I am looking for a nice suspension kit for my 1987 300E. I would like a 1.5inch drop all around, give it a lower stance, just dont know where to look. Anyone have any ideas. Email me some info or post it on here. THanks.
mattyman2001@yahoo.com
Matt

 

I was going to lower my car 1.5in at all 4 corners, with a Eibach kit. Then I spoke to the owner of a customer body shop, x local NASCAR driver, SCCA driver etc. He told me, if I did this, eventually I would wind up replacing most of the rest of the suspension, ball joints, etc. His thinking, which made sense to me is. Lowering your car puts a lot of strain on the other suspension conponents, and in time, sometimes a short period or longer, the other parts of the suspension will wear, it happened to him when he first started racing. These kits are usualyy shocks springs and that's about it. He added street cars are designed to the ride high that they are and the suspension components have some give to them but in the long run it is not a good idea. Now for personal experience with my son's 1996 Intregra, which he lowered with an Eibach kit 3 years ago, new shocks, lowering springs, stabilizer bars, etc. earlier this year he had to replace other suspension parts, which according to the shop were worn due to the stress from lower the car. They were able to find the correct pieces for the new high, they said anyway and after a $800 bill his car is OK. Getting back to my owner of the customer shop, he said if I wanted to lower the car the correct way and avoid big repair bills, but all the parts for the C280 sport which is about an inch lower. Of couse that would be a cost that I'm not willing to spend. He also alluded using larger wheels can do some damage to a car not designed for them. My C280 has 15" he said going up one size should be OK , going to 17" might work, but anything over that you looking for trouble. I did buy new tires a while back which are one size wider then stock, he commented that is OK, as long as they fit the rim correctly, if you go too wide you'll have leaks, and sidewall problem. I was watching a show on SPEED TV. A very expensive and relatively famous custom shop were tring to mount tires on 20" wheels, on a car with stock 17"'s and very wide and low profile tires, they finally got them on after a lot of work and doubt whether they would last, there would probably never to a followup show on these wheels and tires. One funny scene was of a womem stripper who had her car detailed and the detailer got some tire dressing on the wheels, the car was a benz, CLK, she paid them big $$ and alll they did was polish the wheels. She commented when talking to the shop owner she hated the brake dust. Wheel polish or wax won't stop brake dust. There were several lessons I learned from the above writings.

 

Yeah, i lived in florida and i owned 2 1989 Honda Preludes, one was built strictly track, one was a daily driver. I had 3700$ in suspension upgrades on the track-only car. my daily driver was stock ride hieght. I rode with a suspension kit on the daily driver for aout 4years, i mainly went through ball joints, they were cheap.
Now that i am onto bigger and better things (my Benz). I wasnt thinking of an after market company, i was thinking of a 300E "sportline" kit, all new bushings, springs, struts, everything, from factory, by factory... I have money to play with.

Matt

 

I always like to hear that people have money to play with instead of playing with themselves?

 

When lowering a car that has mileage on it it is recommended to replace struts/shocks. On a newer car lowering is no problem, it will not wear out componets. Usually lowering one an inch is ok. The problem is when they are lowered 1.8 or so , then you run into camber problems., etc. On the brake dust on wheels, we have a product called Rim Ice. Spray it on and wipe it off. It keeps the brake dust from sticking to the wheels

 

If I were going to lower my car now, I would go with the C280 sport suspension peices, I checked my parts book, and the only difference parts numbers are for the springs, and shocks, other then that everything is the same. So your are correct, your also correct when you said going lower then one inch can create a problem, it did on my sons car.

 

aaaaa

 

Personally I not a big fan of coil overs. Also, I would get the C280 sport kit including sway bars, tie rods etc. Coil overs IMHO are not better handle, then a Mercedes present setup. they are OK for FWD cars and such, but Mercedes has a good set up. I've even came down a notch and might replace the OEM bushings in the sway bars, with poly's makes a big difference and a lot less costly.

 

Poly bushings makes a noticable difference. It's an affordable upgrade. They're easy to install, as well.

Be aware, though. Only get these if you won't mind a lot of squeaking. They'll drive you nuts in cold weather in a parking lot, especially one that has speed bumps.

I have them front and back on my Corvette. I like them, but people are always asking me why the car squeaks. It sounds to them like something is wrong.

 

Unless the car has been driving in NYC the struts/shocks are good for atleast 75K. Camber's are cut when lowering 1" or more. If you don't re-size them the wheel will bend inwards. As for brake dust they have several brake pads out there that are dustless(producing a pink dust that is not visible on rims).