butthead713

Okay so i havent been on the site in a while I got a little busy because I got married so I havent really did anything new to my car and now that i have money again after this wedding drained me I want to get coilovers on my car. I have a 2003 c230 kompressor with the stock suspension but I have aftermarket wheels. The size of the rims are 19" and the width of the front rims are 8.5" and the width in the back are 9.0". The tire size for the front is 225/35/19 and the back is 245/35/19. When I am driving with no one in the car the car is perfect but if i have 1 passenger in the front and three in the back the tire start to rub at bumps. I really dont know anything about suspension and i want to do it right so I want to get some ideas and opinions. Please help. Thanks.

phister

As for coilovers you cant go wrong with Tein, H&R, or KW. But when you lower the car you'll most likely need to roll the fenders since you're already rubbing when you have people in it. What are your wheels offset? But once you install the coilvers and lower, be sure to do an alignment for it.

butthead713

Okay but when I look at their sites they have all sorts of different types of coilovers. How much is it to roll the fenders? just roughly. And the offsets (which I pulled off the Zenetti website) for the 19x8 which is the front tire is 20 and for the back is 32

phister

it all depends on what you want.. do you want the basic that you can adjust your height or do you want to be able to adjust your dampner (how hard or soft your ride comfort is). You can actually roll your own fenders pretty easily. But body shops will do them for around 100 just to roll them. All you need is a heat gun or hair dryer and heat up the inside part of the fender, making sure you move it from side to side so you dont heat up the paint too much. After its nice and warm, place a hand on the outside part of the fender and put pressure on it, and with a hammer, hit the inner fender lip. This will flatten your fender lip and give you some room so you wont rub.

Your offsets should be fine where you wont rub after you roll the fenders. I myself have Tein Basics, but if you search the classifieds theres some guys selling coilovers for a pretty good price. A guy is selling his KW Variant 2 for a good price.

phister

if you just plan on lowering your car and not adjusting the height really I would recommend getting some H&R springs and Koni struts, a very good setup for our cars.

butthead713

WOW man thanks for the great info. I actually want to adjust my ride height i want to be able to get rid of all my tire gap the way i want it and i might just might as well go with the damper kit to soften the ride. Btw one more question, sorry man i just wanna get it right, will my wheels camber? if they do can i keep it like that or is that mostly a tuner style. i know they eat up the insides of the tires faster.

WaveyKat

KW V2 cant go wrong with those!

but in the front with KW because of how the Strut/springs are created and with 19" wheels you may need spacers..

ROLLNNN

check where you're rubbing in the back. A 19x9 wheel with 245/35 and +32 offset, shouldn't be touching the fender. You should have some good clearance with that sizing.

It might just be rubbing on the plastic piece where the fender and bumper connect or the inner lining, since that tire has a bigger diameter than normal.

phister

as for camber, it depends on how low you go. the lower you drop it the more negative the rears will get. There are sliding bolts you can get from MB that allow you adjust your camber some or you can order a KMAC camber/toe kit to adjust it. You can have about -1 to -1.5 camber be ok with your tire wear as long as your toes are to MB specs.

But as Roland said, just by looking at your width and your tire size you really shouldn't be rubbing anything unless its the plastic bracket holding the bumper to the fender. You can grind that part down or your heat it up with the heat gun and hammer on it a bit.

butthead713

Yeah that is what my mechanic told me but i am trying to avoid spacers the ride always feels different for some reason on my car.

phister

if you dont want spacers then I'd go with the H&R or Teins, either one of them are a good choice

butthead713

ill lift my car tonight and get a better view from underneath it and all because the rubbing didnt really start until i had gotten rear ended and when it was replaced thats when it started. thanks for the help

butthead713

as far as the cambering i dont mind the look of it because in houston alot of people do it but i wasnt sure if it was a european thing also i didnt want to ruin the look of the car. i dont really care for the tires because i basically get tires for free at my uncles shop.



yup i most likely go with the H&R coilovers with the dampers




Thnks for all the replies guys really helped out

mskembo

I am so jealous that I now must hate you...

butthead713

haha sorry i try to keep it to myself.

butthead713

i made my mind up to get H&R coilovers with the dampers one more thing though phister you said i have to get my fenders rolled but dont the fenders come rolled from the factory?

draz.amg

no they don't. people who roll the fenders do it in order to provide more clearance or alleviate rubbing, something that isn't required with stock wheels/suspension. typically they roll only the flange that sticks out inside the lip of the fender. others have even gone as far as moving the whole quarter panels.

if you don't go that low you may not need to roll them. good choice on the h&rs, i'm going with those too!

cpbeasley

in re: to being careful with heating the paint... question,
don't paint booth ovens get pretty damn hot? they stick entire car in those when repairing damage sometimes?

edit: anyone here have an opinion of renntech springs?

butthead713

Oh ok. I am really just getting rid of all my tire gap. Which means in the back i wont get that low but its the front thats killing me, its waaaaaay to high i feel weird in it haha.

It came down to H&R Street Performance SS coil overs, TEIN Super Street coil overs and/or Megan Coil over damper suspension.

draz.amg

yeah i feel you hah. the wheel gap is no good! good luck on the coilovers.

phister

I just have the Tein basics and the ride is very comfortable to my other friends coilovers he has. But I'd go with the H&R if I had to choose.

phister

In regards to paint booths putting cars in ovens. Baking is used because the steel body of the car is found to be a better surface for the paint to bond with at 150 degrees. So baking process is only at 150 degrees max for around 20 mins. Also todays modern paint doesnt really "dry", it actually catalyzes, so baking it starts the catalyzation process faster where as letting it do it naturally takes longer. A heat gun can create much higher heat than that causing the paint to actually melt and liquefy.

Jerkin

You like the h&r over the tein basic?
I still can't decide and I have no experience to compare

Jerkin

You like the h&r over the tein basic?
I still can't decide and I have no experience to compare

Silver C

GOodluck on your setup, the h n r should do wonders foryou. I installed it on my BMW, and well, I'm thinking of doing it for my mb but not just yet..