Air suspension to coil conversion

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foru2justnv

Member
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
54
Location
West sussex
Car
Mercedes w211 E320 CDI s212 e220cdi
Hi all
W211 e320 cdi. Long story short its been a nightmare, so ive decided im gonna scrap the air suspension and just fit normal coil springs all round.
Im gonna leave the adjustable shock absorbers in as the car has full airmatic with the 2 sport modes.
Im aware i have to change the rear wishbones to accommodate the springs which i will do but to start with i might just do the rears and then the front springs later.
I understand the dash will give me a warning but will the shocks still work?
Will the compressor still work on the fronts? I will probably screw a screw into the rear airlines then melt the ends to the screws.
Or will i have to do the fronts at the same time?

Any help will be much appreciated
 
I have absolutely no idea about how to even start on this project, so I won’t be any help whatsoever; but it sounds like it will be both complex and expensive.

Before committing time & money to making the change, it might be worth sharing the issues to see if can someone can advise on how to fix rather than replace.

However, if you’re going to do it then I would suggest doing it all, or not at all, especially if you can’t afford to leave the car in bits for a few months.

Having coil springs at the back and air suspension at the front might throw errors as you suggest, but may lead to other failures and instability when driving.

I would also reconsider reusing the existing shock absorbers, as they maybe rated differently to account for use with air springs rather than coil springs.

Good luck with the project. It’s certainly possible but it will be complex and I’m not really sure whether it will actually be worth it - only you can decide that.
 
You might physically be able to keep the rear shock dampers with coil springs, but you will lose the raising facility, and the drop in the suspension in Sport II. If you have xenon headlights, I suspect you will lose the self-levelling facility too.

Replace the lot, or replace none of it. It can be done, but depending on the age of the car and its mileage, it may well cost almost as much to do either way as the car is worth.
 
If it's working now, sell it and buy one with coil springs. Cheaper, easier and safer. How would your insurance company view your conversion plan? Have you asked them?
 
Such a huge job. Easier to change the car
 
We converted an s500 from air to coil. Its not a big job, 30 minutes per wheel.
You must fit different sensors to the car. The car also needs some STAR programming because the system will want to alter elevation during some steep turning and will display an error on the dash that you need to visit the workshop. The error can be safely acknowledged with the OK button
 
Air to coil should not be hard. The struts should fit right in. You might want to get a simpler air bag setup in the rear that uses compressed air to pump the suspension up when under load.
 
One wouldn't wish to sell a car with a known fault to a private buyer. Not nice.

Unless, of course, the situation is well explained and the prospective buyer understands the implications.

R
I agree, it’s not nice, but I would say the same about selling to a trader. Not nice.
 
hi all did you ever do the coilover conversion? if so where did you get the parts and dose it drive ok now m8 ?
 

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