I was a member a few years ago when I owned a 1995 500SL and 1998 E430. Its good to be back. I have a question regarding the ABC on my new 2005 SL500 -- 13K -- can the ABC be retrofitted with plain old springs? No plans to do this. I am just curious.

Thanks

MG

 

I think the ABC cars don't have stabilizer(anti-roll) bars. Could be a clearance problem fitting them since car was designed/packaged to not have them. they do make a difference as I had a car on which one broke. terrible handling.

 

Theoretically, perhaps, but in practice I think you'd have a hard time sourcing and or modifying an off-the-shelf set of conventional coil springs for fit and load to achieve an optimal ride-height for all around use not to mention abnormal tire wear, poor handling and OBC warnings out the proverbial wazoo as the switch control system would enter failure mode. Keeping in mind that the SL weighs as much as a Jeep Grand Cherokee, your car would probably sit very low and you might even bottom out at speed.

In addition, most OEM air suspensions work in conjunction with adjustable dampers (shock absorbers), so you'd also probably want to replace those with conventional ones.