Howdy,

I have some suspension questions regarding the 2008 - 2009 E 350:

I’m looking for a comfortable car and am drawn towards the E Class of this generation – 2008 to 2009 in particular -- to avoid Airmatic, the SBC brake system, and balance shaft sprocket issues.

I’m totally new to Mercedes though – so have a question about suspension options. I need the softest suspension possible.

1. I see some E 350s with the AMG wheel and tire package – is this for appearance only? Do cars equipped like this also come with a stiffer suspension or do all E 350s from 2008 to 2009 come with the same suspension? I downloaded the 2009 E-Class brochure and the “sport package” doesn’t mention anything about a different suspension (that I can see).
2. Does the 4 Matic and RWD configurations offer the same level of comfort – suspension wise? Is one more comfortable than the other?
3. Is the steel suspension in the pre-facelift the same as the post-facelift? Or did they make the post-facelift W211 models firmer / harsher?

Thanks!

-Nathan

 

There's the sport suspension and the luxury suspension. Typically the luxury suspension had 17 inch wheels and sport was 18 inch wheels. The sport suspension is lowered by about an inch so it's going to be stiffer than the luxury suspension. The only thing with the luxury suspension was that it was somewhat of a base model car. The sports suspension was a no cost upgrade and it used to be something like a $500-$1000 option in the past so that's why you see lots of sport suspensions but not too many luxury suspensions. In EPC (MB parts lookup database) there's like 3 different types of springs for the car. Must be some mix of sport/luxury and I don't know if it's AWD/RWD for the other one. I ended up with the sports suspension because I like all the options like bixenons, keyless go, parktronic, pano roof, power trunk closer, folding rear seats, etc and I only saw them with the sports suspension. You'd be lucky to get the P2 package which was bixenons and keyless go with a luxury suspension.

As for the AMG wheel package, I don't think the suspension change, it's basically wheels with AMG stamped on them and they're more expensive if you end up cracking one to replace. I'm going to guess that the pre-facelift might have been softer because they had 16 inch wheels with 55 series tires as an option. I don't think they fit on the face lift because the brakes are bigger so it won't fit. The 18 inch wheels had 40 series and the 17 was 45 series tires. The more sidewall, the softer the ride. Still the 18 is fine. I've also replaced the front springs/struts and the rear shocks on my car, when they were worn out before I replaced them, the ride was harsher, a bit softer with new springs/struts. Probably more suspension travel as old springs tend to sag after a while. That said, I have 17 inch rims and 45 series tires on my 2011 W212 and it's a softer ride than the 18 and 40's on my W211.

 

Thanks!

Yeah, looks like most facelift cars I've found so far have the sport suspension -- that would explain it. I'm mostly just after a soft ride -- and heated seats -- not too caught up on other features at this moment.

Does the W212 ride softer than the W211, in general? Or is it just due to your particular configuration?

If I use this VIN decoder, as an example: https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/check...UF87X19B397297
...for this car that looks like it has 17 inch wheels (VIN WDBUF87X19B397297): https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/c...738889708.html

• Does it say somewhere what suspension it has? I don't see anything that says "comfort".

Other decoder questions, if anyone knows:

1. What does "Problems and issues for VIN Pattern" mean? Are these repairs the car has had?
2. If I wanted to double check the engine serial number - to be double sure I avoid the balance shaft sprocket issue what field should I look at?
3. Why does it say, "USE THE FOLLOWING PARTS FROM THE OLD ENGINE OR ORDER AS NEW PARTS"?

Thanks!

 

The 17 inch wheels have the 45 series tires and the 18 have the 40. The ride will be softer just because of the 45 vs the 40. The default is luxury suspension. Lastvin.com and mb.vin are better vin decoders. Not sure what those other problems listed are actually referring to. I just ignore those, same with the use parts from old engine. Meaningless if you're not replacing the engine. If it says sports suspension then you probably have the lowered suspension.

The balance shaft sprocket issue only affected the 2006/2007 models so if you're looking at 2008/2009, you don't have to worry about it. The decoder also mentions the engine serial number and all the serial numbers in 2008/2009 are above the cut off point for the balance shaft issue. It was fixed in the early part of the 2007 model year so some 2007 are also fine.