Woefully disappointed with the Bilstein shocks and struts

[jbach36]

Back in 1998, I had an '88 300 CE. It was the nicest riding car I'd ever owned. You could really feel each and every wheel independently working the road for you to keep the car smooth and steady. It made other cars I'd driven previously, seem like a unibody roller skate by comparison, where every bump you hit, or every dip the road had in it, the whole skate went with it. But not with the Mercedes. You could feel each wheel giving you a smooth, protected ride. What a great feeling! If there was a bit of a gulley in the road on the right, the suspension on the right side did what it had to, to give you a nice ride over it, while doing its best to keep the car level. I sold that car around 2001.

About 4 years ago, I got my 1991 300D which didn't ride nearly as good. I just figured it was the shocks being old. After asking around about 2 years ago as to which shocks/struts were the best to go with, I decided to go with Bilsteins. Some said the Heavy Duty's were too stiff, like riding in a truck, so I went with the Comforts. I put the front struts on, and the ride was so bad, I held off putting the rear shocks on, until I could figure out what to do. The thought of changing them out to see how the HD's were wasn't an exciting one, and for all I knew, the HD's might be worse! So I left the Comforts on until I couldn't take it anymore. I mean, heaven forbid you run over a sewer cover that's just 1" recessed into the road, it's just bam! the front tire goes down hard like you just hit a 4" pothole. I talked to Bilstein directly, they said HD's actually have a faster reaction time, so you would actually get a smoother ride.

So just 2 days ago, I put on new Bilstein HD's on the front, and the ride was much improved. I can hit 1" recessed areas on the road now, without fear at least, but they still don't give me that nice ride I was looking for. Then today, I put the rear shocks on. I think they're too stiff. The car is like a broncin' buck just slightly, as though it's kicking up in the back over every slight wrinkle in the road due to the stiffness.

I was hoping that all 4 of these new shocks/struts together, would provide that nice ride that I'd been looking for, but no dice. I don't know what kind of struts/shocks my old 300 CE had on it, but they were much better that what I have now.

Is there anything else I'm missing? Any other parts of my car not working properly along with the shocks/struts?

(Also added later: Below, EdCarls makes a reference to "Jeff aka Babymog". To anyone wondering, I am not Babymog)

1991 300d 166k