2002 CLK430 ride height?
#1
Super Member
Thread Starter
2002 CLK430 ride height?
It seems to be pretty low, just driving over small edge in driveway it touches the front bumper. What is the standard road clearance from rocker panel to road? And is there an adjustment?
#2
Senior Member
Take a look at the top of the coil springs and make sure the Rubber Isolators are there. Some people remove those as the cheap man's 1st stage lowering instead of replacing the springs. When I purchased mine, the springs had been replaced and they removed the isolators. I liked the progressive rate springs, so I kept those, and purchased a set of the largest (17mm) isolator pads and restored the ride back to a reasonable height with no more scraping. You can expect to pay about $60 for a new set of pads if that's the case, whether from an online source or the dealership. While the online sources had cheaper per unit prices, every one I could find charged a shipping fee that pretty much made the price about the same as the dealership. I just did this last month - April 2015.
The downside is if you don't have a Mercedes Style Spring Compressor tool as even the knockoffs are going for $150. Even worse if you have to have someone else install them since the best going rate I could find was $100 per spring ($400). So if you're lucky enough to just have the issue be pads, then you're still looking at a DIY cost of $210 or so, vs and Installed cost of about $500 or worse. But the pads are the cheapest ride height adjustment remedy. If it's the springs themselves, then add $100 & up per.
The downside is if you don't have a Mercedes Style Spring Compressor tool as even the knockoffs are going for $150. Even worse if you have to have someone else install them since the best going rate I could find was $100 per spring ($400). So if you're lucky enough to just have the issue be pads, then you're still looking at a DIY cost of $210 or so, vs and Installed cost of about $500 or worse. But the pads are the cheapest ride height adjustment remedy. If it's the springs themselves, then add $100 & up per.