Floobydust

Can anyone confirm the Bilstein Heavy Duty part numbers for a 1995 e320 Cabriolet? I think they are F4-V36-0361-H0 for the front struts and F4-B36-1385-H0 for the read shocks,but I want to make sure before I order them up.

Thanks in advance,

- FD

Floobydust

Anyone?

Quicksilver500

Should be avail on the bilstein site.

Floobydust

Thanks. In theory this should be the case, but if you select "1995" "Mercedes Benz" on the product selection guide there is no option for "E320" - only E430 and other models from that year. The Bilstein part number PDFs I have found on the net do not make it clear which numbers are for the Cabriolet, so I though I would ask in a post because so many people have replaced theirs on the board.

Thanks,

- FD

spetz

Do you think there would be a difference between cabriolet and coupe/sedan?

I always thought the only difference was the front springs between 4, 6 and 8 cylinder cars, and that the convertible ran thicker swaybars.

Why don't you do an OEM part number search and see if these cars use different shocks from factory or not, which I guess this will let you know if the E320 sedan/coupe Bilstein shocks would be the same or not

WDB124066

I had it in the back of my mind the Cabriolets used the E500 front shocks??

ps2cho

All w124's use the same excl those which came with rear SLS.

WDB124066

Not so sure about that at all. What about Sportline shocks? And, the 500's had their own shock up front with an extra spring inside, that I think may have been shared with the Cabriolets.

Floobydust

Thanks everyone for your input. I finally ordered the Bilstein HD struts/shocks for my cabriolet. I checked the EPC and, while each variant of the W124 seems to have different EPC part numbers for the struts, it appears that for late model year W124's (except the 500e - I didn't check this variant), for a given Bilstein performance level (comfort, heavy duty, sport) there are two characteristics that matter for front struts - standard or sportline - and three characteristics that matter for rear shocks - standard, sportline, and SLS. The mapping of different OEM part numbers into a few aftermarket replacement parts is not that uncommon. The differences in the original equipment could have been trivial - things like source vendor, hardware supplied, extra holes, etc. - but things which are easily integrated into one aftermarket part.

So, I'll see what happens when I finally get to drive with the new struts & strut mounts. I have suffered a small setback - the water pump blew the seal last week and I'm waiting for the replacement! Ah, the joys . . .

- FD

ps2cho

Correct, but what I am saying is they all use the same 'style'. You can interchange a 500E shock with a 300E shock...They all are the same type so bilstein/kyb etc...all work.

Floobydust

The new struts came today. From looking at the front suspension it appears that it should be possible to change the front struts without a spring compressor using a block under the front A-arm and a hydraulic jack. Is this really so, or am I (as usual) missing something?

Thanks,

- FD

ps2cho

That is correct. Take off the wheel, support the lower control arm with a jack and go to work! First side will take you about 45mins, then the other side will take 10

Floobydust

Thanks! It took me about two hours from start to smiling face on the test drive. The thru-bolts that attached the strut to the top of the hub were rusted solid and needed some heavy persuasion to get them off. Not only that, the heads for those bolts were a very large allen wrench size which I didn't have (where did the Germans get their fascination for obscenely large allen head hardware - first the steering wheel, now this). If not for that issue, it would have been an under one hour job. The struts are a great improvement in the car.

I did run into one other issue - I also bought new struts mounts but the bolts on them are too short. On the cabriolet, there is a spacer under the strut tower that lowers the strut mount in the tower. I think MB did this so that there would be room to mount the "vibration absorber" on the drivers side and not hit the bonnet. But the spacer requires longer bolts on the strut mount which the new ones did not have. Is there a special cabriolet strut mount?

Thanks again,

- FD

ps2cho

Hmm interesting. What strut mounts did you buy? I bought the Meyle HD and had no issues.
I do not remember any 'spacers' on mine...Maybe this is a later model/cab related change?



Glad to hear it worked out great

Floobydust

The front struts tightened things up quite a bit. And now for the rear shocks (it took a while to get the right ones - a computer glitch in a vendor's system caused them to keep shipping the stock OEM shocks instead of the Bilstein HD's). I found several DIY posts on the rear shocks for the sedan/coupe, but nothing specific to the cabriolet. While the bottom part seems to be identical for all W124s, the top part on the Cab seems to be a bit of a Sisyphean task. The top shock nuts appear to only be accessible through a 3 inch hole located under the top storage boot insert (removing this requires stopping the top mid-operation, propping the rear section up, a pulling a dozen plastic fasteners). Getting a counter-torque wrench down along with a socket wrench to remove (and re-install) the double nut looks just about impossible. Has anyone done the rear shocks on a Cabriolet? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance,

- FD

BTW, I confirmed that the front strut mounts are indeed different for the Cab versus all other W124s. This is because the vibration damper on the left strut tower needs clearance so that it does not hit the bonnet sheet metal. I am going to modify the Meyle HD mounts I bought to include longer bolts.

WDB124066

Has the scuttle shake you had previously mentioned disappeared now that you have done the front shocks?? Would be very interested to know, and of course what other effects you experience with the new units.

Floobydust

WDB124066 -

The results have been a mixed bag. The new struts definitely control the wheel/tire rebound much better, so the car feels much crisper. However, the energy of a "bump" is now more efficiently transferred to the chassis. This has resulted in three issues.

1, for single corner bumps (the kind that would impart a "twist" to the chassis), the increased energy transfer seems to make the scuttle shake worse. But, the overall handling is much improved through twisty turns, hence the crisper feeling.

2, the Bilstein HD's are stiffer than a wedding d**k, and, for this car, I would prefer a softer ride. If I had to do it again, I would go for the comfort shocks instead of the HDs.

3, because of the W124 suspension design, the mechanical coupling of the springs to the strut (dampener) is through the ball joint (this is not the case for the classic McPhearson coil-over strut design). This means the the energy dissipated by the suspension puts a huge stress on the ball joint. On my car, with the added un-sprung weight of the 17" monoblocks/tires and the higher dampening rate of the HD shocks, the effect of the age related "slop" in them is suddenly magnified so ball joints will need replacing soon. That amount of "slop" is acceptable for the stock setup, but not for my combination.

So there you have it so far. I haven't spent this much money on rubber things since college, so after I do the ball joints and the engine mounts, I'm going to give "tweaking"the suspension a rest for a while.

- FD

ps- I have read various claims that for some 93 - 95 MY cars, one needs to replacement the entire lower arm as the ball joints are not separately replaceable. Can anyone confirm if that is true for the cabriolet or is it just the wagon? Thanks.

WDB124066

Sportline cars had welded in ball joints which means you need to purchase the whole arm, good news is they come with bushes for free!

Interesting observations on the HD front. I had wondered if they would be too much for the Cab. Koni do adjustables and in NZL they did offer to replace the valves in them for free if I thought they were too hard. I am a little hesitant to go down that route in the absence of a proper Suspension Engineer to guide them through the selection route. They had no formal Koni spec to match the Sportline Cab set up. Can be a lot of messing around and stabbing in the dark vs stock Sportline ones. Yet to decide......
I have always thought it makes sense to do all things suspension at the same time because if one or two components are shot you can bet the rest of the parts will be well past their best & you won’t get the full benefit of the new bits unless you replace all the parts in the system. I would suggest a trip down memory lane and go to town on the rubbers  
Have you done the rears yet??

RBYCC

FD..

What brand / size tires are you running....

I find all your comments are ones that I never realized in 22 years of owning my C124 and 4 years with the A124.

My E320 cab with 45K miles runs original suspension with 18" AMG replica twin spokes and Falken FK-452's...
No shake, shudder or leesened ride quality...
Extremely smooth ride regardless of road surface.

My C124 with H&R Sport springs, Bilstein HD's and Sportline F&R sways on 18" AMG mono reps with Falken FK-452's gave a ride that I felt was even better then when the car was new in 1988 !!!

I'll comment on my changes with the widebody tire package and the addition of the Sparco front strut tower brace when it gets back on the road...

Tires are more important then realized..
I find a moderatley priced tire like the Falken FK-452 or even a lower priced General UHP gives much better ride quality and at times handling to most Michelin, Continental or Pirelli equals...

Have you replaced your suspension bushings and chassis mounts ?
If you need ball joints than they may be the source of all your problems !!!!

Ed a.

Ed A.

pifcat2

Good inputs (and innuendo), I'd like to know more of the symptons that drove you to replace the struts. In comparison with my wife's stock sedan and my wagon with performance suspension, the cab has a definite flex to it when I hit bumps or dips that I expect with a convertible. Maybe it's just worn joints if Ed's low mileage cab doesn't exhibit those characteristics. I need to inspect the suspension after I sort out the top problem.

Anyone know why they designed the drivers side strut mount so large and only on one side?

WDB124066

It is a vibration damper that was only fitted to the driver’s side and only on the LHD cars, due supposedly to the battery in the RHD cars being considered to achieve the same effect as the vibration damper in the LHD cars.

I have a low mileage Cab as well as a higher mileage one. The low mileage car does not scuttle shake like the high mileage car, and I can only put it down to shocks and top shock mounts. Everything else in the front has been replaced. Both cars are Sportlines and are only 545 production numbers apart, both are stock. One other possibility is that the vibration damper in the windscreen or trunk is worn & may need replacing.

pifcat2

Still perplexed, why wouldn't all the other W124's with a battery on the opposite side have that damper? What windscreen or trunk damper are you describing?

WDB124066

The Cabriolet got the vibration dampers only. Can really only guess why MB didn't put one on the RHD cars. They are on the suspension turret, the top of the windscreen and the trunk. Large lead mass isolated by rubber like suspension element. Do a search......

Floobydust

As part of my "if it moves and it's made of rubber, replace it" campaign, I changed the strut mounts today. As I said above, the Cabrio mounts are different and, it appears, they are a dealer only item at ~$100 each. In order to use the Meyle HD mounts I bought I made the following modifications:

1 - I tapped out the shorter carriage (elevator) bolts on the HDs.
2 - I used some 8mm - 1.25 X 40 mm cap screws as replacements. To keep them from turning when the top nuts are tightened, I used jam-nuts + some locktite to secure them.
3 - To allow the use of the jam nuts, I drilled the underside of the spacer to exactly the depth of the nuts - Do not go further as the hole required for the nuts leaves a very thing sidewall - okay if you leave the rest alone. Note that this modification allows the spacers to be still used with the OEM strut mounts if desired.
4 - I put the spacer on and then tightened the cap screws. This allows them to align perfectly with the holes in the spacer.
5 - I installed them as normal, and viola, HD strut mounts in my Cabrio.

- FD

Floobydust

Note how the top of the strut mount is lower in the chassis - again, to allow the "vibration absorber" to clear the bonnet sheet metal.

- FD