What are the differences between the sportline suspension upgrade and installation of the aftermarket performance spring set like Eibach or H&R on a earlier 300E model? Is it worthy to spend the extra $1,000 (I guess)?

Do not get H&R they suck big time..
Get eibach or sportline suspension upgrade.
Sprotline suspensions comes in a kit of bushing, sway bars, shocks, and springs.
Make sure you do your alignment afterwards. Don't ended up like me.
hope this help.
Pete regards

The sportline was a factory option designed by MB engineers to maximize handling while minimizing harsh ride, allignment problems, etc. The car is not lowered very much, about a little under an inch overall, more or less - just enough to take a second look and ask what is different about the car. The change in handling is fantastic. The changes needed to the alignment were minimal, and the tires wear evenly.

There are a lot of comments, reviews, and opinions going back to 1999 under the "Cars" tab (Sportline article), and by doing a search under "Sportline". The cost came out to be about $400-500 more for the MB parts, but you get subframe, front lower control arm bushings, etc. when you go with the Sportline, and do not need to worry about rear camber adjustments. Also, the Sportline gives you all Mercedes parts as an integral system tuned to your year/chassis #. It might make a bit of difference if the car needs work later at an MB dealer, or during resale.

A word of caution - Eibach refers to one of their lowering spring sets as the Pro kit, which they say drops the car about 1" - 1 1/2", and a second more aggressive line called the Sportline which drops the car 1 1/2" - 2"! They are not MB Sportline!!! You will need the expensive rear camber kit adjusters Eibach recommends if you go this route (making the price about equal), or DIY modifications to your suspension arm mounts, or else put up with possible short tire life and degraded handling.

Good luck with your choice.

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Yes, listen to JCE. I didn't know anything about the sport suspension kit back then.
PS My advise don't use H&R is too low, and you will have problems. My tires never leasted a year.
1 set of P7000 summer, P-zero, and a set of SP9000. They are gone within a year.
regards

From what I can gather H&R's tend to lower the car the most and we've had a few people on this forum who have had to correct camber with camber kits. The ones that haven't corrected are going through tires like crazy.

You can also do the sportline conversion in stages. you can go for the springs and shocks only if you want and throw in the sway bars later or not at all, whatever floats your boat.
If you were to buy the complete kit from Eibach that contains all the things the sportline kit does you'd probably spend double the price. Its not a fair price comparison to compare eibach springs and bilstein sport shocks alone to the sportline kit when you get so much more with the kit.

If I had an older 300E, I would go for the Eibach lowering springs. I would not pay an additional 1000USD just to get the whole suspension upgraded into the MB sportline setup.
I owned a 190D with Eibach lowering springs (original shocks and other suspension parts) and drove more as 200.000km with it.
I currently own a C250D with Bilstein/Eibach lowering springs and Koni Sportshocks and the car is running great day in and day out (lowered over 220.000km of use).
My 17inch tires last 50-60.000km.

The OEM sportline is terrific, but I don't think that you will get a lot of gain out of that additional 1000USD.

...just my opinion...

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

Cheyun, you are the second member to report car being too low using H&R springs. Fellow member jshiuan reports his W210 was too low using H&R and Bilsteins shock combo.

Kevin
Indeed, they are too low.
And is causing problems.
I just Koni shocks.

Cheyun,

I just bought KONI Reds too! What level of firmness are you setting your shocks? 0,1,2 or 3?

Mervyn
1983 W126 (280SEL)

Mervyn

Sorry, I don't have to Koni "red" or special.
I went with the yellow "sports". I tried the Koni reds before and they were too soft.
Fronts are at "firmest"
Rears are "mid"

Let me clarify this, if I choose to use the aftermarket performance spring such as Eihach, I "might" run into improper "camber" and could cause excess wear in tires. Is this correct? My car looks just like the "before" picture shown in the "CAR" column - sportsline upgarde, the car is tilting toward the front and has a bigger gap at the fender at the back, what will be the most economical way to correct this? And my car also drifts side to side (left to right)at the back when cruising on the freeway, especially those deep groove section in southern California freeway. Any advise would help.

My former 190D with Eibach springs had no excess wear and my current C250D with Eibach springs runs 50-60.000km (35-37.500miles) on every set of 17" tires I mount (I have worn three sets and am running the fourth set at the moment).
I wouldn't want to call that excess wear...

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

For the same cost of paying labor for a suspension changed over, I replaced the brakes and added the whole Sportsline kit, but using Bilstein Sports shock (cheaper). The Sportsline springs cost less than Eibach while SL shocks are more expensive than Bilstein. I would say the bigger sway bars are worth it.

The camber and toe-in are not affected due to the spring controls the ride height.

Overall, I am very pleased with the improvement.