She's starting to squat a few inches after 3-4 days of sitting. I'm considering doing coil overs vs replacing the bags and shocks. Anyone who's done both or one and then wanted the other? Just wanting a few opinions.

 

I've done both. And if I had to do it again I would've just gone with coil overs first.

 

I'd say it depends on where you live and what you want to do. For me living in a place with ****ty, old, narrow roads with lots of friends with steep driveways, in combination with running a CF front splitter, an adjustable suspension just make a more sense for me. It's more or less my daily and I've never tracked it. Nearly 95k miles and no airmatic problems for me *fingers crossed*.

Just be sure to get the Arnott struts if you stick with airmatic as they give you a core deposit and have a lifetime warranty.

 

Coil overs= no worry

 

BC Racing coil overs are adjustable (height and stiffness).

 

I still dont get the coilover thing on these cars. Arnott sells a well priced replacement product with lifetime warranty.

A little effort put into the airmatic system reaps big rewards imo. Modify the sway bars and do a proper alignment with crash bolts and the things actually handle pretty nice.

Once you put a full set of arnotts in it before your compressor is wrecked from pumping up shot struts then you should have a very reliable airmatic system.

Mine doesnt drop at all since the swap. It can sit for weeks on end without driving and hardly moves when you start it up.

 

Because coilovers make any air system on this platform seem like leaf Springs

 

Rubbish.

The only reason coilovers seem so much better is the increased spring rate which decreases body roll.

This can be achieved on the standard car by increasing rollbar stiffness which costs next to nothing if you own an electric drill.

Swaybars have a direct effect on spring rate.



You lot need to realise there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

This is a good exchange. I've been driving around experimenting with ride modes and heights to see what I prefer. I think the lowest and "firmest" setting is a bit harsh for my taste during leisurely driving. But comfort mode with the suspension up is way too "isolated" feeling to me...which I think has more to do with throttle response and starting in second gear. The car almost feels lazy. So basically I drive it most often in sport mode and comfort suspension mode.

My indy installs and recommends Arnotts too. I like the warranty aspect. What I don't like is the question of "when will it fail?". Because when it does, the car isn't driveable...and that would suck. Plus down time is just annoying.

Can I have my cake and eat it too???

 

Do you have a link to the sway bar mod? I searched and did not see anything with pictures.

 

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...handleing.html

I managed to drill it on the car aswell so that saved alot of work.

 

Question have you extensively driven this car with coilovers? Any coilovers? Do you realize that the base E320/350 out handled the E55 in magazines?

I have modified more suspensions than I can remember and stiffening the roll bars as a way to improve the handling is the rubbish statement. Why won't all carmaker just slap a giant sway bar on every chassis with soft Springs..... Viola! Problem solved, smooth riding excellent handling. Bigger sway bars can help to a point then become detrimental after a point. But they cannot be used in lieu of a good spring and shock setup. Wanna know how great a car can do without sway bars check out the Maclarens

 

I have owned plenty of cars with coilovers and im yet to come across one which is not a compromise. I dont see how putting coilovers in this car is going to change that.

Imo airmatic with modified swaybars is less of a compromise than going fully to coilovers. Thats just my opinion like or lump it as far as im concerned.


My car handles very well even in full comfort mode. There is a slight increase in firmness obviously when the sway bar really gets worked the more it moves up the more it increases the spring rate. You can see where I drilled it and thats made a very nice difference in the stiffness of that bar. How can you say stiffening the roll bar doesnt improve handling? Have you done it??

Its a reversible mod so you lot have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Prove me wrong. Im not the only one thats done it either.

Im going to do the rear sway bar aswell at some stage and I honestly believe it will be damn near perfect once I do that. Because its damn close now.

If I was in the same country as you lot id be pefectly happy to run anyone with coilovers and similar mods to see if they could get away thats how confident I am in this setup!

Maybe even the guys with coilovers should try it? They should certainly do the wheel alignment and scrub out some castor aswell for that matter.

I am very keen to hit the local tracks with an e60 m5 as I believe those are a pretty good yardstick for me... its just finding some e60 m5's over here that are keen.


To clarify if a coilover guy was to add the wheel alignment mod the castor mod and the sway bar mod I would except it to outhandle my car with the airmatic but im not so sure about the ride.... Its all a compromise.

If someone ever comes out with the perfect solution I want it. Nobody's going to convince me coilovers are the perfect solution on THIS car end of.

 

And I dont see whats surprising about an e320 outhandling an e55. Whats the weight difference? Whats the wheel alignment specs? Whats the spring rates? E55's have so much junk in front of the front wheels its not even funny.

Stock the E55 handles like absolute ****e. I believe the factory wheel alignment is partly to blame for this! Its not any one factor its a bunch of things to correct the handling on this car.

 

Watch this CLS55 get owned by an m5 in handling... Its a pitty they didnt take it on track but they were probably being honest about it being a bit of a waste of time.

About 15minutes in:

 

If you want a track car don't buy a W211, how about that lol

 

I dont totally agree with that. If you went all out with a decent set of coilovers, strut braces, wheel alignment, and anything else that works I do think it would surprise alot of people.

I also think some of the weight needs moving around (to the back or middle) and the w211 E63 is a better outright platform because of the engine weight and less stuff like no intercooler and pump setup.

 

Some of us here track whatever we have!

While it might not be the ideal track car (got a Miata for that now) - it's not terrible by any means. The look I'd get passing people on the straights was priceless! Make way, granddad is coming through in his sedan.

 

Not gonna lie, I do like the Airmatic's nose lift and adjustability.

Coilovers are superior in cornering and handling, PERIOD. But they are a compromise. They just are. You lose the on the fly adjustability and the nose lift.

You just have to decide which is more of a priority. Your ride height is also a very important factor. If you've dumped your car it's gonna handle like **** and scrape everywhere. At least with Airmatic you can adjust. If you want handling then get coilovers and do the handling/alignment mod, have the ride height at a good height for handling, not dumped and you'll have a pretty good handling car.

Personally I don't see this car being a tight track machine or autocross vehicle so I don't give a damn.

Reliability can go both ways, the Arnotts struts and reliable, but then again so are coilovers. Stock air struts are NOT!!

Not sure why the rear always starts leaking first.

 

Well, I just decided to go with the Arnott bags. I was pulling into a clients driveway and had to raise the car to get in without scraping and parking on the street was not an option.

Good discussion guys! Thanks for all the input.

 

Coilovers are for people that think our 4 door cars are race cars or they have a need to dumb down the car for reliability (daily). We have yet to see a side by side AirMatic vs Coil Overs, just claims of night and day zero data.
If it was the real deal I think the data would have surfaced here by now, I mean who dosen't have a skid pad in their phone.
After my Porsche days/decades, I will never go back to a non-adjustable (on the fly) supension ever again.

 

Shocks are a 60-80k wear item. They don't break. When they leak they do not strand you.

Current generation vehicles with automatic shocks also do not strand you most of the time.

The e55 Is a perfect example of where a retro grade actually improves the car.

 

All I know is that I was down town tonight for a baseball game. I had to raise the car coming out if the lot we were in. Ran in sport mode and full firm suspension while "bending the speed limit" on the highway. Got back on surface streets and hit comfort and comfort suspension and rode the remainder of the trip in a smooth riding soft shifting luxury car.

 

Couldn't agree more. Coilovers were cool on my slammed Lexus Years ago. But cringed on speed bumps and certain parking lots and driveways. Hell you can go off roading with e55 in raised mode 😄

 

Again the conversation about the virtues of properly valved shocks is separate from the perceived "benefits" of being able to raise a car that is artificially too low "for the look" to get past normal road imperfections and transitions. Lol.