How Low is your Car? (Aimed mostly at CLS owners)

[Cannnon]

Hi all,

I was just wondering on here if anyone has lowered their CLS w218/9 and if they went springs, coilovers, or Air ride droplinks?

I have run cars around hampshire with as little as 15mm clerance floor to chassis and would like to lower my 2008 CLS320cdi

however I dont have the luxury of Air so will be going coilovers, but just wondering what other users have done, and how low they have gone???

happy to show some images of my past vehicles upon request to prove I am not a keyboard warrior, but just wanted to see what route people have taken to achieve a lower ride height,

thanks in advance, Pics welcome,

Cannon

 

[MancMike]

15mm?

One flat tyre and you'll be beached! Surely that's too low, there must have been no movement in the suspension at all or it'd be bottoming out all the time?

 

[Lit91]

Guessing lowering springs/coilovers are the most common. I never see the point in going really low, defeats the whole point of driving a car... Although I really enjoy the looks of a reasonably lowered car!

 

[Cannnon]

yeah it was a bit undrivable, and when I had a blowout on my other car on the m3 I couldnt actually get my superlow jack or my scissor jack under the car so had to go in via the front bumper and find the subframe

If you check out my newbie post - there is a link to a few of my cars there -
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/new-...197474-new-member-portsmouth-cls-project.html

but yes, my question still stands, as I would like to go down the coilover route but cant seem to find any for under £700,

Anyone on here got a LOW merc?

 

[Lit91]

yeah it was a bit undrivable, and when I had a blowout on my other car on the m3 I couldnt actually get my superlow jack or my scissor jack under the car so had to go in via the front bumper and find the subframe

If you check out my newbie post - there is a link to a few of my cars there -
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/new-...197474-new-member-portsmouth-cls-project.html

but yes, my question still stands, as I would like to go down the coilover route but cant seem to find any for under £700,

Anyone on here got a LOW merc?

Parts like that don't seem to be widely popular for Mercedes from the general observation, even on ebay it is a rare occurrence to across some interesting parts...

There must be a few members on here with lowered cars, but I wouldn't imagine for them to be slammed. There was a recent thread with a lowering of a CLS on springs.

Will be following your thread as the project seems very interesting, I'm also down the road from you - so hopefully will come across the car in the flesh!

 

[m2287]

A lot of the mercs come standard with air or hydraulic suspension and most people tend to lower them using adjustable links which alter the signal each strut sends to the ECU... You don't see too many coilover setups except afew who have gone a bit crazy on their c63's

 

[Lit91]

A lot of the mercs come standard with air or hydraulic suspension and most people tend to lower them using adjustable links which alter the signal each strut sends to the ECU... You don't see too many coilover setups except afew who have gone a bit crazy on their c63's ������

Pretty sure the OP stated that the car isn't equipped with airmatic.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Cannnon]

A lot of the mercs come standard with air or hydraulic suspension and most people tend to lower them using adjustable links which alter the signal each strut sends to the ECU... You don't see too many coilover setups except afew who have gone a bit crazy on their c63's

Yeah I was a bit of a snob, and also on a bit of a budget so decided a non airmatic would cause me less issues on the suspension as I have had problems with the bags on my v10 Touareg and range rover in the past so always been a bit weary, whereas I have only ever owned 1 (now 2 until I find one) car that does not have coilovers on it by the time it has been sold

Pretty sure the OP stated that the car isn't equipped with airmatic.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

yeah you are right my friend, poor man spec :bannana:

Parts like that don't seem to be widely popular for Mercedes from the general observation, even on ebay it is a rare occurrence to across some interesting parts...

There must be a few members on here with lowered cars, but I wouldn't imagine for them to be slammed. There was a recent thread with a lowering of a CLS on springs.

Will be following your thread as the project seems very interesting, I'm also down the road from you - so hopefully will come across the car in the flesh!

cool beans, maybe on one of my many commutes around the a27

and on ebay it is really hard to find any that arent taiwan specials, the same goes for some decent wheels that are a million pounds, so thats why I will be running a set of 5x120 wheels on PCD converters as they are about 1/3rd of the price

I will start a project thread soon,

Cannon

 

[Lit91]

and on ebay it is really hard to find any that arent taiwan specials, the same goes for some decent wheels that are a million pounds, so thats why I will be running a set of 5x120 wheels on PCD converters as they are about 1/3rd of the price

100% agreed, good luck on finding a splitter if you're after one.... companies in the UK charge £600+ & the only options are as you've already described 'the Taiwan specials' at £200+ (which is still not cheap for the risk of poor fitment)

 

[m2287]

Pretty sure the OP stated that the car isn't equipped with airmatic.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yea I was just saying most people who do lower their mercs do it using the standard air ride (when the car is equipped with it), you don't see many people replacing their springs with coilovers... When coilovers are over £1k you probably would have been better off spending more money on a car to get one with airmatic, the merc system doesn't seem too bad, you rarely see people posting with an airmatic problem on here to be honest!

 

[Cannnon]

yeah agree with you both,

its a shame I couldnt find a facelift CLS 320 cdi in my budget most were pre facelift and I preferred the interior on the facelift verisions and the LED lights and square tailpipes

and yea I would love a splitter, but I dont have an AMG bumper (its on the list) so would be even more rare for me to get one unless anyone gets crashed into from the rear and wants to sell me one (no jinx)

 

[Lee1092]

I've lowered my cls55 two different ways,

First off on airrex aftermarket air suspension, sold as direct fit but it wasn't and I had a bad experience with it. Wouldn't recommend it although in my opinion the car looked it best on it!



Secondly, I removed the airrex rubbing and purchased a set of bc racing coil overs, this is the only pic I have on them from the French Alps. But I've lowered e rear a bit more now.
They handle a lot better than the standard airmatic suspension and are just as comfortable as the airmatic on lowering links!

 

[Cannnon]

I've lowered my cls55 two different ways,

First off on airrex aftermarket air suspension, sold as direct fit but it wasn't and I had a bad experience with it. Wouldn't recommend it although in my opinion the car looked it best on it!

What was the 2nd way?

 

[Lee1092]

I'd pressed the send button too early, edited it now

 

[Cannnon]

I've lowered my cls55 two different ways,

First off on airrex aftermarket air suspension, sold as direct fit but it wasn't and I had a bad experience with it. Wouldn't recommend it although in my opinion the car looked it best on it!



Secondly, I removed the airrex rubbing and purchased a set of bc racing coil overs, this is the only pic I have on them from the French Alps. But I've lowered e rear a bit more now.
They handle a lot better than the standard airmatic suspension and are just as comfortable as the airmatic on lowering links!

Amazing coilovers ftw just picked up some yellow speed coils (same as bc)

Car looks ace. What's the specs and offsets on the wheels? ?

And yeah looked ace nice and low on the air

 

[Abb]

you rarely see people posting with an airmatic problem on here to be honest!

Theres numerous threads on here about issues/pros & cons of the airmatic system, to the point members have advised/stated to factor in £1.5k-£2k when buying used cars equipped with airmatic, due to the problems with it and actually getting the correct diagnosis when it does go wrong.

 

[Cannnon]

Theres numerous threads on here about issues/pros & cons of the airmatic system, to the point members have advised/stated to factor in £1.5k-£2k when buying used cars equipped with airmatic, due to the problems with it and actually getting the correct diagnosis when it does go wrong.

Pretty much the reason I ended up not getting one with airmatic.. was warned off by some merc friends

 

[MWCLS]

I've had my CLS 3 1/2 years it has airmatic, no problems or worries.

 

[m2287]

Theres numerous threads on here about issues/pros & cons of the airmatic system, to the point members have advised/stated to factor in £1.5k-£2k when buying used cars equipped with airmatic, due to the problems with it and actually getting the correct diagnosis when it does go wrong.

WHERE!?!?!!? There are hundreds of threads where people slate it and say oh no it will give you big bills but none of them actually say the system on their car has failed! The pump can be rebuilt for less than £100, struts are around £500 so its not as if it costs millions to fix!!!

 

[m2287]

typical that when I said that someone pops up with a thread because they have popped a strut... However I still stand by saying its not that bad, a lot of people have got airmatic and not had a problem!!!