Aussiesuede

For future readers, KW does offer ride height adjustment via a specific ride height adjustment kit. It simply screws onto the end of the coilover body and adjusts the same way other coilovers do.

KW Ride Height Adjustment Kit

Hary Gahtoe

So $4000 for coilovers and another $1100 for HAS?
FWIW; The adjusting setups would also downgrade the high level spring rates normally used and yeah, that’s even more a hard pass

cdk4219

It’s silly to consider that any Chinese coilover would come close to the quality of the KW. I’ve heard some silly things from you, but this one tops it. It may not be worth the extra money for some, but make no mistake, you are getting two totally different quality products.

Keith Noon

They may well be good quality but they are expensive and have an expensive fix to a compromised design. I think the archaic description suits them perfectly. Only the cheapest of coilovers use that system now. We can only imagine how the ride comfort would be.
I have no problem with buying goods from Taiwan (ROC) personally. China (PROC) I would have less trust in.

Hary Gahtoe

The decision is; do you Need a terrible, old design that has racing levels of stiffness not tailored for normal daily use at all for almost $6000
Or do you buy a package exclusively designed for daily usage with track capabilities that can be uniquely tailored to your specific needs costing $1400 ?
Don’t forget; sway bars are Not matched for a KW $6000 Coilover so your adding another $14-1500 on that makes $7400
Then we come to the best part.
I Highly doubt 1 out 20 will have the skill or tools to install struts let alone a lift in their garage with an engine support brace adding roughly $2000-3500 minimum labor bill to install
Grand total of $9400- 11000 !!!!
That’s about the same as the entire car.
I don’t drive at racetracks but I do want my car capable of handling well on city street speeds and daily driving conditions. KW’s weren’t specifically designed for this whereas BC and Neo’s do superbly for street level performance and blows KW away on costs.
Again, moving on

Hary Gahtoe

I believe in choices. With that comes the intelligence to research the best design possible.
Retrofitting an old design incapable of working properly only to add more complexity and expense to an already outdated version is not smart just expensive and unnecessary

brucewane

To be truthful, I doubt 1 in 20 have the skills or tools to swap out a lawnmower spark plug, if you're talking about the general population. But I think any average automotive DIYer can install coilovers on an R230.

Strut install on an R230 isn't terribly hard. Sure, a lift would have been nice, but I managed it on my garage floor just fine. It's not really any more difficult than swapping struts on an average car, but you do need a set of e-torx sockets.

The hardest part on mine was separating the front strut lower ball joint from the lower control arm. It requires a separator tool with a wider than normal opening, . And a heckuva beating with a small sledge hammer. I thought those things were never going to let go, but they eventually do. The frustrating thing is that you beat on those things for 15, 20 minutes, or more, and they just don't seem to move at all, so it seems like they just aren't ever going to let go. But there's not really any other thing you can do, so you keep whacking. Then suddenly, all ot once, they just pop loose. And then your neighbors are wondering why you're in your garage yelling "YES!!! FINALLY!!!" ..... but I do recall having similar trials with ball joint/tie rod separators on other cars in the past.

In the rear, the easy way is to remove the pivot bolt at the inner end of the control arm, like this. On my car, I had to remove the rear exhaust hangers to let the exhaust droop down about an inch to get clearance for the bolts to come out. Some have reported that thay didn't have to on their cars. When I put my car back together, I put the bolts back in from the opposite side so I won't have to mess with the exhaust at all if I ever need to pull the coilovers. The pivot bolts require a triple square spline socket -

As far as dropping the subframes to install the sway bars, I haven't done it yet but I have no doubt I'll be able to get it done in my garage. No lift. 4 Esco 10498 jack stands and an engine brace from Harbor Freight. I've got a V12 car, so the front sway bar frame mounts will have to be welded in; I've thought about renting a welder and doing that myself as well, but I haven't welded in a very long time so I'll probably just hire a pro to come over and do that. V8 cars do not require this, they have the same front frame rails as the V6 cars and so have the sway bar mount points built in.

brucewane

See post #7 in this thread.

You basically cut the ABC pump outlet hose/tube at a convenient spot, then slide on a piece of power steering return hose that you run back to the reservoir cap nipple. You don't have to use high pressure PS hose; there will be no pressure to speak of since the pump is just pumping into the reservoir, so you can use low pressure PS return hose that is more flexible and easier to route.

Hary Gahtoe

My writing skills are subpar this week. We’re here in Hawaii, where I officiated a family wedding service so to say the least I’m tired and ready to leave.

In the post ^ I really meant dropping the subframes for sway bars relating to skill levels. I apologize

As an alternative to welding; even though I have one I’ve used Rivnuts. Might be worth checking
Good Luck with the install

Hary Gahtoe

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KWhBGv...ature=youtu.be

I’m psyching myself up for a complete Coilover and sway bar swap.
Found a great video of what’s involved with a Coilover swap and sway bar installation all together

brucewane

Here's a few more from VVK -

brucewane

Yeah, I've thought about using rivet nuts. If I do, I'd still at least put a few tack welds on them to make sure they stay put. My worry with these is that after some time when disassembling they can spin in the drilled hole if the bolt has loosening resistance due to oxidation, etc., then they're quite a nightmare to deal with.

Hary Gahtoe

In the video by Tovarish he explains how the SL 55 drops >130 lbs when doing the conversion even after sway bars. That’s a significant improvement on any car.

elMacko

Gentlemen, as brucewane pointed out, there are few owners who cannot even change spark plugs, but there are others who could do that and more complex tasks. I am one of the last who could even fabricate parts..but in my prospective you could spent 4 grands for a ready to mount kid, of buy the parts from other suppliers.
I purchased the 4 Bilstein shocks for around $500 and 4 Lesjofors springs for about $ 250 and 4 mounts for about $150 for a total of $900. That setup have been in my vehicle for around 18 months now with absolutelly no issues and my car is perfectly level. So, if you shop around you could save serious money. Now when we talk about the sway bar, that is another song....you either buy an aftermarket piece or if you have capabilities you could get an stock bar, modify it, modify the links and fabricate the lower arm supports..! But that may be to much for someone with no resources.! I have seen aftermarket bars for $600, so even buying that bar you will be out of $1500, and you could sell your cores to a rebuilder for $800, leaving you $700 out of pocket if you do the labor yourself!

tonylinc

I kinda like the car the way Mercedes designed and made it. Haha

Keith Noon

Ha ha. I kinda like owning an R230 and not having to check for this mess whenever I've been parked.

Hary Gahtoe

We’ve owned our SL for 11 years but we’ve maybe ran 9000 mi.
All in; just ABC, we’ve replaced
2 valve blocks
2 Accumulators
2 gallon CH11s
2 ABC filters
countless rodeos
Right now DAS doesn’t show any codes but the ABC is epileptic and the system is rock hard
Lately a MB tech and a highly respected Indy both scoped the car and weren’t able to get any concrete reasons why it wasn’t working so that was the last straw. It is unreliable and way too expensive.
Coilovers and sway bars may not be everyone’s solution but it will make it reliable and adjustable to my situation.
If I had originally known all the wasted time and money still led to the same outcome I would’ve done coils/bars as soon as the trouble started. The system is too old and unreliable. There’s a reason MB is the only one using this type of hydraulic system and it’s not what anyone is using for performance, longevity and cost.
Kudos to those who are struggling to maintain a sub optimal life span ABC. I can’t justify spending more than the car is worth on replacing a system more suited to a Prevost bus

brucewane

The main thing that drove me to coilovers wasn't so much the cost of maintaining ABC. It's the prospect of having the system go wrong and spending months not being able to get it back to working right. If the system could be accurately diagnosed and repaired when things go wrong, I'd have kept it. There's just too many cases where people end up throwing every possible fix at a malfunctioning ABC system and getting nowhere.

imtheking

Honestly, if it wasn't for this forum and YT videos, I would have ended up throwing parts at the car.

I took my car to two competent indy shops here in MD when my ABC reservoir was overflowing and they all said "we can't find anything wrong"- they just rodeo'd and refilled the abc reservoir with fresh fluid

It was my own research that lead me to find that failing accumulators causes random abc messages over bumps and causes reservoir to overflow.

Coming here gives me a starting point to resolve issues- I have ideas to pass on to my mechanic when troubleshooting. For instance, they have no idea what to do with the pump when coilovers are installed. I told them about repalcing the pump with an ML pump or looping it.

Hary Gahtoe

I’m happy to hear forum posts can be useful for people who have issues and can work out a solution. The personal choices made from that can benefit from other’s experiences are a wonderful thing​​​​​.
I have been left by professional people as well and felt abandoned and had to find my own solutions.
R230’s are the adopted child of the Mercedes family. They have the same name but are definitely treated worse than most and terribly misunderstood. As owners we are left up to our own devices to find a solution which is where the forum steps in

Hary Gahtoe

I hear you loud and clear brucewane.
A few years back we drove to Reno NV and the car behaved wonderfully. After a couple days the suspension began to lose pressure while parked. I was sincerely concerned that I'd be stranded and have to get the car trailered home while on 1200 mi. trip. After that my trust was repeatedly let down from multiple hydraulic malfunctions. That's my reason for making our 230 a safer more reliable car. Lack of trust with suspension, Mercedes itself and their service and the entire automotive community understanding and lack of support for hydraulic suspensions all the way around.
I'm a true believer in reaching solutions thru proven methods. However; the reasoning and rational methodology left me no choices when repairs of ABC & support systems for an R230 get involved. I won't allow my wife to drive a car that knowingly "might" leave her stranded.
I can absolutey live with coilovers & sway bars and diehard naysayers. I can't live with a car that has major flaws that will leave us stranded.

Keith Noon

Exactly how I felt. I didn't trust the car and only used it for short runs. I would sit in traffic or drive in busy city areas and think what I would do if it suddenly let go. The pump was replaced, then a pipe started leaking, next a rear strut started dripping oil. Before I had chance to fix that a front one did the same. I just stopped using it while I assessed the options. I chose to go with coilovers and have never looked back. No more oil on the drive and no downsides in driving. I bought an SL despite the ABC not because of it so it all worked out for me. After my experience I have some advice for prospective SL owners..... don't buy a car that only has MB service history and nothing else. The ABC suspension will never have been touched from new.

Hary Gahtoe

Please don't surmise I gave up on servicing the ABC. I did everything I possibly could and replaced way too much already.
Then I had MB fail at diagnosing the problem. They did tell me they could start replacing everything suspect which carried a minimum bill of $8000 plus labor which means >$12,000
Then I had the best Indy tell me he didn't want to work on it because he'd no hard concrete solution and didn't want to waste my money and his time
It was only after years of ABC service and replacement parts, and finally no solid explanation by the experts what the system malfunction was I considered removing the ABC and going conventional sway bars and coilovers
I have the VVK sway bars and I know it won't be easy to drop the cross member but it will be worth the trouble.

elMacko

Brucewane, I see you mentioned the toughness of separating the lower joint for the front shocks......not that tough if you follow the physics..!
What you do is, first twist the nut about 3 turns back, then place some fiberglass insulation around the inside of the joint between the arm and the lower eye so you don't burn the rubber booth..
Keep closer a 8 to 12" long blunt piece of aluminum, or brass and a 2 lb hammer
Then get a propane torch and heat the arm around the joint for about 3 minutes..! The aluminum expands to a higher rate than the steel bolt!
After that you smack the end of the joint bolt by hammering over the brass or aluminum bar ....it should come out easier....!

My two cents for the next job!

Aussiesuede

There is also a more than adequate tool for the job that will separate even the most stubborn lower bolt links. It's called a bearing separator puller. Costs about $40 and it slips a clamp between the lower control arm and the lower strut connection point and pushes on the connecting through bolt at the same time as it's pushing on the lower strut connection point. It'll release the lower strut in about 3 cranks of a ratchet, or about 10 seconds.