Interesting find.

Since most people use the RBTECH or TWS kit to drop the car. those kit seem so simple. hardly worth the $200-$300 they list for.

I was experimenting using washers to drop the front end. I remove the OEM ball joint bracket that is connected to the upper A arm and airmatic sensor arm. I find that the bracket stud is plenty long enough for a few washers. Since i have about 6 of them in my tool box. I put 3 washers on the bracket stud on each side and bolt it back on.

After turning the key.. I hear a bunch of air servo adjustment. I measure the fender and it is near a 1" drop. pretty sweet.

measuring from floor to top of fender arc. Stock tires 225/60/16. before washer it was 28.5" after 3 washer it was 27.5" apx. NEAR 1" drop with 3 washer..

Also when I push the "raise" button. the car goes up to about 28.25". so the button will give it about 3/4" raise.

There should be enought stub for 1 to 2 more washer. I will leave it for now to see how it goes. I haven't play with the rear adjustment yet.. I will when I get my 19" rims on.

We Can lower the car for pennies.....

Not that I'm too cheap to get the bracket kits but there just isn't any reason to.

 

Did you have to remove the front wheels at all?

 

no.

 

After talking to a service advisor, seem they don't really care about lowering kits unless it is a suspension related service or Alignment. They say they only align car at stock height. so they charge 2X the cost to align a lowered Airmatic.

With that in mind I proceed to lower the W220 more. 1" wasn't enough. The stock ball joint bracket stud is at it limit at 1" drop (4 washers). I grinded off the welded on stud of the bracket and replaced it with a longer 1" stud. I use a nut to lock the stud in place.

It was a pain to remount the ball joint to the rod without a wide mouth plier.

I added 3 more washers to the stud.. so the stack is a little thicker that 5 washer. bolt the bracket back to the suspension arm. Voila .. 1.5" drop.


I lower the rear suspension about 1" you can adjust the rear sensor rod.. I just loosen the bolt and slide the rod. " inward" to make it "Shorter" I moved the slide about 4 clicks. Voila.... 1" drop in the back.

Total cost. About $5.00 for the bolt, nut & washers.
It took me couple hours to do it because I took my time grinding the bracket and also wrong pliers slow me down a lot.

I love the lowered look. Best of all, it is totally adjustable with simple hand tools and some more washers for the front.

Have fun.

 

Here How it looks.
The back is actually too low in this picuter I have raise it about 1/2" due to tire rubbing on dips and some turns.

 

Looks great!

 

it looks great, nice colour and rims, imagine the look if it had amg sports package, dual/quad exhaust and a cl grille something like the one on this s classe

 

Wicked look fkong!

 

S-Class ...... S for Stupid

 

miroj you seem to have a lot of pent up frustration.

 

Perhaps due to poor maintenance of females in his life.

 

You sound like an ignorant fool ......

 

Perhaps the one in my life is content not to be lowered.

 

why would you disrespect a mercedes, and on top of that on a mb fanatic site? it just doesnt make sense, mercedes has the best designs and always did, look at bmw, tryed to be exotic and failed miserably

 

I find it interesting that I post my experience on this forum with information to potentially save DIY-er at lease $300, there is still negativities in regards to the information.

 

Honestly where do u people come from? You drive an 80k MB and cheap out on lowering it. I swear this stuff makes me laugh. If you can't afford to lower the car don't lower it! The washer method is a complete hazard. You are fooling the car to sit lower and this only leads to blown shocks.

When you use this method you end up having the car sit too low at freeway speed and a normal bump will cause the shock to blow. If you want to have the car sit this low buy a module that turns off the lower at speed feature so you don't damage the car.

Mijo does act funny sometimes but this time he's right....this lowering method is 100% stupid in every meaning of the word.

P.S. Raising the back end will not fix the rubbing... make the suspension compress and it will still rub. Raising it will just be a patch to cover the fact that your wheels and tires are a) the wrong size b) the wrong offset or c) both.

Rub free means no rubbing at ANY ride height! Cut tires are fun!

Cheers

 

I see your point.

There is two school of thoughts.

1- MB Purist- ones who love the way their car is and would do nothing but well maintain their cars with MB spec oem parts.

2- MB Enthusiast - ones who would personalize their cars to reflex their personality and perhaps improving the look and performance of the car.

#2 drives the multi-billion dollar aftermarket industries. #2 also lead the creation of AMG editions of MB models.

As for being "cheap out" ... Sure I can hire someone to get me a cup of coffee. but I preferred to get coffee myself so I can mix it just to my liking..

This was a information post and you can decide to use the info or not. Automotive forum is here for news, information and sharing of experience. With the hostility and name calling, you will promote more and more poster to shy away in sharing information and basically kill the forum.

 

Well you are correct but washers are not the aftermarket. Kleemann, Brabus, H&R all have lowering chips that lower the car and do not run the same risk of blowing the shocks. I am all for people buying aftermarket parts but they need to be safe, proper, and effective.

As for rubbing... I will never understand rubbing wheels... roll fendes get smaller tires or get the proper off-set. Ride height has nothing to do with rubbing. Race cars have a full tuck on all wheels but they dont rub because they have the proper tire and off-set for the vehicle. I drive a friends BMW track car and it never rubs ... even with most the tire tucked in the fender front and back.

 

i saw a person with this kit at my buddies shop, the shocks in the front were blown and he was waiting for the dealer to approve to change them but the dealer declined, not under warranty for this mod so he had to spend out of his pocket to fix it and go back to stock...

 

By Popular demand.. Here is a picture Mikeblah posted on another thread in regard to lowering the rear.

To locate this sensor height adjustment slider.. it is above the rear differential slightly on the drive side. loosen it just enough so you can feel the notches. Make it shorter for more drop.. Longer for raise..

 

Still getting emails on this thread.. here is a couple of additional information on the OEM linkage.
New OEM linkage and part # about $35 each


Ball joint bracket popped out - See the stud length. longer stud will let you lower it more. L and R side may need different washer stack count to lower evenly. so measure your fender arch height after. Add washers if needed.

top - modified L bracket with nut and bolt
bottom - OEM L bracket (not modified).

 

I ended up with this height.. It can go even lower but I leave it like this for a sporty look. Since this is my wife's car she doesnt need to deal with issue with steep driveway and parking curbs at this height.

 

YOu guys are so opinionated it's insane!!!!

Anywayz if a guy want to do whatever to his 80K car that's his car and his problem right?? calling him stupid or whatever is just plain disrespectful an NOT how big boys should be acting!!

THis is a forum Not A Kiss my *** page! everybody has ideas, and thoughts and opinions AND feelings about what they want to do with their vehicle.

Sometimes we get so caught up in disagreeing with someone, we forget that we don't actually know every F^&*ing thing!! Just because you worship your car does not mean everybody is so f&*%King concerned about Satus and
"brand Purity" that they should not feel free to express their creative ideas without persecution on this forum!!

Damn!!!! IF you don't like the idea say you hate it and that's it!! We're all adults here I think!!

I myself am pretty adventurous so i like to hear when folks try ideas out to see if they work. If it works good .If it doesn't hopefully we'll hear about it here somewhere so we don't try the same thing.

But cutting some down is just Fu*&^ed up!!

That's all I have to say on the matter now I have to calm the F$%#K down.

BTW. three last points..

1. IF your car is lowered too much as it was in the first pic,( and there is such a thing ), It's going to rub on the W220 with 245 or 275 /19 series tires so in this case, height has a LOT to do with it unless as was stated, your offset was whack in the first place. but with the rims in the Pic, I don't think so.

2. IF you read your owners manual you will find that the subtle lowering of the W211 only occurs at +80MPH and it's less that about 20mm. The Normal ride height gives you about 3" of wheel gap in the front so lowering it 1.5 inches still leaves you with 1.5 to 1.75" appox. BeFORE the squat so stop with that speed crap!

3. THere is a bracket kit made by Lorinzer and someone else that basicallly does the same thing. I don't see any of your hatin' asses crying to them about blown shocks and safety.... Stop Being such hypocrites. If you had a clue about what that bracket does, you would already know that it just sends a value to the computer via a variable resistor. the car could really give a **** what height it is because it doesn't really know. IF the value is the same, the program still works exactly as it did. So all you did was change the physical reference, which the computer cannot see. If lowering the air pressure ( slightly ), in a shock that was designed to hold air, causes it to blow, MY Name is SpongeBOB, and I needed a better shock in the first place.

Big ups to those who create and innovate!!!!

The rest of you just **** me off... and excuse me if I invaded your precious little 80K world by showing you that you are no longer exclusive in society.. You can take that up with the car company's or maybe it's time to step up

 

Personally, I like to keep my cars totally stock, but before many of you were even born, I was modifying my cars' looks and performance, always with mixed results. Hey, I live in America. Tricking out your car is like baseball and Mom's apple pie. I love to see what people can do with their cars. It's all about the 'Look'.

If a guy figures out a way to lower his car using some washers, so what if he 'blows' some shocks, changes the suspension geometry or scrapes the bottom off. EVERY modification has a price. It's all about the look or performance. Where do you think the manufaturer's get ideas for cool new stuff? Right from the street. So for those who think that fooling the Airmatic system with a handfull of washers is stupid....DON'T DO IT. For all of those who want to continue to modify your cars...KEEP IT UP. I love to see the cars that look different.

 

I wonder how it feels to get flamed about a two-year-old posting?