Sjeh
New Member
I brought a 2002 e320 cdi avant-garde Estate earlier in the year which I have been working my way through fixing all the niggles on.
I'm going to be doing some work on the self levelling and fitting new spring shims but I'm after some advice
When I got the car the rear springs where quite rusty and the car didn't handle bumps very well so not knowing too much about the self levelling system I opted to change the rear springs for KYB springs and got the correct avant-garde ones I also changed the front shocks as they looked quite old but the springs looked to have been replaced so left them.
After doing much reading on the subject on this forum I have tested the self levelling valve and struts so I am now changing the spheres having just got the car through it mot with minimal work required. The mot guy commented on how low the car was and I found a post on here about spring shims so I checked mine and I have 3 bur on the rear but cannot feel any in the front, however I did find both springs are broken on the bottom.
I have now ordered new spheres, filter and fluid, 2 KYB front springs and 4 bur spring shims for the rear and 3 bur for the front.
My query is regarding adjusting the height of the self levelling system after I fit the bigger shims as I know its currently on the higher of the two settings but I live in a rural area with bad humps and dips in the roads so I want to get the balance right between the springs and the spheres as I don't want to damage either so does anyone know with the car unladen how much of the weight the springs should take and hence how high should the struts be lifted to achieve the right balance.
Just to add the car will never be used for towing only carrying family
I'm going to be doing some work on the self levelling and fitting new spring shims but I'm after some advice
When I got the car the rear springs where quite rusty and the car didn't handle bumps very well so not knowing too much about the self levelling system I opted to change the rear springs for KYB springs and got the correct avant-garde ones I also changed the front shocks as they looked quite old but the springs looked to have been replaced so left them.
After doing much reading on the subject on this forum I have tested the self levelling valve and struts so I am now changing the spheres having just got the car through it mot with minimal work required. The mot guy commented on how low the car was and I found a post on here about spring shims so I checked mine and I have 3 bur on the rear but cannot feel any in the front, however I did find both springs are broken on the bottom.
I have now ordered new spheres, filter and fluid, 2 KYB front springs and 4 bur spring shims for the rear and 3 bur for the front.
My query is regarding adjusting the height of the self levelling system after I fit the bigger shims as I know its currently on the higher of the two settings but I live in a rural area with bad humps and dips in the roads so I want to get the balance right between the springs and the spheres as I don't want to damage either so does anyone know with the car unladen how much of the weight the springs should take and hence how high should the struts be lifted to achieve the right balance.
Just to add the car will never be used for towing only carrying family
