Glad you see eye to eye on this.
Stripes are going to stay, my father isn't quite ready for them to be off the car :P I'm also rather used to them. The front I do agree with you, AMGDave, and Whipple needs to be raised. I need more information about what whipple posted above about the r129 front strut towers.
Thank you? I think its a compliment, right?

It only took me what, 7 years to get it into halfway presentable shape? Better late than never

 

The dog's danglies.....

(the) dogs bollocks - a term used to denote something that is 'the best' or exceptional. eg "Daves new stereo is the dogs bollocks". Sometimes shortened to 'the dogs' or 'the bollocks' and often changed to similar sayings ie. 'the mutts nuts', 'the dogs danglies'.

 

Oh damn. 12.5" up front is crazy. Even with KONIs, you may be sitting on the suspension stops up front. The KONIs have shorter bodies than stock and will allow the car to sit lower when on the suspension stops than the factory allowed - but this is not a good thing. (Don't ask how I know.) Put another way, the KONI's have more travel than stock, especially in the rear. What that means is, even if you're not sitting on the stops (which you may still be!), it's still too low. I would aim for getting the front up to 13.5" to match the rear, with a full tank of fuel.

There's no easy way to tell if the front is sitting on the stops, other than via flashlight and a thin rod to lift up the dust boot so you can see. Turning the wheels to full lock might help? In the rear, there's a neat trick you can do but it's 10x easier before installing the shocks (click here). On my car with KONI yellows, I had to add 1 inch of extra stop buffer to return the travel to normal (from the KONI's 5.5" travel, back to the factory 4.5" travel). This is critical when carrying a full load, i.e. two people in the back seat plus luggage in the trunk. If you never have passengers or luggage, it's not nearly as much cause for concern. Just depends on your planned usage.

 

yea bro...I still dont know how I feel about them since I"m not fond of those other ones (the ones that look like w211 lights, squished together into our healight glass, PUKE)

 

Why is it not a good thing?

So, are you saying that my rear is fine but I need to cut another Red Shock buffer to about 1" in length for both front struts and install it?

Is this all necessary if I do what Whipple said before and got the r129 Strut Towers?

Do you have any further information about what he is talking about with that?

 

Additional suspension travel is not a good thing, particularly in the rear, because the rear suspension geometry changes as ride height changes. So with a full load, and the car on the (rear) stops, it will be >1 inch lower than the factory limit. So what, you say. Well this also will push the camber further negative, and possibly cause issues with toe as well. Load up the trunk & go on a road trip and you could come home with the rear tires bald on the inside. Again, this may not be an issue if you rarely have passengers or luggage, and/or don't plan road trips with cargo.

Your rear ride height is ok at 13.5"... it's low, but acceptable. I would add at least a half-inch additional buffer to the rear KONIs, if not a full inch. As measured on my car, with the OE rear shock travel, it hits the stops at ~13.0", and is ~12.75" fully loaded (the stop compresses a bit under load). With unmodified KONI it was ~12.0" at the stop, and ~11.5" fully loaded. You can test this yourself by adding weight in the trunk until the rear end stops dropping, then measure again - I'd expect yours to also be 11.5-12.0 with the KONIs. I cannibalized my old shocks to get the buffers out, trimmed a 1" section, sliced it lengthwise, and slid this over the KONI shaft. At my 14.0" rear ride height, my KONIs are now 0.375" away from the "combined" buffer (had been 1.375"). YMMV.

I haven't yet done the full measurement Monty on the front struts, so I can't give you exact data up there. From eyeballing my photos, I don't think the difference is as extreme as the rears. I'd check if you're on the front stops now, just for a reference point. Then get the fronts up to ~13.5". Any idea which stop buffer you have installed up front? I've got a feeling your car is sitting on the front stops, but is an inch or so away from the rear stops... which is basically backwards from the desired setup.

I'm not sure, but I suspect the R129 strut mounts might actually make the problem worse in the front - i.e., it might allow even more upward travel. (??) Up front, it's less of an issue with alignment or tire wear, but more of a concern with clearance... hit a bump while cornering hard and the tire could smash into the fender, if the strut/mount/stops allow the tire to move upward an inch more than stock. AMG did the opposite, they *reduced* the upward travel, rather than increase it. This was primarily to allow larger/wider wheels and tires though.

 

Hey dave, thanks for the info. Pretty damned sure the fronts are on the stops, and the rear have no stops.

I am using the Red/Tall front stops. Now, do I put those same stops in the rear?
How do I make the front stops taller? Do I just put another whole one in there?

As an aside, wiper motor burned out last week on me. My, what a horrible smell. Today we pulled the whole assembly and put it all back together. We forgot to check the reference point for the swing arm, so getting it aligned again was a total ****ing nightmare.

However, i now see it is incredibly easy to set the wiper up for "DTM Position", which is parked dead center on the windscreen. This actually has some valid functional improvements, especially in regards to snow piling on the windscreen. With it parked horizontal it has to move an entire windscreen's worth of snow weight, whereas parked vertical nothing accumulates on it. Pretty damned sure its ticket time in the US for that though, we don't like how zee Germans do things here.

 

The rear shocks do have stops, they are hidden behind the plastic splash shield. It's the beige cylinder thingy shown in this photo.


Nope. Front and rear are TOTALLY different design, shape, dimensions, etc. The rears are not replaceable, i.e. you cannot buy new rear shock stop buffers from MB. I cannibalized some old/bad shocks that still had good buffers to add some to my rear KONI's.


You don't make the fronts taller. If you want to raise the front of the car, you need thicker spring pads, or taller springs.

 

So far, the rear appears to be okay on its own. I'm not going to mess with it at this point.
Thanks for the info, now I know where to MAYBE get some.
I'll likely go with a larger bump in the front, if at all.
Thanks for the info as always.

 

Bucky decided it was time to **** out all its coolant this week. Back to the shop.
I also still have an oil leak coming from god knows where. Its spraying into my alternator again. If this one gets murdered by oil I'm going to be very pissed.

Driving on roads is a nightmare now, as what used to be chunks of ice are now icebergs that make me feel like I'm getting broadsided in the Titanic.

I think I'm going to have to consider getting custom rally armour made now >_<

Those issues aside, I forgot how much I loved driving this silly car. I look forward to one day maybe solving the horrid performance issues and then having a truly nice car.

 

Water pump went already, did it in 2010.

Did I get a cheap-**** pump or what?

 

I would add the extra ~1 inch of rear stop buffer... this won't affect normal ride height or driving, but it will keep your rear tires from self destructing if you ever have a full load (few hundred lbs in the trunk and/or 4 occupants). If you never have stuff in the trunk and/or heavy rear seat passengers, you'll be fine.



Could be. Know what brand it is? I'd install an OE/dealer rebuilt, $156 + core + shipping from parts.com (click here). A new aftermarket (Laso, Graf) will cost almost as much, not worth the risk, IMO.

 

Alright, just scavenge them off any rear shock for the w124 right? No different versions like the fronts have? And you just cut it radially so it was an intact circle of just 1" height?
No clue what brand, it was all handled by a local shop years ago when I had fluids/filters/lines done. I think 2/3 years is a very SHORT time for a waterpump to live, given how little I drive the car really.

I'm going to go OEM I think, if I can swing it. Taking out more loans, yay!

There is always something with this car

 

Yup, yup, and yup! Y ou may find that some older shocks have buffers which are in poor shape (crumbling apart), don't use those. They should feel similar to the new ones in the KONI's.



Many times it does not pay to save money with cheaper aftermarket parts... sometimes, for certain items, but not always. I'd contact the local shop and ask what brand they probably installed. There's no way it should have failed in 2-3 years. They should last 10-20 years.

 

Mercedes Benz w124 Custom Rearview Mirror


This is a short video review of the custom w124 Auto-Dimming Rearview mirror with 3 Button HomeLink and Compass, as provided by Rik/2phast.

This particular model has a dimmer override switch that I asked Rik to install. It prevents the mirror from dimming.

Hopefully this will provide all the info you need about this wonderful product, and will motivate you to bring your w124 into the 21st century!

http://www.2phast.com/mirror/
To read more about the product, and to place your order!

 

Looks fantastic, Sai! Sheesh, now it has a better rearview mirror than my mom's CLK500. :P

Mabrook!

 

Saw this today while walking on the skywalk to the Rochester Auto Show.

Wasn't fast enough to get the front end, but my god haha.

 

FAIL!

 

saijin, when your alternator took a dump did it look anything like this?

 

Where is the alternator? All I see is grime & oil!

Yes, that is exactly what it looked like. Headgasket leak was pushing oil straight out of the block and into/onto the alternator, flooding it.

 

hmm i got a receipt for a head gasket.. i wonder if its just grime, from the last time, or if i need another :P

 

Clean it, drive it, find out

 

cleaned it up a little! lookie the alternator is visible!

 

I'm almost as low as this VW here. I think I went too far! Not to mention the fact that I've cracked an exhaust hanger getting out of my friend's driveway. Tsk tsk, an inch or so on the suspension makes a HUGE difference it would seem.

How do people go lower than this and still drive at all?

Funk, is your alternator remaining clean?

 

You are running the same roads I am...and coming to the same conclusion. Funny how many of our friends here have learned the same, but it aint a real lesson if someone else shares their wisdom.