VERY stiff ride in the SD... what to check?
 

OK, my 82 SD takes speed bumps and minor road imperfections like I have no springs, just axles bolted to the frame... serious! I want a much more relaxed ride. my 79 TD is pillow soft in comparison... what would you tackle?
also there is a lot of ruckus in the back end on bumps...

Join the club.

Actually, speed bumps are fine. It's the road imperfections that the SD will seek out and find a way to magnify.

I'm a bit baffled by this because the front end is very soft. No effort is required to lower the nose by two inches or so if one pushes down on the front of the hood. Naturally, this is a slow response for the shocks and they offer very little resistance with a very gradually applied load.

But, on road bumps, the shocks are asked to react instantaneously..........and they cannot. So, my only guess is that the shocks are too stiff. They are new Bilsteins........supposedly comforts..........but the results appear to be like a pair of bricks are bolted to the control arms.

awww, I saw that Brian had responded and I thought "YAYYY an educated reliable answer"... not the one I wanted though...
any idea why the 126 is so much stiffer than the 123?

Buying a W140 is a good perminant solution.

Let me know when you figure it out, I have never really cared for the way the W126's ride. MB got it back wards, stiff for no reason going down the road, then rolls like a boat in the corners. When they were designing the W126 they should have went down the road to BMW and let them do the suspension.:D

Maybe their is some miracle shock/tire/wheel/spring combo that will smooth them out.

Did you spill a bottle of viagra in the trunk?

My friends (SirNik84) car has an awesome ride, almost like a new car....


It takes road imperfections with ease, as well as speedbumps. Not too harsh, but not too soft.

It really makes no sense to me. When you press the front end..........the nose is soft as hell. But, drive it down the road and all softness is gone.

I'm going to do a bunch of suspension parts on the SD when the weather warms up.........including the front subframe bushings..........we'll see if it helps a bit.

I also might take the shocks off and drive it..........just to see how it fares on the bumps..........obviously not a permanent solution.

Wonder if its possible to air bag them? Kind of like on the W220.

Im telling you guys, my friends got an 126 SWB that rides just as nice as a friends W140....

Something is wrong with the W140.

I dont know man.... It was a 1999 S320, that had just come back from having some work done by the stealership.




I really think that my friends car has a better ride than that W140. It definitely rides better than my R129, W124, W201, W163, and W463.

What did he do to the suspension? Custom springs? I have driven tons of W126's and they all ride pretty similer depending on condition. The SWB cars feel more nimble around town for some reason.

OK, post some pics of the front end parts on this miracle machine, I wanna see what makes it smooth...

My Bilsteins took 2 months or so to break in fully,

Ill take some pics of the suspension this weekend....

Did you guys think of the car itself sitting lower at freeway speed because of drag? IIRC, I read somewhere that the car itself sits like an inch or two lower at speed, then when sitting still, giving the bilstein less absorbtion.

Find out exactly what shocks are on the front end.


Make, model and age.


TIA

On the 126 or the 140?



On the W126, hes got Bilstein HDs, and they are like 3 or 4 months old.

.........that just cannot be right...........the SD has the comforts..........:confused:

dang. a guy posts his whole mod list like 2 months ago, and gets no replies. then WHAM there is DEMAND!

i never tried to soften the ride of my car. i was looking to make it corner. that was it. as a side note everyone says my car rides great... so here is what i did.


W126 suspension upgrades (the cheap and dirty way)


THE BACK

I've installed 3 Nub rubbers in the back, a rear sway bar off of a 116. Bilstein HDs.

I read somewhere that the 116 sway bar fit in the 126... but I can't remember the forum, and i searched all over the place for verification, but no luck. so i went to the pick and pull and laid under a few cars. and it looked like it fit, except its mounted further back in the 116, thus the bar is about twice the diameter as the bar in the 126, to make up for the extra torque the longer arms would deliver. so i thought SWEET. I'll just lop off the extra 3 inches of arm, and drill some new holes....

I took the bar to school, and removed the 126 bar and tried to install the 116 bar. no luck. the 126 bar has a bend in it that moves it out of the way of the rear dif mount. this bend faces the rear of the car. well the 116 bar has a bend also, but since it is mounted further back in the car, the bend bends toward the front of the car to clear the spare tire sump in the trunk. so the only way to make the 116 bar fit was backward!

so i ran to home depot, and bought some steel bar stock. 1in x 1/4in x 3ft cut it into 2 14in peaces. i then cut the arms of the 116 bar off so that only 6 inches of the arms were left. i them welded the bar stock onto the 116 bar. i used a vice and the leverage of the 116 bar to bend the steel bar stock into the shape of the arms on the 126 bar and.... IT FITS!

it rubs on the spare tire sump. so i took a hammer to the sump. i had to use a razor knife to carve the 116 sway bar bushings to fit into the smaller 126 holders.

I installed some in coil rubber spacers. to stiffen the back end.

I installed the metal sway bar links for a 115 chassis from ********. they are WAY beefy compared to the stock 115 sway bar links. and they are 1000x better then the broken plastic 126 links i had.

THE FRONT

First I started by chopping 1 360 degree coil out of some front springs i got from the pick and pull. I installed them and the car sat way lower. so low that the oil pan hit the ground and the tires hit the finders. I do have rather large tires on the car. 60/225/R15.. anyway. the car was to low and to soft for my taste. I also noticed that the car was leaning to the drivers side. so i compressed the springs and installed some coil in spring rubbers. this lifted the front of the car slightly and made it way stiffer. i also installed a 2 nub rubber on the front passenger side and left a 3 nub on the drivers side to counter the lean.

Installed Bilstein HDs

the car now sits great. and handles awesome.

I'm now waiting to get some tires for the 16" wheels i have so i can see how 1/2 inch less side wall will effect it.

attached are some pics of the modified 116 sway bar. and the rubber coil shim i installed in the front. and the spring out of the car with the rubber coil installed in the spring. and the car in the parking lot outside.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...0&d=1194555125
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1194555145
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...9&d=1194555096
http://schumanautomotive.com/forums/...1&d=1197324767
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...3&d=1194555318
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...2&d=1194555299

^^ And that rides better than anything I own. Not to mention it rides better than an S320.

Our W126's ride a little different than each other. On mine I have new OEM rear springs and Bilstein HD shocks....and new sway links etc....the rear rides fine in my opinion. I put new HD shocks on the front of mine about a year ago and it rides far stiffer but not to the point that it bothers me....it used to bounce like a boat on rocky seas....the old shocks (Sachs) were original and 100% dead, could compress them by hand. It now definatley does not have a "soft" ride by any means though. Big pot hole = OUCH. Which is why I drive like I am on an autocross track half the time....I should film/take pictures of a couple of the roads I have to drive on to get to/from school. Its INSANE. If you took it at maybe 7-10mph it'd be "OK" but faster than that its death to your suspension.

My dad's car has newer Upper Control arms/bushings than my car, and 2 year old front sway bar and all bushings...it "takes the bumps" smoother than my car....like it absorbs them better, but his shocks are probably 3x as old as mine....and they may well be comforts, not sure what they are but they feel softer. The rear of his car rides the same as mine and has had all the same parts replaced (springs/shocks/sway links)....

I think overall my dad's car has a softer ride....but I find either car fine. Its our W123 I can't stand driving in the city. Its like an autocross machine! STIFF!! The seats + suspension = pain after driving over our pitted roads for an hour. :o We've done 0 to that car's suspension. It sits level, takes bumps well, and handles excellent (very nimble)....so we have no complaints. All it needs is some steering work. Probably alignment and new tie rods.

Maybe dropping it messed with the spring ratio? Maybe the Comfort shocks don't react as fast as the HD's? My friends S320 has 18in AMG's on it with little 35 series side walls and it makes imperfections in the road go away that the SDL finds and tells me about.

The new bilsteins will soften with use for a while.

Heavier tires and or wheels will make the ride choppy. So if you increase the weight of either that will hurt the ride.

My sweetest riding benz was the 240 with the little aluminum wheels with the wheel covers and 175r14 tires. Light and nimble.

Brian I know you are wanting to get 100K on your tires and IIRC they are oversize as well, but new tires would improve your ride especially if they are lighter than those hard old donuts you are running now!:)

The suspension is a cohesively designed system. Change one part and you can upset the balance that mercedes are known for....I mean the balance between ride and handling, luxury and economy, etc.

You'll always get a good ride if everythiing is as designed.....bushings, shocks, wheels and tires. It wont be a caddy but it never was designed to be. It will ride well and handle well up to whatever its top speed is. They were designed to be run flat out on the autobahn in complete safety. No caddy will do what a benz will do overall.

Its kindof like a singer who can reach three octaves.

Tom W