Das Geld 2

My mechanic drove a 500 converted he said it was the worst and most unstable Mercedes he’s ever driven. That’s enough for me.

brucewane

I don't doubt your mechanic's account. But it's very likely that he simply drove a car that either had poorly chosen components, or the owner had set the damping extremely soft.

There is no reason for an R230 equipped with coilovers to be inherently "bad" and unstable. Sure, if you choose inappropriate spring rates and damping, you're going to have a car that is not good. But the R230 suspension doesn't have anything about it that would make coilovers categorically incorrect for use. It basically has upper/lower controls arms, front and rear, in fairly traditional geometry. Nothing in the suspension design requires active, computer controlled spring rates and damping. It's not like an exotic military aircraft that requires computer assistance for stable flight.

If spring rates and damping are properly selected, a coilover-converted R230, fitted with sway bars, will handle about as well as any 4200 pound GT** ever has. It will never handle like a lightweight sports car, and it never did; even with ABC, an R230 is going to get smoked in the turns by a 911, or for that matter a Miata.

With traditional spring/damper suspensions, the tradeoff has always been "comfortable ride" versus "maximum handling performance". If you want a soft ride, the handling suffers; if you want sharp handling, the ride is less smooth and comfortable. The "magic" of ABC is not that it has ride comfort or handling performance that surpasses anything in its weight class, it's that the suspension automatically switches to optimal settings for handling or comfort every few milliseconds based on the road surface and how the car is being driven. The "magic" is that ABC provides excellent ride comfort and handling performance at the same time, where other cars can only provide one or the other.

**Regardless of the fact that "SL" was originally an abbreviation for "sport leicht (light)" or "super leicht" (depending on which MB documentation referenced) and the first W198 SL was the premier sports car of its era, by the 3rd gen R107 the SL was clearly much more of a GT than a true "sports car".

imtheking

I had Strutmasters and the car felt like crap. It was actually scary to drive. I didn't feel comfortable going over 40-50. Braking took longer and the car felt unstable.

I've been on the fence regarding coilovers. I see a lot of great reviews and I like how you can adjust ride and comfort level. I wish I knew someone local who has them installed so I can test drive to get a feel before dropping $$$

For now I'm going to ride it out until it goes bad. The car has been dropping on the passendger side after 3-7 days so i think my valve block is on its way out.

part of me wants to trade it in and upgrade to a 2013+

I dunno.....for now I have other crap on my mind like the passing of my mother.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Sorry for your loss.

I'm confused that you said you had Strutmasters but now are talking about your ABC system going bad. Are we talking about two different cars? Not sure how you can go back and forth unless you just capped off the ABC when you replaced the struts. Is that what you did?

imtheking

I purchased the car site unseen from North Carolina. The car inpsector informed me that the struts had been modified and that it has Strutmaster installed. I didn't know how bad the car drove until I got it. All the original components were still installed- I just needed to purchase ABC struts from Ebay. I spent money to go BACK to ABC. Also replaced the pump.

Yankee_LT

Wow, this thread took a wild turn and grew a life of its own.