Hi, everyone.

This is more appropriate for the tech forum since it's not limited just to my vehicle, which FYI is a 2001 E320 (210.065), non self-leveling.

Recently a friend commented that my car's front end seemed to be high, and he's right, there's more than 1/2 inch greater space above the front tire than the rear (and I've already unloaded all the bodies from the trunk, so that can't be it...sorry, I thought I was on The Sopranos forum. ).

Anyway, now I notice it all the time -- of course -- so I was looking at Tire Rack's site regarding some Eibach springs for my model and found this quote: "Mercedes-Benz cars ride height may vary due to vehicle options and Mercedes Benz factory ride adjustment shims. This original MB part is a rubber shim perch, which is located on the top of the spring. These shims vary in thickness from 8 to 23mm."

Thus, the questions: has anyone ever checked or changed this shim? How hard is it to remove/replace etc? I'll assume that it also has a sound-absorbing capacity and I just can't remove them; is that correct? If you want to go to the shortest possible, can you just order these things from the stealer? I haven't found them on the web.

Thanks in advance for any insight you may be able to offer, and enjoy the ride.
Greg

 

Yes, lots of people have changed them. Do a search on "spring shims" or "spring pads". You can't just remove them, but you can replace them. How much you can lower the car depends on which ones are in your car currently.

If you're just trying to even the front and back, then if the front is already on the smallest shims, you can install larger shims in back. Also note that the generally the rear wheel well arch is lower in height than the front; you can check the height of the floorpan to see if it is even.

-s-

 

Before you get too excited about swapping out the spring pads for height adjustment with your stock springs, check to see what sizes you are starting with. If you take the wheel off, jack or raise the car so you can see the underside of the top coil spring mount, you can see the top coil sitting in the rubber pad. Follow the outside edge and you will find some bumps or little dots. This will let you know what pad you have. "1 "bump is the 5mm, usually refered as #1 pads, or shortest one, #2, two bumps is the next size up.

For instance, my car has #2 in front and #1 in the back. These are the stock sizes. So, going from #2 to #1 will probably be a waste of time for me given all the effort.

So if you want to go lower, I would buy springs, get the pad sizes that others have used with the springs and start from there.

Different cars will have different pads at stock height. Why? Some theorized that MBZ has bad build quality of springs and makes up for the difference with different pad heights. If that were so, then even MBZ potentially would have to pull the springs out at least once, unless they were lucky the 1st time. This does not make much sense. I believe that MBZ can make coil springs in a consistant manner.

My theory is different, I purchased a set of used W210 springs on Ebay a couple of years ago. I took out my rear springs and noticed that the coil spring wire diameter of my springs was slightly thicker than the used springs. Upon closer inspection, the part # of my springs was different by 1 or 2 digits than the other springs and the thinner springs had about 1/3 more coils than the original ones.

All stock W210's are the same height, with exception to 4-matic, AMG, or "Sport" models, but between all variations, they would be at their same respective heights. I think that the way each W210 is optioned out, build year, and other things that would affect the overall car weight determine what spring/pad combo is used.

 

Rob,

Thank you so much for the excellent advice and suggestions. I'm glad there's a way to see what's in there without pulling the spring; that was one of my concerns.

Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg