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I just had my estate lowered with the KW HAS kit. I was under the impression you could adjust the front height from factory to 20mm lower, and the rear from 10mm lower to 30mm lower.
The guys installing it have it set as high as possible in the front and as low as possible in the rear just to level out the car. The front if fully lowered is slammed. Have they installed the fronts incorrectly somehow? Would that be possible?
Can someone with factory springs with a sedan or wagon measure the height from the underside of the front fender to the center of the front wheel (center of the Mercedes star). I want to get an idea of how much mine is lowered. Mine measures 335mm.
And anyone with the KW HAS kit - what's your current ride height?
Thanks
Edit: The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that they must be installed wrong. The entire point of height adjustable suspension is that you can alter it. It is useless if I need the front as high as it can go and the rear as low as it can go for the car to be level - that doesn't leave any room for adjustment. I could have achieved this with lowering springs alone for half the money.
Any ideas what they might have got wrong? Help appreciated.
I have the coupe with HAS and its slammed in the rear (maxed) with the front still holding about 40mm left on the threads. Unfortunately I can't speak to the wagon but in reality it should not vary that much.
Thanks Vic. Sounds like you too have a lot of room to drop in the front. I wonder how much you could raise the front? I will get some photos when I get out today to try and compare heights, but if you have a chance, could you measure from the underside of front fender to the center of the Mercedes star on the wheel? Keen to know that distance as a comparison. Thanks
I had a look under the car, and I think I still have more adjustment to lift the front higher. The installers told me it was as high as it could go, but there seems to be more thread on the sleeve behind the spring and Intermediate ring. Take a look at this photo and let me know what you think. Does the Intermediate ring, which sits between the main spring and the helper spring, need to be over the threaded sleeve? How much higher could I wind it up? The KW Install manual doesn't really indicate that...
I got an answer from KW. The max height is 45mm of exposed thread below the spring perch on the fronts. Mine is sitting at 30mm, so there is plenty more height if I want it.
How's it ride mate? I've also got a white C63S estate in Australia (Victoria).
Does it improve the ride at all?
The ride is firmer than stock - but the initial impact of a bump is not as harsh. Hard to explain. The best example I can give is cateyes in the road on stock suspension were really harsh - the dash would rattle. With the KW HAS those sort of bumps are softened, but there isn't as much travel so the car does have less bounce which makes the ride firmer.
I'm going to raise mine about 10mm all round. It's a little low for my liking at the moment. That may soften it a bit?
You could try the new H&R height adjustable suspension. It was double the price of the KW for me (might be different in Australia), and I couldn't get much info on ride heights. It looked like the min drop was too big for my liking, so went with the KW which goes from factory height min to a max of about 20mm lower.
I have the coupe with HAS and its slammed in the rear (maxed) with the front still holding about 40mm left on the threads. Unfortunately I can't speak to the wagon but in reality it should not vary that much.
@Vic55
Hi Vic....love the car, looks great with the drop. I have the same kit still in the box and am hoping to have it installed soon. Question for you; at that drop, how is it entering/exiting driveways, we have relatively steep ones in many parts of Los Angeles. It's the only thing that concerns me some having come from 911's that scraped on just about any driveway with a steeper slope.
I'm getting a sound out of the springs when going up/down steep driveways....when the spring decompresses....a ping / creak like sound .......normal? mine is not even lowered anywhere close to max......from inner lips to the ground, front 26.25" and rear 26 5/8".
Does anyone with the KW HAS hear a sound when traversing either a steep driveway entrance/exit or big undulation?
I'm getting a sound out of the springs when going up/down steep driveways....when the spring decompresses....a ping / creak like sound .......normal? mine is not even lowered anywhere close to max......from inner lips to the ground, front 26.25" and rear 26 5/8".
Does anyone with the KW HAS hear a sound when traversing either a steep driveway entrance/exit or big undulation?
Thanks in advance,
It will go away after the suspension "settles" but I wouldn't be worried about it.
I have the coupe with HAS and its slammed in the rear (maxed) with the front still holding about 40mm left on the threads. Unfortunately I can't speak to the wagon but in reality it should not vary that much.
This looks perfect, are you running spacers at all? This is the ride height I'm going for when I get my kit installed this week, do you have the ground to fender measurements?
Update. Had the installer lift the car and make sure that the suspension was in order. All we found was some pebbles and debris in the left unit. Kinda turned them back forth a bit. Re-measured at the threaded portion at the top of the units. That’s it.
Noise is no longer there, at least for the time being.
So i take back my earlier comments.
All is is well in regards to fhe springs making a sound.
Update. Had the installer lift the car and make sure that the suspension was in order. All we found was some pebbles and debris in the left unit. Kinda turned them back forth a bit. Re-measured at the threaded portion at the top of the units. That’s it.
Noise is no longer there, at least for the time being.
So i take back my earlier comments.
All is is well in regards to fhe springs making a sound.
Best,
I had the same problem too, I had dirt and stones stuck in there.
As for me, if I leave the car at taller ride height with the springs, the car seems to make noises more often then when I slam it on the ground. I only raised it for this winter and the noises (which arnt bad at all) started.
For those of you that have KW springs, do you guys also have to take off your rear control arms to adjust the ride height? The fronts are easy to adjust but I just dont have enough space to crank the spanner wrenches in the rear without dismantling the whole rear suspension lol.
01-10-2018, 02:02 AM
