R230 SL 55 Coilovers !

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Hey Gary,

I'm actually away, probably until end of August (in Ireland).
Fun fact, yesterday I went for a countryside ride and forgot about a little bridge over a canal, went in a bit too fast for it and bottomed it on the landing... not something I plan to repeat but I am actually wondering if the old hydraulic lines would have been able to take the abuse.
Eduardo
Are you about soon to have a look over your car !
Gary.
 
Hey Gary, sorry I've been away too long :p

I just fitted the front ARB, waiting for the ball joints to link it to the front suspension and returning to UK next Thursday.
Hi Buddy
Thanks for getting back to me, interesting to see how your getting along with yours.
Mine has been sat in the garage for a while as I'm having issues with the Steering wheel that the previous owner had fitted, a newer style and Grinding off part of the boss to fit . !!
Air bag popped out twice on one side, took the bag off to have a look and... WTF The wiring clearly had been carried out by a Misfit with a Potato as a brain....
If i was ever to bump into the chap I'll cut his F-----g balls off.... I had been driving around in a car and the airbag is just waiting to go off.
Popped into my local Mercedes parts and they have been really helpful on what wheel should be on the car , so now ( Hopefully ) I have the right wheel and all booked in to have it changed back £££££££ hopefully not to much. But it has to be right.
Take care buddy
G.
 
The steering wheel story is a great example of why one should not switch to coilovers
 
The coilover conversion is pretty straight forward from what I have seen online.

No, it's not that easy and lot's of people omit the sway bars. Even with airmatic cars, they were designed with airmatic self leveling suspension and the sway bars were not engineered to be used for regular 'passive' suspension. I get the desire for people wanting to do that. I have a few Rolls Royce / Bentley cars with the citreon type braking systems and sometimes wish that they had conventional brakes. But it's not that easy. I might get brakes, but they won't work as well they did in the past.

I've had to go through the ABC system 3 times for one reason or another. I'd still stick with ABC over going with coil overs. In any case, for anyone wanting to do it, it's their car and they can do what they like with it. If I was looking an R230 or C215/W220? I would not consider one that was converted to springs because I don't know who did the work and how it was done.

I did buy a Chevy powered Jaguar XJ12C and a spring converted Mercedes Benz 450SEL 6.9 in my younger and more fooling days, I would not do it again.
 
Hi Buddy
Thanks for getting back to me, interesting to see how your getting along with yours.
Mine has been sat in the garage for a while as I'm having issues with the Steering wheel that the previous owner had fitted, a newer style and Grinding off part of the boss to fit . !!
Air bag popped out twice on one side, took the bag off to have a look and... WTF The wiring clearly had been carried out by a Misfit with a Potato as a brain....
If i was ever to bump into the chap I'll cut his F-----g balls off.... I had been driving around in a car and the airbag is just waiting to go off.
Popped into my local Mercedes parts and they have been really helpful on what wheel should be on the car , so now ( Hopefully ) I have the right wheel and all booked in to have it changed back £££££££ hopefully not to much. But it has to be right.
Take care buddy
G.
Hey, sorry to hear that. I did a bit of research about upgrading to a newer wheel, but I understand there was a change of the airbag electronics sometime on the later years and the airbag types from single to 2-stage, though I don't recall whether this was prior to the R230 or later.

I'm considering a wheel upgrade though, there are some ads on fleabay where the sell flattened sport style wheel for that generation of mercs.
 
No, it's not that easy and lot's of people omit the sway bars. Even with airmatic cars, they were designed with airmatic self leveling suspension and the sway bars were not engineered to be used for regular 'passive' suspension. I get the desire for people wanting to do that. I have a few Rolls Royce / Bentley cars with the citreon type braking systems and sometimes wish that they had conventional brakes. But it's not that easy. I might get brakes, but they won't work as well they did in the past.

I've had to go through the ABC system 3 times for one reason or another. I'd still stick with ABC over going with coil overs. In any case, for anyone wanting to do it, it's their car and they can do what they like with it. If I was looking an R230 or C215/W220? I would not consider one that was converted to springs because I don't know who did the work and how it was done.

I did buy a Chevy powered Jaguar XJ12C and a spring converted Mercedes Benz 450SEL 6.9 in my younger and more fooling days, I would not do it again.
It is quite straightforward, that doesn't mean it is an easy job.
The fact that some people are cheap and/or ignorant and don't do a proper job is a different story.
There is quite a bit of research required and parts to be sourced which are not always easy to get (like the four M8x80 10.9 steel bolts for the front sway bar).

There are cars out there without sway bars from factory or as optional (I have two K11 Micra's without these).
That being said, the R230 is not a lightweight and omitting the sway bars is not something I would recommend, but the BC Racing kit for the SL55 still does a good job without them.

Any (in my view) reasonable person doing a swap should consider the whole suspension package, not a few parts. This is a matter of safety.
In my case, I sourced the sway bars from an SL350, new bolts an links for the rears, front links are in good condition. New ball joints also for the control arms where the links attach.

All in, I'm spending ~£1500 in parts (but there's another hefty sum if you don't already have all the required tools).

I could have fixed my issue with the ABC, but after examining the condition of the pipes on my car (found a leak, and quite a bit of corrosion on a front line plus evidence of prior issues) I just decided to get rid of it, it is a matter of trust on the vehicle.
TBH, ABC is handy, but the way it was implemented in the R230 and the cost of the components or complexity of the repairs is not something I'm going to miss, but I'd like to give it a try to the next gen:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
I could have fixed my issue with the ABC, but after examining the condition of the pipes on my car (found a leak, and quite a bit of corrosion on a front line plus evidence of prior issues) I just decided to get rid of it, it is a matter of trust on the vehicle.
TBH, ABC is handy, but the way it was implemented in the R230 and the cost of the components or complexity of the repairs is not something I'm going to miss, but I'd like to give it a try to the next gen:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Thanks for your response. I'm not in anyway suggesting you did not do the job correctly. However I have seen a couple of these conversions that don't include sway bars. The feedback from the owners or the mechanics doing the conversion is that the car rides really level. Well it does, until it doesn't.

I'm a licensed salvage dealers. I buy cars myself and that I repair and make sure it's done right. I won't buy a car that's already been repaired because I have idea what's hiding behind the paint. If anyone tells me that they'd never consider a car with a rebuilt title. I wouldn't put any effort into convincing them otherwise.
 
I find these threads interesting, I wouldn’t do it myself but I get the reason people do it. I used to modify my cars a lot when I was younger but I prefer stuff standard as I’ve got older - and i do think the ABC is reliable if looked after - although rusty pipes can be a right PITA...
 
Thanks for your response. I'm not in anyway suggesting you did not do the job correctly. However I have seen a couple of these conversions that don't include sway bars. The feedback from the owners or the mechanics doing the conversion is that the car rides really level. Well it does, until it doesn't.

I'm a licensed salvage dealers. I buy cars myself and that I repair and make sure it's done right. I won't buy a car that's already been repaired because I have idea what's hiding behind the paint. If anyone tells me that they'd never consider a car with a rebuilt title. I wouldn't put any effort into convincing them otherwise.
I hear you and share your opinion. I had bad experience with bad repairs (1 bike and 1 car death of oil starvation due to silicone pieces blocking the pump).
We might actually do some business as I do something similar as a hobby :)

I'm actually a bit worried about the front sway bar position which seems it's gonna push the piping of the steering rack, need to check the parts diagrams to see if the SL350 has a different steering rack piping.
Also, one thing to note, the ABC piping has to be removed to install the front sway bar as it is on the way.
 
I find these threads interesting, I wouldn’t do it myself but I get the reason people do it. I used to modify my cars a lot when I was younger but I prefer stuff standard as I’ve got older - and i do think the ABC is reliable if looked after - although rusty pipes can be a right PITA...
Yes and no... one thing I noticed when I removed the struts, is that the hydraulic fluid was clean on the circuit, yet from the struts a dark horrible thing came out... it would seem to me that in order to do 'proper' maintenance, a whole circuit flush would include removing the struts and draining these too... then again.... struts are a consumable :p
Also one thing to consider is that mine at least, is the 1st gen ABC... 20 years on this probably got quite better.
 
So, ARB ball joints installed and connected to the bar, the difference in body roll is noticeable, now I just need to lower the suspension a bit as default setting is like 7-8 cm between wheel and arch.
I guess the rear bar will make a slight difference given the diameter.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom