repair. I chose to go with strutmasters conversion. I wish I would've known of other conversions on the market but too late now! I've installed the kit already with my own modifications. It actually only took me about 2 1/2 hr to complete everything. The only modification I had to do was to cut off 1 piece of coil spring as it set far to high even with the 20 inch benz offset rims I have. I could only imagine how it would look if I'd had factory rims on it. After installation I must say the ride is nice!!!!!. NO MORE costly bills for me. Compliments all day on the look. But if I could've got the conversion with adjustable height I probably would've went that route especially with a cheaper cost!

kdmoe64

this is with ABC installed


this is my CL500 with ABC still installed