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Well I just picked up this CLS55 about a week ago and love it, the car is in superb condition but with age and mileage the suspension (airmatic) can be quite a pain in the A$$. So in the next week I will be eliminating it in favor of Coilovers and also replacing all of the suspension components (control arms, ball joints, sway bar links, tie rods....) This car will feel and drive better then new once its all done. I will post pictures in a few days
Looking forward to your progress and congrats on the new ride, please post pic of the build.
will do
P.S. I guess I kinda lied saying suspension overhaul more like "complete" overhaul
For suspension we have
- Coilovers Every singe control arm (upper, 2 lowers, ball joints sway bar links inner and outer tie rods) rear Lower Control Arms and Ball joints
Engine and Transmission Mounts
- Front and Rear Brake Pads Rotors and sensors
- Complete Exhaust (kleemann headers, eliminating secondary cats and resonators and CL63 Rear Mufflers)
- Carbon Fiber Front Lip
- Summer wheels
Looks amazing!! So how does it ride, how is the handling? Was it a simple bolt on, looking at doing the something , 19s look great, I had a set but looked small but yours look great.
Congrats on a getting it together in such a short time, is this the replacement for you CL?
Looks amazing!! So how does it ride, how is the handling? Was it a simple bolt on, looking at doing the something , 19s look great, I had a set but looked small but yours look great.
Congrats on a getting it together in such a short time, is this the replacement for you CL?
yea it took a whole week my buddy is quite fast and quite good at what he does, I just picked the car up last night and only drove it for a few miles but this weekend i'm going away so I will put at least 500 miles on the car and will be able to give real impressions. So far First Impression I could not be happier the car is suppppppper LOW 3" from stock height and its set in the middle position for dampening, I will most liley raise it .5" and stiffen it up a bit all around, here are some quick pics I took
I would be very interested in this conversion. Issues like speed based raising and lowering of the vehicle, alignment and the like. I've given a lot of thought to the theory behind conversion and while it is not impossible in fact you are proof that it is reality I'm sure it was not easy. I'd really appreciate your input on this after all the costs of suspension replacement are exorbitant and this may be a viable alternative. Thanks.
thanks guys well over the weekend I had time to drive the car (put about 600 miles on her) and all I can say is WOW, the car drives phenomenal im sooo glad I got rid of the Crapmatic suspension (even tough it worked 100% no leaks sags or clunks) I guess im just a coilover type of guy, this is my 32nd car and every since car I owned (except my CL55 which was on ABC) either had lowering springs or coilovers. So besides ride quality this car actually handles now as well. Ultimately this is a must for anyone that owns an AMG car, it amazing how the guys at Affalterbach made such great cars but messed it up with the suspension. Now as far as cost goes be ready to dish out some $$$. Since my car is 100K miles I decided to do a complete suspension overhaul (All the control arms, ball joints links tie rods....) so my final cost on parts+labor for the suspension was close to $3500, however if you decided to just do coilovers without changing any arms it will cost you $2000-2300 depending on labor costs (and there is quite a lot of labor included here) but in the end its all worth it IMHO. The car did settle a bit more so I will raise it over the weekend .5" and stiffen it up front and rear, but this is how it sits as of now
Did the car still lower at speeds over 70mph. Was there any change in the alignment required knowing that at 70 and above the car lowers and if not raised back up will wear the the inside of the rear tires? I have changed my ball joints and the front end is in good shape. Thanks for the input.
Well final impressions
After about 1000 miles on them and 2 weeks I decided to raise the car a bit as it dropped more (its normal during the settle in period) and also because I scraped the front lip a few times. The car drives AMAZING, super comfortable and handling has improved over the Crapmatic Suspension, I could not have been happier with everything and im glad I did this mod
do you use your car as a DD? if so how many miles do you travel, Im getting a CLS55 which would be used as a DD and I'm thinking about doing an suspension overhaul as well. Also do you have an error that comes up since you replaced everything?
thanks guys after 2 months and about 2500 miles all I can say is this is by far the best mod I could have done, the coilovers finally settled in and I was able to mess around with the dampening on them to get them to the perfect setting suited for me. A full alignment was done to correct the Toe and Caster (as far as camber goes nothing I can do without adjustable arms) but -2.8 on the camber is somewhat tolerable. The car does not rub even with 4 ppl in the car. This is how it currently sits
I have the same car and basically want to do the same thing, anyway you could add some details as to which coilovers you bought and did you have to switch your lower rear arms?
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more like "complete" overhaul 
my buddy is quite fast and quite good at what he does, I just picked the car up last night and only drove it for a few miles but this weekend i'm going away so I will put at least 500 miles on the car and will be able to give real impressions. So far First Impression I could not be happier the car is suppppppper LOW 3" from stock height and its set in the middle position for dampening, I will most liley raise it .5" and stiffen it up a bit all around, here are some quick pics I took
