Saggy Rear End!!

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jimmy

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Messages
2,316
Location
Northamptonshire
Car
Discovery 3 TDV6, Discovery 300TDi - Plaything!
I have been thinking about this for some time and decided that I must do something about it, especially after driving in the dark tonight when numerous other cars flashed me even though I had my headlights set low.

The rear end of my C250TD Estate sits much lower than the front, you can clearly see it in this picture:

cool1.jpg


It is slightly exagerated in this picture because the car is facing very slightly uphill and the fact that the back is low makes the front lift a liitle too. You can see that there is a big gap under the front wheel arch but much less at the back.

If I put any weight in the boot, even 20Kg, the back sags even more and when I hitch my empty trailer on, it looks like the rear wheels are dissapearing into the wheelarches.

What would be the most likely cause of this? Do coil springs get weak? Would faulty shocks have any effect on the height? The car is an Elegance, so it has the higher, softer suspension. Would there be any advantage in me changing the springs and shocks for aftermarket ones, I have easy access to Sachs/Boge amongst others or should I stick with the MB parts?

I am thinking I might upgrade the suspension but dont want to lose the comfort of the Elegance suspension as I do not find that the car handles badly and is very comfortable.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions?
 
do coil springs sag/get weak - yep they do.
would faulty shocks effect the height - not really
A change of springs/damping would be best if you did all the springs if you are going to do just the rears I'd stick with MB parts.

Does the C class have the self levelling suspension set up? if so that's a whole different ball game.

Andy
 
was just going to say that Andy. If not I wonder if a retro fit of a W124 self leveling suspention could be done?
 
No self levelling suspension, I dont think it was ever on the 202 but am not 100% sure.

Coincidentally I am working on a 1980, Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II with self levelling suspension. It has a leak in one of the pipes to the rear strut/cylinder type thing and the calipers are seized. The suspension and brakes all work off the same hydraulic system so a leaky suspension affects the brakes!
 
Jimmy


I would suggest that the springs are tired. I don't know whether there is a measurement that you can obtain to give you the fitted length, or whether the dealer would know without changing them??:confused:

The trouble is that the previous owner could have carried allsorts in the boot space M8.:confused: :confused:
 
Originally posted by jimmy
No self levelling suspension, I dont think it was ever on the 202 but am not 100% sure.

Coincidentally I am working on a 1980, Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II with self levelling suspension. It has a leak in one of the pipes to the rear strut/cylinder type thing and the calipers are seized. The suspension and brakes all work off the same hydraulic system so a leaky suspension affects the brakes!

The W201 could have self-levelling rear suspension as an option, my previous car had this option but now that I come to think of it I've never seen a W202 with it.

The Citroen's also have a common reservoir for brakes and suspension system :crazy: Citroen Xantia, one of the worst/dangerous cars I've ever driven, ugh, it was a company pool car so had been thrashed too.

S.
 
Originally posted by Brian WH
The trouble is that the previous owner could have carried allsorts in the boot space M8.:confused: :confused:
I don't think the use of a trailer/caravan helps the rear suspension much either, I've seen lots of cars dragging stuff down the motorway with the rear bumper nearly touching the tarmac, can't be doing any good, can it?
 
a "short term" fix is to use spring assistors - available from Grayston engineering.

http://www.springassisters.co.uk/

They are designed to increase the strength of the spring and stop it fully compressing - just the thing for slightly tired old springs - We had them on our W123 saloon as I tend to carry a fair bit of heavy stuff in the boot. No loss of damping as they are heavy rubber inserts so they still compress and a raise of the rear suspension under load of about 2".

Fitted in minutes and dirt cheap compared to a new set of springs :)

Andy
 
All sorted now.

New shock absorbers front and rear and new rear coil springs.

The car now sits level and the ride is much smoother and in actual fact feels sportier as the new springs dont have as much give as the old ones. The old springs were about 1/4" shorter and were noticably easier to compress.

What surprised me was what a difference the shock absorbers made, the rear ones had resisistance when compressing but would not come back out, the front ones were totally kippered, felt very 'notchy' when compressed.

I got Sachs Boge shocks and genuine coils as they were cheaper than I can get replacements, just shows it is sometimes worth ringing the stealer.
 
Glad u got it sorted !!

"Before" and "After" pics ?

S.
 

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