great job...looking forward to the full write up and parts list!

 

More importantly is the weight. Plus include the pump too and everything that was taken out.

 

Sorry for the delays on the thorough write-up guys! I've been drivin the car here and there and everywhere in between to see how differently the car reacts with the new set up. I'll have it up soon along with the parts needed.

I'm lovin every minute of it to say the least

 

I just need the parts list first lol or the name of your shop. I prefer to do my own wrenching but if the shop is reasonable I will let them do it.

 

Congrats! I am really happy to see that everything has gone well and you are getting to enjoy driving your car like never before. Have fun with her! : )

 

Unfortunately,he is bind in a contract and is not allowed to disclose the name of the shop.
You would have to go thru Benzoboi to get the suspension done at thsi particular shop...

 

Sun, would you be willing to maybe test the chassis on the skidpad and slalom? Edmunds (here in LA) has tested the W211 E63, the W212 E63 and both the SMG E60 M5 and the manual tranny E60 M5 (without the SMG nannies) out in Fontana.

I'd be willing to contact John DiPietro (or you can try if you want to) and see if they'd test the car under the same conditions, since they have the numbers for those others already. Maybe on a day when they're testing another car and using their usual driver (they've always written positive things about the E Class AMGs.)

I realize most people here are probably looking at this as a fix-it for failing Airmatics. But I'm interested in what can actually be done with the chassis. And yeah, I know I'm an anomaly here since I like Airmatic and bought the car as a comfort car. But I also have a newer (2009) W211 under full warranty so I realize it's a whole different thing for me. Plus I have other cars (including 2 P-cars) that are stiff suspended cars and so the Airmatic is a real pleasure for me after driving the other cars for any length of time. To me, it's kind of like not wanting the S63/65 without ABC. But then again, ABC is expensive to maintain and repair, too.

But I really want to know quantitatively what can be done with this chassis. A test with just the KWs and then later more tests with added components (sways, etc) would be a great lab for understanding if the geometry of the W211 can be worked with economically and realistically. Can the body roll be removed, etc..? (ABC with the S and CL does keep the car flat.)

I'm sure the KWs make the car feel better but I'd like to see numbers (like everybody says about dyno testing versus seat of the pants.) I've found that while Airmatic doesn't give you a feeling of security, it actually can do well in the corners if you really push it. And those with the P030 option seem to be happy. Airmatic can have an unpredictable feeling compared to steel but it still actually performs pretty decent.

From the Fontana testing:

68.8 slalom W212 E63
65 slalom W211 E63 (2007)
69.20 slalom M5 SMG (2006)

.90g skidpad W212 E63
.84g skidpad W211 E63 (2007)
.84g skidpad M5 SMG (2006)

(the SMG had the nannies come on)

 

Will keep you posted.
Thank you! I am definitely enjoyin her!
Well I'm not really under contract or anything. It's just that being a mod, I don't think I should go out and freely violate TOU's. One of them being the posting of a shop's name that aren't a vendor on here. Have to be able to play by the rules if you want to enforce them.
Totally understand where you stand on the subject, your W211 being the "comfortable" car, I'm sure you don't see the need to change to coils. I completely understand. Hell, if I had other cars that were my track toys, my W211 wouldn't be nearly as modded as it is. I'd totally be all about the comfort of the airmatic.

On a different note...

I'd totally be down for them to test out the car. I'm no expert in the world of cars so I'd love to see how the coils compare to airmatic on the 211 55k's. I'm in for myself and everyone else interested in seeing the difference!

 

awesome -- that testing will probably make this conversion a big time seller

 

Yeah, and when my E63 gets older and out-of-warranty I maybe very well consider something like this too, if I keep the car longer. And if you blaze the trail ahead for me......

That would be great if some numbers testing could be done. I'm guessing liability/insurance on testing a privately owned car by them might be a road block, but I'm willing to try contacting him.

What I'd like to see is your car as a laboratory so to speak, for really tuning the chassis of this platform. Get the numbers on the skid pad and the cost effectiveness, etc.. If the numbers are promising just from the coil overs alone, then more suspension component tuning would be worth pursuing. I'm even thinking people here would maybe chip in to help with expenses just to see your car as the example.

It's even maybe something that KW (US office) might sponsor. Or at least a local vendor here. Any improvement numbers on paper might convince a lot of folks to go for it. And if the coil over conversion is viable then it sets up a good starting point for somebody to develop full suspension kits. The E55 market is still pretty small, but hey somebody might take it on. Especially if it's mostly bolt-on vendor stuff and not a lot of fabrication.

 

I'm down to get some test numbers put down if we can get a meeting together. I'd be all for it! Like you said, I am also looking forward to the results. My butt dyno says it's day and night...but that might be because I'm not really in tune with what I need to look out for specifically. I will eventually start looking at other parts of the suspension to help the car handle better.

I have a person who I am already going to be working with in order to get this done. I guess it's like you said, we need test numbers to start and see how much we can improve with what combination of parts. It's a game of trial and error. I just happen to be at a point where I am more willing to play around with different options than others who aren't really where I am with my car yet... I don't blame them at all for it. I've just happen to have had my 211 for a lot longer than some of the others on this board.

 

Write up now or ban!

 

I'm actually waiting for my guy to do the write up on the parts and what was done through star in order for everything to work. I'm sure he'll have something up on here either today or tomorrow. I was going to wait for him but I'll get on it since you want to know so badly I'll have something up by tonight.

 

Sun,
Did you do anything with the sway bars, I personally think that these cars would gain a huge amount from stiffer sway sway bars, without loosing the ride quality, I think that the only thing different about the sway bars from a airmatic car compaired to steel spring car is the little arm for the Level switch on the rear bar, I think H&R sell a stiffer bars for steel spring cars.

 

I'm going to be looking into that further later. This project was just about getting coils to work on the car. Don't want to change out too many things at once if I'm not sure if all of them will work. Got the coils over and done with, now onto the other lil things.

Slowly yet surely my friend... You have to remember that I'm a guinea pig here. No one has done/offered any upgrades for the suspension on our 55k's. I'm just looking around here and there and trying to replace/upgrade one thing at a time.

 

Hey Sun, great work! How much lower can you go?

 

No problem, Props to you, Shardul and i have been "TALKING" about it for a year or so at least you had the ***** to jump in, although i don't mind a slightly harsher ride i do like the raise and lower feature of the Airmatic around Houston, wish i could have both.

 

Okay...I figured I'd wait for my friend but here is a general write up. Not sure how to put all of this so I'll just blabber and you guys can ask any questions you have if any.

First and foremost, Big thanks to KW and my shop. They've practically built my car from the ground up and it is where it is today because of them.

When I first thought about this project, I knew that it had to be a drastic improvement over air. How could it not? I didn't know too many people who would be capable of taking on such a task without charging me an arm and a leg. Posted a few threads in the past about doing coils and always had positive feedback. Then the talks got a lil more serious and I thought it could go somewhere. I began to hear people here and there talk about how they were attempting to do the conversion, so I thought I'd wait patiently on the sidelines and wait for updates. Well as most of you guys know, that's what we did...wait and wait and wait. (If there are people who have done the conversion before me...kudos to you :bow ) So I got tired of waiting, and knowing I have guys who know what the hell they are doing AND that can get all the mb parts I needed, I decided to bite the bullet and get'er done.

Made a few phone calls here and there and finally decided to go with KW. I asked them to work out a deal with me as I would be a guinea pig to find out if it works or not. They agreed and after a few months of waiting, they sent it out. Then it was the fun part, I dropped off the car and told them to have at it.

My frist priority was to just get the suckers in. I'd be back and forth with KW once they were in so I could fine tune it. My guy's told me that the fronts were no brainers. After looking at what was involved, I thought the same. The rears were a lil more complicated. We had to change out to the E320 rear control arms in order to fit the springs. That along with some other small hardware(that my friend will post) had to be ordered. Finally after a few days for waiting for a certain part that wasn't in stock, the rears were in.

Now the hard part, the ECU. Obviously the car is going to freak out when it senses that the crapmatic isn't there anymore. I believe this was the part that most people were afraid of and therefore didn't attempt to do this. From what I hear, it was pretty straight forward. Just turn the air suspension setting to steel and bam.(Again, my friend will go into detail on how he did this when he posts.) After that everything was good to go. Without adjusting the dampening, he took it around the block and all he could tell me was that it was nice and day. I got to the shop as soon as I could to pick up the car.

At this point, I don't think it hit me that it was done. I chatted with the guys for a lil while and then decided to finally take it around the block. Got in and started it and a million things were giong through my mind. Got to a straight away and started doing small turns left to right. The ride felt COMPLETELY different. A LOT more confidence inspiring. The car felt more solid in every aspect. I did find that the driver side was a lil softer than the passenger side so I took the car back to the shop. At this point, we played with the dampening settings a few times and finally got it dialed in. Took it out for another time and it was like it handled on rails. Okay well not that extreme, but compared to what I was used to before on the airmatic, it was SOLID. Body roll was significantly reduced and the car was a lot more stable.

Upon "quick" accelerations, the car didn't feel like it was doing to tip over backwards, it just squat a tiny bit and launched forward. At this point, the first words out of my mouth was "HOLY CRAP." I knew it be different but I didn't know it could be this different. I told the guys that I would call them up if I needed any help readjusting the height once the springs settled, but no need for that as everything is spot on and I love the way it's sitting right now.

Weight savings wasn't much. If I recall correctly, it only came out to 40-50 pounds. I'll have more specifics when I get my hands on them. I'm not too disappointed as I would have done it all over again for the sake of better handling. I guess the only thing to do now is to test it out with numbers. Hopefully we can get something set up with someone who has numbers for stock W211 E55's and E63's and so forth.

Front Quarter view:

Side view:

Driver front wheel:

Driver rear wheel:


So here is a lil write up of what I think. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to shoot and I'll do my best to answer them. If I can't, I'll have my guy answer them once he comes and posts on the install.



To be honest, I'm not sure, I haven't played around with the ride height just yet. The car has settled a tad, but nothing to the point where I can't handle it. I think I'm going to keep it as is for the time being.
Although it's super expensive, you can have the best of both worlds. KW offers coils + small air bags for the front so you can raise it up.

 

Clap Clap Clap

 

You mention the fact that it no longer transfers the weight backwards like before. I wonder how this will affect the drag launches.

Also airbags usually help reduce wheel hop, which we have virtually none of. Have you had a chance to really launch it out of the hole yet? Any change to the way it hooks up from a dig or a roll?

I am glad the coding turned out to be only use of the steel suspension setting. Do you have a rough ball park on cost of parts? Is KW now going to be offering a proper V2/V3 kit for the AMG Cars?

Great pioneering work....now go beat up on your guy to get us a parts list ASAP!

 

Do you have self-leveling headlights? I have heard these operate from the airmatic system???

Also, how would you rate the comfort as compared to the Airmatic? Obviously stiffer and less comfortable (especially in comfort), but what about compared to sport 2?

Thanks!

 

Don't get me wrong, it still transfers weight, but not as much as airmatic. I remember when I used to go WOT w/ airmatic, the car would lean back quite a bit and then go. With the coils, it doesn't lean back as much. More of a tiny squat and go. A LOT better IMHO...

I haven't tried any hole shots as I haven't found any places to do it safely. I don't imagine it being a problem because some of the C63 guys with upgraded coils, aren't having any problems laying down good 60 foot's. IF I run into a problem with hopping, I can just soften up the dampening in the rear and that should be good enough. It is A LOT softer than my current setting, yet a lot firmer than the airmatic. Hope this answers your question.

As far as pricing, I'll have my guy explain that. As far as the coils, I have to talk to KW and see which parts should come as the E55 coilover package and then they will give me a price. I'll let you know as soon as I know something.

Thanks for the kind words. I'll try to get my guy on here to explain more in detail!

No I do not have self-leveling headlights. Comfort varies I guess. I am at 14 out of 18 setting. Leading more toward stiff. I think it's absolutely perfect for me. I know I can soften if up anytime by changing the dampening. As far as my current settings compared to Sport 2 with airmatic, quite a bit stiffer but it won't break your back. I find it to be strangely smoother. Yeah I do feel bumps a lil more, but nothing out of the ordinary for switching out to coils from air suspension.

 

I thought ALL E55's had self leveling headlights, mine is a pretty bare bones E55 and it has self leveling headlights. Adaptive headlights I don't have though.

BTW- 45-50lbs is pretty decent weight savings if you ask me. Does that include the pump and sensors?

 

Self leveling headlights as in where they move up and down right when you turn them on? Mine is an early 03 so I'm not sure I have it. I know for sure I don't have adaptive headlights.

I still have the small pump by the driver side still there because I figured it wouldn't make much difference. That in itself probably weighs 5 lbs? The sensors are out too as they are on the struts if I'm not mistaken.( I could be totally wrong so don't take my word for it for the time being... )

 

I'm not asking you to go lower. I was asking for myself, in case I go this route. Are you maxed out on your coils?