Blackbeard

Winter and Summer. Set it to W and car starts out in 2nd gear to help alleviate tire spin on slick/icy roads. It also affects reverse making it not so torquey.

mv420xx

thanks, im gonna get the H&R springs from the V8 i guess, also what caps were u guys talking about and what should i get or be looking for???

Richard / E320

When you say 'caps' are you referring to the spring pads? Mine are OEM #2's, both front and rear. Should have been changed to #1's, front and rear, for the best 'lowered' look.

jgalvin

Richard - do you think #1's in front with the stock #2's in back would have worked well? resulting in a slightly raked stance?
I am on the same path as you but with 17" e500 wheels. I need to make a decision on the spring cups this weekend. Your car look great as it sits! Because I have very low miles I am leaning toward keeping the stock shocks for now too.

I will post pics when complete - and keep an eye out for your car (I am in Concord).
John

ProV1

Looks great!

A few things:

1. Springs when first installed sit higher, and after a few weeks/months they eventually settle down lower. Your car will have less gap in a few weeks.

2. You don't mention how many miles u got, but generally it's a good idea to get firmer shocks when doing springs. Those H&R's will put a lot more stress on your stock shocks and wear them out faster. If you paid them all that $ to take the stock springs off, it's just parts cost to put in new shocks.

3. $90k machine or not, any competent tire shop with a Hunter machine can do a fine job aligning a Benz. $348 for an alignment is a highway robbery. But if you are happy, it's all good.

Richard / E320

Using #1's on the front and #2's could be a possibility, as it would give you a raked look, which might look good. Myself, if I had known more up front, would have gone with #1's front and rear. But as others have mentioned, the springs will compress a little more over time and the last thing I wanted was any fender or well-wheel rubbing.

Richard / E320

My '01 E320 doesn't get driven much; it's now five and half years old, and has less than 3,400 total miles on it. At some point I will change out the OEM shocks for some Bilsteins but the two shops I was dealing with to install the H&R's both didn't see the point at this time. If it had 34,000 miles on it, they would have wanted to go with the Bilsteins.

The alignment was too much, but that did include bolt kits to complete the alignment and my concern was not to scratch or mark up the new wheels. I didn't want to save $100 today but end up with messed up wheels and fight with some shop over a wheel repair or replacement. Look at the wheels on some used M-B's and BMW's sometime; it's amazing how many are marked up from tire changes and alignments. (I'm not counting curb rash, of course.)

ProV1

01 with 3400 miles??????????????????????? do you keep the car in your living room???????

Richard / E320

Nahh... she's got a spot in the garage.

ruffrob

Nice upgrade Rich,could you come to NJ,and do mine???

Richard / E320

Reading through these posts, you probably already know that I didn't do the work itself, though I will say I watched the work in progress and that changing out the springs was pretty straight forward. Basically, the toughest part is compressing the springs, but you can buy or rent the tool to compress them. If I had more room to work with in my garage, I would have liked to have done it my self. If I ever decide to change out the spring pads, maybe I'll try that myself.

I thought about it for two years or so, not knowing if it was the right thing to do... I would certainly tell people that the end result was worth the cost, and I'm glad I finally did it.

BenzoBoi

Alot better!~!

ruffrob

I was just kidding about you doing my car ,although with all the work you did,or had done, it looks pretty impressive. Strangely enough ,now I'm thinking about trading my car in for a s500.....

Richard / E320

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruffrob

Strangely enough, now I'm thinking about trading my car in for a S500...

Nothing wrong with that; I love the S-Class, but due to the low mileage on my E320, I can't really justify the huge depreciation to trade mine in. I've looked at a few used ones, but then always walk away feeling that mine is in a lot better condition then the newer S-Class model that I would have to write a check for.

lexrex

I vote this as the Understatement of the Day.

By the way, are you sure your car really has huge depreciation with 3,400 miles? If this guy is right, there's potential to sell it privately for close to original purchase price down the road -- although it seems like a lot of what he says is hot air. (Do hang on to your stock rims & springs!)

raymond g-

i think Richard already sold his rims....

Richard / E320

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymond g-

i think Richard already sold his rims....

I did already sell the OEM wheels, as I knew that no matter what I would never out them back on. That was one of the reasons for putting on AMG wheels, as opposed to other brands that might be looked on as being more 'after-market'.

As far as depreciation goes, I bought my E320 new, more than five years ago. Typical selling prices are now in the $21-$23k range. Even though these vehicles usually have far more than 3,300 miles on them, my local dealer feels that it doesn't really add much to the over-all value. Sure, maybe it would sell at the high-end of the price range, but no matter what it still has depreciated approximately 55%. 55% and having driven it 40-60k miles doesn't seem too bad. But 55% and driving it with less than 4k miles, the vehicle is still too nice to just give it away. Hence, no late-model S-Class in my immediate future.

Now, if I was somehow related to that winning $119 million California lottery ticket from last week, the possiblities would be endless...

P.S. - Raymond: have you decided on or made any suspension changes yet?

jgalvin

For what it is worth, I live in the same area as Richard and found my 98 e320 on craigslist with only 16,400 miles on it. This was an extra car for 'mom' to drive when she did not want to drive her Lexus SUV. It was driven on weekends from time to time and babied since new. It was always garaged and the only work done on it was the recall work, 3 oil changes (2nd switched to synthetic) and a battery - all by the dealer.
When I saw this for sale, I juggled my schedule and drove there that night...bought it before dinner for only $16k. They had an Alpine cd changer added in the trunk, but the rest is factory original.
I think the price was based on Blue Book, not a buyer's market because the seller was swamped with calls for the car (listed at $16.5) - even as I test drove it. I am sure it is 'worth' much more than I paid. Hopefully my mods (reversible) don't hurt that!

Me, I love the car but really like the performance feel and look of better rims and a lower stance. As some of you saw, I ran into a hiccup with my tires yesterday when I swapped stock for w211's. That will be fixed today when is 'downsize' to 235's all around. The H&R springs go on at the same time.

I will keep the stock springs. I am not sure about the wheels as they take up valuable garage space. They are very clean!

Pics to follow the mods. Thank you all for the valuable info posted here. Maybe I can get Richard to meet me close to his home for a pic of the 2 'barely used' w210s, both lowered and with upgraded MBZ rims...

raymond g-

since i have oversize front (245), i shant be lowering it right now because it
*will* rub. so i'll just get the Bilstein HDs to resolve the boat ride. when i
wear out the rubber and go for 235s....then i'll lower. so for now, am going
with thin spacers and HD shocks.

Air Marshall Eldritch

My height never did lower any further with time. It's been a year now. The rear is ever so slightly lower than the front, which bugs me. I would put #1 pads on the front to compensate, but not at the labor expense.

Nobody will take my OEM springs even for free. Shame because I'll need to toss them in the trash soon.

mv420xx

ok so im ordering H&R springs, im looking for the raked stance, so am i supposed to go #1 pads in front and #2 pads in back, is that how it works, and does Tire Rack sell the pads?? if not where do i get them?

also after the drop will i be able to fit 20s with staggered rims...

thanks.

Richard / E320

Based on my vehicle, I'd say that #1's on the front and #2's on the rear would give you a raked look. Depending on what you're looking for, you might try #1's all the way around for a great 'lowered' but it's probably not going to give you much of a raked look.

Pads are available from your M-B dealer; the local suspension shop I used actually stocked a few pads so they don't have to chase after parts.

I can't really answer your last question reagarding 20" wheels; most say they won't work but there is at least one post recently stating no problems at all. Not something I would do personally, unless I accepted the idea of maybe having to roll the fenders, and that wasn't going to happen.

mv420xx

thanks again for the info, cant wait to get this all done...

uberwgn

well, the spring change-out exercise was a semi-bust. I spent a lot of hours fooling around with this.I finally got the fronts swapped. Now I am concerned the ride height is just too low even with the 5 dimple pads...I think I gave up nearly 1/2" when they told me I'd pickup 1/8" :o I'm concerned what's gonna happen in a month or two if they settle a bit. The car's gonna have a total low-rider appearance.

I can't get the rear Eibachs installed. The way the springs are wound (very closely packed at the top of the spring) doesn't permit me to compress the spring adequately as I can't install the plate...there's not enough clearance. I could barely get the H&R re-installed in the rear when I wanted to call it a day. One of the most frustrating tasks I've worked on for a long time.

The H&R springs are thick (.560" dia wire) like you'd find on a bus. The Eibachs are about .440" but seem a bit taller overall. The ride quality with just the fronts is a bit better....you no longer feel like you'd be able to detect a dime in the road if you rolled over it. I like that. They seem fine, otherwise. They "sound" quite a bit different when hitting an impact...a bit more subdued.

The $200 ZDMak/Baum tool works pretty well.

raymond g-

did your compressor looks like this?

http://tinyurl.com/ydwku8