MARK CUMMINS

I Would let the suspension settle..Then Align it

Its not much work to install the rear bars and front bolts

E420White

I've had mine lowered for 4 weeks now, but be warned, someone on the board claims I'm an idiot- if true, at least I'm an one who (i) went to college, grad school, (ii) services his own Jaguar, Porsche and E420 Mercedes, and (iii) made the appropriate choices to get to point (ii). Here are my very positive results:

The car has only rubbed the bottom at the wheel well once when I was speeding and hit a parking lot entry too fast. Normal driving has improved greatly. Aside from the performance, the lowered look is simply more pleasing to the eye..., so says this idiot...

http://www.evozine.com/benz/monoblock2.jpg

Car: 97 E420
Wheels: AMG monoblock II's, 18 x 8” ET31 front, 18 x 9” ET35 rear
Tires: Sumitomo HTR ZII's; - front 245/40/18, rear 275/35/18
Susp: stock springs; Cut 1 full coil front, cut 3/4 coil rear
Bilstein HD (heavy duty) shocks.

deadernie

That's good to know. Yours looks good but I don't think I want to go quite that low. My driveway being a big limiting factor. I think I'm going to get some nicer wheels first and see what that looks like. Some roads around my are suck and it's good to have the suspension travel and not bottoming out the suspension.

h0rn3t920

Hey if i lower the car would i definitely have to roll my fenders? can anyone tell me a ballpark price for rolling fenders?

michakaveli

If you're mechanically inclined, it's not a hard job to do yourself. I had replaced all of the suspension components myself, never getting into such a job before and it wasn't bad at all. All that you would need is to borrow or buy an internal spring compressor to remove and install the front springs. Replacing the shocks was cake. The rear springs are easily removed by removed the inner most bolt next to the rear differential and lowering the arms down with a jack to let the spring essentially fall out. It's not hard at all. Lensolo is aware of the potential insert issue for the '97 model year if you need to purchase the rear camber arms to correct any camber issues that may come about.

Sooo..... if you like the car and plan on holding onto it for some time and will do the labor yourself, it's a no brainer. As far as the camber replacement bolts up front, it's just a set of bolts that you can pick up from the stealer and install them yourself. I replace my bolts when I installed new lower control arms....

michakaveli

To date, I haven't noticed any rubbing issues and I have not rolled my fenders.

what_boost

same here. 2k miles and no rubbing or tire wear.

ron m.

Tire rubbing can depend on several things, namely the offset of your wheels, the tires' overall width, how much you drop the car, etc. You won't know if you'll need it until you've done the mod (because any combination of these things also affect rubbing). Let's just say that this is based on my own personal experience.

PS: Do the camber correction. Your tires will wear out from the inside... it's almost inevitable. I bought my wider wheels in June and the rear tires only lasted 10k (they would have lasted 4x more if I hadn't chewed up the inside). The front tires are still okay (with a pronounced inner wear... they're spares at this point). Don't wait til your tires blow out (like mine did). You can't tell tire wear in 2K miles either.

Benzo1999

Can anyone forward me Lensolo's contact info? After researching most of the options available, I think his product appears like the best option. His and Speedybenz are fully adjustable replacement arms, but Lensolo's are made out of stainless steel where Speedy's are not.

I'd like to order a set of his camber rods. I hope he's worked out the W211's by now. Thanks...Roy

ron m.

I emailed him last week and he said he was in Thailand. If you follow current events, I think he'll be stuck there for a while. Anyhoo, I did get a set from SpeedyBenz and they are just as cool. Give Jeff a ring. My experience with his promptness was way different from other people in this forum... I got my part in 3 working days.

michakaveli

I sent an email to SpeedyBenz a while ago about some camber arms, never heard back so I went through Lensolo.

ron m.

I hear yah... I did a search on the arms and got a lot of negative feedback from the posts in terms of response. I took a gamble anyway, since the worst that I heard was that he took time but eventually delivered. Well, let's just say my gamble paid off... I'm installing these arms and the camber bolts this weekend.

I would have bought from a forum member here but that probably would have been more of a risk. Oh, and Lensolo did respond immediately after I emailed him. He's out of the country and I just can't wait. His work is nice, though. But in the in the end, no one gets to see his art work because it's underneath the car.