W210 Estate SLS removal

[Junya]

Hello from Las Vegas!


I have a 1999 W210 E320 Wagon (or estate as you europeans call it) and maybe you might know some more information about this topic than people here do here in the US.


I am planning on going full air suspension on my estate by next year and i want to eliminate the rear self leveling suspension. The only 2 people i come in contact that has done this conversion gave me very little information

Mark Cummins:
MBWorld.org Forums - View Single Post - What rear shocks to use on wagon to delete sls ??

Musnikas:
- http://public.fotki.com/musnickas/my-first-album/imag0078.html -
(picture of wagon with deleted SLS)


So from what i gathered: Bilstein dodge dakota rear shocks or nissan turano 2 struts will fit the estate. I contacted bilstein and their rear shocks will most certainly NOT fit the estate since the shock comes with both loop mounts instead of a stem and loop mount. We also do not have Nissan Turanos here in the US (instead we have the Landcruiser) so finding some test fitment will be difficult .


Maybe this fine community has more insight about deleting the rear Self-leveling suspension. Any help is highly appreciated

v/r

-Francisco

 

[bolide]

I'd think more about springs than shocks. If you remove the SLS you'll have no main springs and no damping

It depends what you mean by air suspension. The E39 5-Series has airbag rear springs, dampers and self-levelling but I suspect that's not what you are planning

Nick Froome

 

[Junya]

I'd think more about springs than shocks. If you remove the SLS you'll have no main springs and no damping

It depends what you mean by air suspension. The E39 5-Series has airbag rear springs, dampers and self-levelling but I suspect that's not what you are planning

Nick Froome

Nick,


This is what i have planned for the wagon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBnwZNUfIJw

Just to simplify the rear suspension i would like to remove the rear accumulators, hydraulic shocks, and the SLS system altogether and replace it with a standard gas shock.

 

[bolide]

...

 

[renault12ts]

I'd think more about springs than shocks. If you remove the SLS you'll have no main springs and no damping

It depends what you mean by air suspension. The E39 5-Series has airbag rear springs, dampers and self-levelling but I suspect that's not what you are planning

Nick Froome

Nick, on the 210...there is a spring as well as the hydraulic shock.

 

[bolide]

Nick, on the 210...there is a spring as well as the hydraulic shock.

There is on the W124 as well. I think the spheres provide the bulk of the spring function. I wonder how the interaction between the static spring and the rising-rate hydraulic system works?

On a race car with a tender & main springs the (softer) tender spring spends a lot of its time squashed flat as the springs are stacked physically on top of each other. On a car with SLS the springs are side by side so the stiffer spring will dominate.

Interesting combination - a relatively soft, long tender spring to set ride height when static plus a rising rate spring where spring rate increases with load

The fundamental thing, though, is that removing the SLS leaves the car much too soft with completely the wrong spring rate

Nick Froome