I have had my 55 for about 5 years now and have decided it is time to start giving the suspension some love.

I want to do a combination of maintenance and improvement at the same time.


-I have already put some billstein springs on it shortly after I purchased it.

-I think I will attack the car 1 section at a time. aka rework the rear suspension then the front.

-I have purchased a set of koni shocks and waiting for them to arrive.

-I plan to purchase H & R sway bars for the rear.

-I plan to purchase front and rear strut tower braces.

There are only 3 things I have not sourced yet and hoping you all can help me with:

-does anyone make subframe braces or subframe connectors or will these need to be fabricated?

-does anyone make a poly bushing kit for this car? If not can you recommend a good OE-style bushing kit?

-does anyone make a poly or solid engine/trans mounts?

additional recommendations are welcome as always.

Thanks in advance!

 

Please do not ruin your car with solid motor and trans mounts. Even the poly bushings on control arms are something you should think carefully... But solid mtr and trns mounts are something that gives constant and ongoing resonations into chasis. Very annoyning.

 

we have strut tower bars and other braces. I have never seen actual subframe connectors

 

strut tower braces will be one of the last things I purchase but it cannot hurt to price in advance.

I haven't really put much energy into the search but so far it seems I can get a rear brace for $150 and a front brace for $190.

Are your prices comparable?

 

in regards to the bushings......I need more info.

far as I know neither poly nor solid mounts exist and would cost too much to fabricate. It is not a huge deal but it does get annoying having to replace the oem mounts so often. With aggressive driving it seems they need to be replaced every 2 years >

does anyone have information on any kind of poly bushings for this car?

secondly if I decide to replace with eom style bushings; I am assuming it is cheaper to just replace all of the bars and only press new bushings into the spring link??

 

We are cheaper pricing

 

Suspensions go with KW V2, they are amazing you will not regret it

Kmac has poly bushings that also allows for camber and castor adjustments.

Amg oem sway bars are as big you can find aftermarket unless you want to go custom. H&R is the same size as oem.

To help even more, get Michelin PSS tires. With these you should be all set

 

They are going to stop production of these soon and replace it with a new model.

 

thanks for the info Q; I will definitely look into it.

-I do not need tires but when they need to be replaced I will check into the ones you recommended.
-I will also check into the KMAC bushings and check prices.
-unfortunately I have already purchased shocks and springs plus they are outside of my budget.
-that is very good to know on the sway bars; I will just look into bushings now. perhaps I might use the saved money to look into replacement body mount bushings.

CDM: do you have your parts here in the US?

Lastly, a question: would the 5 link kit from hedgehog motorsports work on my car? I highly doubt I will go this route but still good info to have.

 

FYI, The new model is called Michelin Pilot Sport 4S

 

95% of our parts are, unless im out of stock or it's something i dont regularly stock.

 

Dohc,
where are you located in the US?
i have the front camber bushings from Kmac, and to be honest i dont think they are all that worth the money, heres why:
1. they seem to be sqeaky, at least one of them is, not a huge issue
2. i hardly got any adjustability. by mounting the bushing in the most favorable position i was only able to gain 0.20* of negative camber over just using the MB crash bolts... better than nothing for sure but not worth $400. but if you are trying to use them to ADD positive not get NEGATIVE like i was for track use then they might be more useful, but again the crash bolts might do the job. FYI i have bilstein B8 shocks and H&R sport springs.

agreed wtih the others on the solid motor and trans mounts. i wouldnt go solid. but its odd that you are replacing them every 2 years. are you buying the genuine MB part? mine had lasted longer than that on the C43 when i was using it at the track and autocross alot.

what is your intention with the car? if its handling then you can just replace everything stock and run some Bridgestone Re-71 or BFG Rival S tires and it will handle better than trying to go aftermarket on all this stuff spending $1000 extra and still buying tires IMO.

i did get the hedgehog motorsports rear adjustable camber arms so i can run some negative camber in the rear, im happy with those. but getting all of them i think is overkill, unless all of your bushings in the rear multilink are shot - at that point you might as well i guess. but as mentioned a lot depends on what your actually trying to accomplish with the car.

the biggest issue with this car is the front weight distribution and skinny front tires in terms of great handling IMO.

over the winter im going to try and get some junkyard fenders and flare them a bit to get 245s in the front without any rubbing. also the tire pressures you run make a huge difference in grip. but again this is all from track and autocross experience. if your just doing street driving then i wouldn't waste much money other than replacing the stock parts and good tires + spring setup for your desired ride height. unless you just have money to burn... but im my case i would save some of that for the other crazy crap that will fail on this car

 

I am located in central VA

90% of what I am doing is a "refresh".

the primary cause is the stock shocks have deteriorated in terms of dampening. I just figured while I am at it to replace all the bushings and not have to worry about going back into the suspension any time soon.

for me the stock suspension setup is good so I have little desire to wildly deviate from what is already in place. If I decide to deviate at all I think I would do so in the front suspension to compensate for uneven tire wear.

only deviations I have planned for it are stiffer springs(already installed about 2 years ago) and better shocks. Still they only fall into the "sports" category.

I just looked at K-mac's website and the one that appeals to me is the universal 12 piece rear bushing kit; however I need to dive deeper into it to see if that is the route I wish to travel considering they cost about 4-times more than just buying oe style bushings or a complete kit that already has everything installed minus the spring link bushings.

on the tires I used an aftermarket set of 18' rims that added an inch of width to both the front and rear.

on the engine mounts, it is not a huge deal. If there are some available then great but if not I am not opposed to OE replacements.

only fabrication I have planned will be on the subframe connectors if none are currently offered. I do believe there can be some good benefits to be had from "stiffening" the body.

basically I am "thinking out loud" in terms of asking what is available; does not mean I wish to commit one direction or another. I am mainly just balancing my options.

-for the sway bar bushings - they are all pretty much the same? not application specific, just get the ones that fits my diameter of sway bar? speaking of which anyone have the sway bar diameters on hand?

-it seems the rear sway bar is 18mm, that accurate?

-the front, is it 27 or 28mm?

 

-for the REAR sway bar bushings - they are all pretty much the same? not application specific, just get the ones that fits my diameter of sway bar? aka a universal 18mm bushing and bracket?

-speaking of which anyone have the sway bar diameters on hand?

-it seems the rear sway bar is 18mm, that accurate?

-the front, is it 27 or 28mm?

lastly, this bushing may interchange with the mercedes one with minimal modification:

thoughts:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Powerfle...pX-k8H&vxp=mtr


pic of oe bushing

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...S.ShoppingFeed