SETSEROCK

I have KW V2 coilovers. I have the damping almost as tght as it'll go, The car is as low as I can get it with thestock wheels and no spacers. yet this car just rolls so badly in turns at speed. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in turns. What can I do to tighten up things a bit? And what do I need to do to get the front a little lower?

Also, just out of curiosity, what is your suspension setup? And how does it feel in turns?

Benzboy13

i have stock setup on my c32 and its horrible. the car handles worse then my girlfriends toyota corolla. I have tein basics that i originally bought for my c320 last year. I will put them on and let you know how it feels. But im sure you have a better setup already.

Maybe look into sway bars.

or go 18s with wider wheels

Koru_Kinshi

If only I could find 18" AMG wheels that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

SETSEROCK

Wider wheels will be nice, lateral load capacity will increase slightly and braking will improve, but my issue is this car just feels like it has no sway bars at all. It the worst handling german car Ive ever owned, it's like a muscle car. Straight lines, that's it.

arekux

Swaybars make difference look into that, we have pretty small swaybars.

SETSEROCK

They sure do. I'd love to find a set of adjustable ones, dialing out a little of this car's inherent understeer would be great.

Is there a strut bar for front struts available?

splinter

Substantially increasing this chassis’ wheel rate and anti-roll bar coupling -while minimizing the designed-in bushing deflection- will measurably improve its cornering prowess.
An oft-proven strategy, yes?

Silently chuckle when clients and dilettante passengers share “[paraphrasing] it’s not like other MB's I’ve ridden in!” Wouldn’t have it any other way. A comfy ride and sharp handling continue to remain essentially mutually exclusive; there’s no free lunch. You’ll find several properly modified C's here. Should you care to experience a closed course ride-along comparison, just catch up with the seasoned track day members in your locale. :y

edit: damping has no affect on steady-state roll characteristics.

14cue

I have KW V2's installed as well. Set fairly low and damping is soft but I don't have any issues with body roll. It's a dramatic difference compared to stock which wasn't that bad.

TemjinX2

just get thicker sway bars. A H & R 26mm front sway and a 22mm Eibach rear sway.

arekux

I personally think c32 handles pretty good stock it's good balance between comfort and performance, I'm just getting vogtlands springs. BTW I had mkv gti with 28mm in rear and 24mm in front swaybars and every other suspension mod there was, sure it handled better but for daily driving it was not a pleasant ride, it literally tried to kill me.

TemjinX2

if you have coil overs, the car will handle well but just have a lot of body roll. You can have a lot of body roll and still be faster then a car with less body roll on the track.

But i agree the car should've came with thicker sways. I broke my speaker cover from all the leaning i was doing when i went canyon running.

TemjinX2

haha i know how you feel. I had a similar setup on my integra.

i_am_amused

almost no body roll with my stock ABC

SETSEROCK

what is the size of our sway bars?

i would like to tone down two thing about this car: body roll and understeer.

This is not going to be a track much, but just driving everyday it just feels awful. given i just sold my E46 M3 with a decent suspension setup on it, so yes im used to having great handling. i went into this knowing i would never see handling like that in a Merc, but this is ridiculous. i dont want to spend too terribly much on this, but im willing to spend a little money to tighten it up a little.

A few quick questions:

*Who makes good sway bars for this application? and what sizes seem to work well?

*Would these be C32 specific, or are all W203 C-class suspension components similar?

*And does anyone make Upper strut bars for our car? (actually, i dont think there would be room in the engine bay)

Thanks!

TruTaing

++ on the H&R front sway and eibach rear. Unless you can front the bill and find some brabus w203 sways

SETSEROCK

Why the two different brands?

TruTaing

H&R's front bar is larger than eibach's front bar, while eibach's rear bar is larger than H&R's rear bar. So you're getting the biggest bars available outside of the brabus bars... which I think is just one mm larger on both front and rear in comparison to the H&R front and Eibach rear combo.

spr

I'm with splinter however, if I set my coil overs full soft they do allow more lateral weight transfer but whatever. I run H&R front Eibach rear and have replaced every single suspensoin component including clk63 BS components everywhere including the rack. Don't ask about the cost.... I would have to say I probably have the best handling c55 that I know of. I also have fully clk63 brakes blah blah blah.

Get some sways. I never run my coilovers full stiff as the roads are never smooth enough. For even the smoothest canyons I don't go past 16/18...

FrankW

stock bars are 22mm front and 19mm rear. on the C32/55 that is. 2005+ sport ran the same bars I believe or at least the same front bars.

I'm running Eibach 24mm front and 22mm rear btw. body roll is dramatically reduced and my pss9 is set on pretty heavy damper all around, but it feels like I'm having too much rear grip right now as the front would tend to push vs when I had the TEIN SS which gave me a little more camber up front when those were installed.

SGTzAMG

car handles pretty well with just H&Rs =] my buddy who races professionally, had no complaints with how the car handles with just stock AMG struts, 19s and H&R springs. only complain was the transmission not shiftin to fast, but handling was acceptable for the car's current set up =].
although i would be happier with thicker sway bars all around.

SGTzAMG

where did u pick up your eibach roll bars?

ive been lookin at tirerack and they have the H&Rs 26mm up front and 19mm at the rear?

FrankW

got them from another member long time ago.

H&R rear's 19mm? then I must've remembered the stock rear bar size wrong... oh wellz.