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1. The black wheels on black paint looks awesome! The staggered stance looks so good! What are the size of the wheels (I think you have 20's) and tire combo?
2. I am thinking you still have the stock springs given the fender gap. If I had the guess, the wheel/tire combo in your set up may be slightly larger than the stock circumference thus the fender gap is smaller but not completely gone like when using lowering springs... (again purely guess by looking at it)
3. One thing I'd also strongly recommend is to hire a good (and reasonably priced) detailer to paint correct your car. I can see swirl marks from the pictures... It's the curse of owning a black car. After correction/(essentially repolish a layer off of your clear coat), be sure to put on some kind of protective coating like C Quarts or some nano protective coat. The detailer should tell you how to properly wash your car in the future (or you can google youtube) so you don't reintroduce swirl marks.
Again, the wheels and black paint is an awesome match!
Thank you for the love!! Didn't know how it would look till I made the tore guys go through about 5 different sets of wheels. In fact I had them out them on my car just to see!!
Thanks for the info.. Ya the car needs work. Going to a detailed this weekend to get those paint swirls out.
For suspension.. They are stock springs but different spring pads in. I wanted to lower it but don't want to sacrifice the cars ride so opted for spring pads. Although my car seems lower than compared to others at the dealer.
Wheels are 20x9 and 20x10
Offset: 35f /40r
Tires: 245/35/20f and 285/30/20r
Rides like a dream, no rub and a little bit lower.. Love it now!!
Just went from 13mm or #3 to 5mm or #1
Here are the pics straight on.. I'll get some from the angle like the first pics
Yes! The dealer said I had #3 and indeed it war correct! I put #1 in both front and rear and it lowered it about .7" overall which is giving it an appearance of lowered. The car handles better too. Don't know why but it does!
Yes! The dealer said I had #3 and indeed it war correct! I put #1 in both front and rear and it lowered it about .7" overall which is giving it an appearance of lowered. The car handles better too. Don't know why but it does!
Pics? How easy/hard was the install for both front and rear?
Pics? How easy/hard was the install for both front and rear?
Sorry no pics during install cause the installer did all 4 corners in1.5 hours! Seriously so fast!! The tears was done in 30 min the fronts took a bit longer. They said he has done a few of them, but with Mercedes the spring and shock being separate is much easier for the rear. The front was the same as all other strut cool combo. Did t want to bother him since changing spring pads probsbly isn't the highlight of his day lol! So anyways... What do u guys think of the hight?
Slight height reduction looks good. Personally, I prefer a little lower. The car looks real aggressive when you loose the gap between the tires and fender.
Beej, the rears are really easy to replace. Once you remove the bolt holding the A-arm to the frame (the only bolt you need to remove for the rear), then drop the A-arm and take the load off the spring (I used a jack to slowly lower and relieve the tension), the top hat (which contains the spring pad) twists off with just a little bit of muscle. I couldn't find a part number for the spring pad when I was replacing my springs, so I ended up just using the stock top hats with pads (vice the spare set of top hats I ordered, which I thought would come with the pads... they do not). The top hat spins freely on the screw that goes into the frame, so in my case, since the coil on my spring "ends" in a different orientation from the OEM spring, all I had to do was spin the top hat to mate the indent in the pad against the edge of the spring. If that doesn't make sense from reading it, it would make more sense when seeing it.
For the front, you need a spring compressor to squeeze the spring out from the coils, but then the top part of that comes off fairly easy with I think a 17mm socket. But the front is more work than the rear. More bolts to remove and not lose, and it takes a bit more effort to make sure everything is lined up correctly afterwards when putting things back together. But for the most part, both front and rear installs are very straightforward.
Sorry no pics during install cause the installer did all 4 corners in1.5 hours! Seriously so fast!! The tears was done in 30 min the fronts took a bit longer. They said he has done a few of them, but with Mercedes the spring and shock being separate is much easier for the rear. The front was the same as all other strut cool combo. Did t want to bother him since changing spring pads probsbly isn't the highlight of his day lol! So anyways... What do u guys think of the hight?
prolly more noticeable in person but it looks to have a better stance. great job mate.
Originally Posted by blegthbloo
Beej, the rears are really easy to replace. Once you remove the bolt holding the A-arm to the frame (the only bolt you need to remove for the rear), then drop the A-arm and take the load off the spring (I used a jack to slowly lower and relieve the tension), the top hat (which contains the spring pad) twists off with just a little bit of muscle. I couldn't find a part number for the spring pad when I was replacing my springs, so I ended up just using the stock top hats with pads (vice the spare set of top hats I ordered, which I thought would come with the pads... they do not). The top hat spins freely on the screw that goes into the frame, so in my case, since the coil on my spring "ends" in a different orientation from the OEM spring, all I had to do was spin the top hat to mate the indent in the pad against the edge of the spring. If that doesn't make sense from reading it, it would make more sense when seeing it.
For the front, you need a spring compressor to squeeze the spring out from the coils, but then the top part of that comes off fairly easy with I think a 17mm socket. But the front is more work than the rear. More bolts to remove and not lose, and it takes a bit more effort to make sure everything is lined up correctly afterwards when putting things back together. But for the most part, both front and rear installs are very straightforward.
thanks for the info mate! now i know its not that hard with the right tools. ive done a fair bit of work on my cars so maybe i can tackle this in the future. cheers!
Can you take a closer pic of the front and rear fender gap? I actually think the front looks just fine. Can't really see the rear. :-). It seems the gap is bigger for the rear? Again cant see until you post the close up. One way to measure is distance from the center cap to fender.
I also think because of the offset, the wheels sit wider almost aligning right at the outskirt of the fender is seems (looks good!)
Years ago my brother had a good setup on his W210 when he lowered with shorter springs and spring pads. I totally forgot about the thinner spring pads.
This makes me want to do the same - not necessarily with shorter spring where it will introduce more negative camber (he also had to install adjustable camber kit). I hope .7mm is noticeable... It seems to look fine with yours.
How much did the shop charged you? My car only has 6,000 miles thus far - part of me says don't mess with it since it's still so new...
Can you take a closer pic of the front and rear fender gap? I actually think the front looks just fine. Can't really see the rear. :-). It seems the gap is bigger for the rear? Again cant see until you post the close up. One way to measure is distance from the center cap to fender.
I also think because of the offset, the wheels sit wider almost aligning right at the outskirt of the fender is seems (looks good!)
Years ago my brother had a good setup on his W210 when he lowered with shorter springs and spring pads. I totally forgot about the thinner spring pads.
This makes me want to do the same - not necessarily with shorter spring where it will introduce more negative camber (he also had to install adjustable camber kit). I hope .7mm is noticeable... It seems to look fine with yours.
How much did the shop charged you? My car only has 6,000 miles thus far - part of me says don't mess with it since it's still so new...
I'll take a closer pic. It's 8mm on the pad, but it translated to more in real world.
For doing it on a new car, for $100 in labor and an alignment I say it's totally worth it. But choose your tires and wheels first. Btw, doesn't avoid any warrenty since it's all Mercedes parts
Ambient light is extremely bright in your pics, so that's probably why it doesn't look so dark.
Actually I bumped up the lightness so people can tell the height of the car and the wheel gap. I'll get better pics once it gets a bit sunnier out here in Seattle lol
Thanks everyone. These are 20" Niche Essen's I like them cause I saw them in person on a Vantage. I said to myself, if they can go on this car, they would go on mine!
Thanks everyone. These are 20" Niche Essen's I like them cause I saw them in person on a Vantage. I said to myself, if they can go on this car, they would go on mine!
Thank you so much! They look much better in person too! I have about 20 different wheels and poor wheel guy, I made him out about 7 different sets with tires on before settling on these bad boys
Thank you everyone for the kind words! Best forum ever
04-04-2016, 07:55 PM
