Cutting springs to lower your ride is a nice inexpensive way to lower your car...however, Be careful...I did this on an old Toyota beater I had and it wouldn't pass inspection...It's not wise to cut or heat your springs to lower your vehicle, because you will seriously reduce its ride quality and handling abilities, and you also may affect suspension geometry, which means you won't be able to steer as well and your tires will wear unevenly.

Cutting corners now might cost you $$$ in the long run...and we all know tires for this car aren't cheap!


BTW, those rims look awesome...great price too!

 

Cutting corners? I agree about taking a torch to the springs but cutting them does not hurt them. High quality street rod builders have been doing this forever. MY ride is almost exactly the same as stock. My wife who is very picky drove the car and couldn't tell any difference at all. Keep in mind that the new tires in the rear 265x40x18 which ride noticeably better the stock 19's.

The toughest thing about cutting springs knowing how much to cut. I have taken the guess work out. Now you all know what cutting one coil off will get you. In case you are wondering how I figured this out I went by Eibach which is 1.2/1.3 inch drop. Most Eibach springs are the same as stock minus one coil. Some guys on Benz World discovered this. By the way, if this hadn't worked I was ready to buy the Eibach's. But it worked great and I saved almost $300.

If my drop is the same as after market springs then I have equally messed up the geometry. The main thing lowering will do is increase the negative camber in the rear which actually can help handling but has the potential for wearing out the insides of the tires. My Mini Cooper S was lowered and I had a similar increase in negative camber but didn't seem to wear the tires any differently. Almost none of the Mini guys went out and bought adjustable links to correct the camber. I suspect that most of the guys on this site that have lowered their cars and not bothered to buy the parts needed to adjust the camber. the only thing I have found is the K Mac adjustable camber bolts which I may get.

 

Nice work, doing it for low bucks is a bonus IMHO.

Check this out...

http://speedybnz.com/

Really nice looking upper camber links for M-Benz rear ends.

I think HDDP runs a set on his track car. Looks like really good quality for the price; $250 for the pair plus shipping. Replacing rubber bushings on suspension links is usually a really good thing for better cornering and less wheel-hop on hard launches!

Cheers,
Slim

 

I agree Lantana,

I had a hot rod buddy who spend his entire life building and modifying HR's. (may he rest in peace) and that's exactly how they did it.

On a performance car like the SRT, I plan on cutting just a 1/2 coil off the front springs and 1/2 to 3/4 coil off the rear springs and replacing the upper spring cup with a 5MM (smallest available) to give me some added drop.

I like the stiffer suspension of the SRT and I don't want to soften it up with A/M springs. If the car did not sit so high, I would leave it alone.

BTW - Very nice work on your ride.

 

Thanks I did see those and like them. I had something very similar on a GT40 replica that I built. As long as the Heim joint has the teflon inserts they are good for street use. I used the Benz forum for information while our site was down.

 

I will take better photos on level ground as soon as I get access to a decent camera, but my car now sits very level. I noticed that while I did exactly one coil all around, the rear had a slightly more drop. If I where you I would cut the rears 1/5 coil and then more if needed, the rears are easy to get in and out. BTW you can also fine tune your drop by changing the rubber spring cups at the top of the springs. They come with 1-4 dots on them. 4 dots is the thickest and my car came with 3 dot cups. You may want to find out what the thickness differences are. You may be able to achieve the drop you want without even touching the springs.

 

I copied this info from another post on the forum:

MB Spring Pad Part Numbers - (not sure of the Chrylser Part Number)

Front
A 210 321 01 84 (5mm)
A 210 321 02 84 (9mm)
A 210 321 03 84 (13mm)
A 210 321 04 84 (17mm)
A 210 321 05 84 (21mm)

Rear:
A 210 325 01 84 (5mm)
A 210 325 02 84 (9mm)
A 210 325 03 84 (13mm)
A 210 325 04 84 (17mm)

The biggest drop for the fronts is 21-5 = 16mm (.63 inches)
And the rears is 17-5 = 12mm (.47 inches)

Assuming you replace the thickest pads with the thinnest.

 

you think we could get together and do this to my car?

 

Sure bring it over sometime.

 

My car had the ones marked with three dots/bumps which I believe are the 13mm ones. I don't know what the SRTS use. It might be easier to get these from Mercedes than Chrysler. It is probably best to think of these as fine tuning the height and not to lower all by themselves.

 

What's your plan for some "serious" HP? There's not much out there unless you spend big $$$.

 

I am starting to research my options, and they all look expensive.

For about $3,000 I can put an SRT6 engine into it.

For about $1,500 to $5,000 I can put Mercedes V8 into it 4.3 5.0. or 5.5L One engine that has over 300 HP and somewhat reasonable is the C43 AMG engine.

The super charger kit from Germany that I posted about is an option.

Build my own turbo or super charger kit. If I do this I am leaning towards the new Rotrex supercharger as it is supposed to give the low end performance of a roots type with the top end of a turbo.

 

Nice job, car looks great.

 

What is the manufacture and model name or number of the wheels. They are what I've been looking for.

Thanks,
Ted

 

I got my wheels on Ebay from a seller named dohccivicna1250. He shipped them very quickly and the quality was beautiful and perfect. This seller has inconsistent pricing. I bought mine for $199 plus $199 shipping for all four so check all his ads. I just checked and others have them for sale also. As user named moore9911 has some listed now. Moore list them as a 2006 style wheel. I have been told this design was an optional AMG wheel. Maxwell on this forum said he saw them on a C class AMG. I am trying to copy a link here but it is not working. How do we paste in links?

 

hey sweet job on the mods i'm lovin the wheels and the height is just right. sweet ride !

 

Here is a close up of the wheels I bought and a picture of one I think might look cool, Mercedes SLR! If you do a search for "mercedes Wheels" you can get a lot of ideas.

 

Cool!!! just now was able to get on the internet. I'll give you a call so we can setup a date and time.

 

[quote=LantanaTX]I did the whole lowering job yesterday and this included two trips to various parts store looking for spring compressors. I ended up using a NAPA spring compressor that is fairly small and attached to both sides of the spring. It is still a real &*&(%^*! for really good instruction on how to do the front, go to Benzworld.org forums and do a search in the R170 (SLK) forum for spring removal by a guy named Bazzle. If I did this over again I would use the spring compressor in his pictures. He give excellent step by step directions.

I used my Dewalt grinder with a 4.5 inch cutting blade to cut EXACTLY one coil of the BOTTOM of each spring. I let the side of the blade run against the end of the spring to use as a guide to cut exactly one coil off.

The rear are easier, Just jack up one side and remove the wheel. Remove two small screws that hold the plastic piece to the lower control arm. Put a jack under the lower control arm abut where the spring cup is and raise up a bit to take pressure off the lower shock mount and sway bar link. You will see three bolts and nuts at the end of the lower control arm. they are for the upright, shock and sway bar. Remove all three and then slowly lower the jack. The rear spring will just about fall out. If not push the lower control down a little further until the spring comes out. After you have cut one coil off reinsert the spring with the upper cup and make sure it is positioned right and then jack up the lower control arm until you have lined up some of the removed bolts. If you use the jack to align the bolt holes it will be very easy to put all the bolts back in. The rears can be done this way in less than 30 minutes per side. Allow a couple of hours for each front side. If you get the right spring compressor for the front it would be just as easy as the rear. There are probably other ways to do this but this is what I did and it worked.[/quote

Place the lowering spring onto the strut. Try to place the strut cap back on the assembly. It should fit without having to use the spring compressors

 

Please note you are revivng a three (3) year old thread.