Wagon rear coil spring conversion
 

Has anybody converted their wagon rear only air suspension to Arnott C2896 coil springs? If so, how does the ride and handling compare to the air springs? How does it deal with heavy loads? Do you have any pics of the ride height? I'm looking to convert my wagon to coil springs but I can't seem to find any info on this kit. Thank you

Don't think it is possible on wagons as loosing self-leveling will bring safety issues.
Does Arnott offers springs for wagon?
Than why would you delete nice suspension to go to harder springs? I sold wagon with air to get diesel, what forced me to hard-riding sedan. Frankly I missed the comfort.

​​​​​​The wagon kit exists as evidenced by the PN, installation manual and multiple vendors that carry it. Im sure some people are already driving on it. I want to convert it because don't want to deal with airbag failure 500 miles from home in the middle of vacation. Reliability is far more important to me than a cushy ride for my rear seat passengers. I own 3 other wagons all with coil spring rear suspension.they all ride just fine. Is the Arnott kitt much worse than any other coil sprung wagon?

Are you talking about spring kits, or air bags kits?
The legal issues with the idea, besides illegal alerting factory body , you are going to have will be lights setting.
Without self-leveling headlights, when you load wagon rear springs - you are going to blind opposite drivers.
That can get you pulled over very fast.
I mean I have seen worse butchered cars on the roads, but you don't expect it on MB

Are you just inventing pretend problems out of boredom?

I am just getting tired about members coming with project ideas and "forgetting" to add
"I am aware that such thing is forbidden by law"

LOL
What law forbids coil springs?

I did the conversion
 

its not that different just slightly more NVH and 1 inch lower than air

Very good info and video, thanks. My rear airbag suspension is still working 18 months and 20k miles later but if it ever fails I'll be doing the same conversion as well.

Did you ever convert?
 

tjts1, I Just read your last post because I'm considering the conversion also. My driver's side airbag is gone, and I need to do something and I'm not sure which way to go. You've actually contributes to my recent post about it. Did you ever do the conversion? If not did you learn anything else about it that you could share? I found these 3 kits (below) which you probably know about and there are probably more which tells me this is a common problem or there wouldn't be a market for these.

https://www.strutmasters.com/product...sion-kit-mi2rb

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mer...20%231#fitment

https://www.suncoreindustries.com/pr...-rear-leveling


That one's super cheap and I'm not sure why but it's so cheap I'm suspicious of the quality.

My rear air suspension has been totally reliable since starting this thread 3 years ago so I'm sticking with it. I also use the car for towing once in a while and its been useful for that as well. If it ever fails I'll probably just replace the airbags.

Doing the airbags sounds a little easier which is what I'll probably do. Afterall these have gone 122K and the car is 12.5 years old. What more can I ask from it.

Thanks.

I just had the conversion done on my 04 e320 4matic wagon. I went with the https://www.strutmasters.com/collect...sion-kit-mi2rb

The ride height is maybe slightly lower, it rides a bit harder. Haven't had any heavy loads in it since the conversion.

before

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...06beb69a5.jpeg


After


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...1fdbf3fe4.jpeg

Arnott springs sag in the rear. I had to modify a 3" spring spacer to level the rear out. I would suggest the BC Racing coilover kit for wagons as I will most likely go that route for adjustability.

Are you referring to coil springs or airsprings when you say they sag?

Coils

Yes, you lose automatic self leveling … which is useful for more than just headlights.

Conversion of Airmatic Mercedes to steel coil springing is a massively bad idea.

in Europe, cars with HID headlights are legally required to have automatically leveling headlights. (Washing too). In 3rd world countries like USA, nobody cares and there are lots of trailer park cars on the road.