And I'm finally able to post! Glad to be here, looking forward to starting a build thread. Will probably have a ton of questions, too, lol...

Hi and welcome, Bimmer Bob (gsxr did you mean to say Bummer Bob?)

OK, to you and anyone undertaking a chassis lowering stiffening or other modification please consider some form of data recording, be it a small notebook, a thumb drive or just a hunk of paper.
In it include all measurements before and after modification and record the date performed to see how much your ride height changes over time.
Note the part numbers, sources, types of springs, sway bars, bushings, control arms that you use or purchase.
I confess I didn't follow this and wish I had a good memory but its been a few years and I had to go through several iterations before it got it right on my 87 300D (see photo in my gallery). I know I have factory sportline springs and I think shocks to suit and a larger sway bar. I have receipts but they are buried who knows where. The parts guy at the local dealership was very instrumental in ordering the Sportline parts, he's gone and the dealership changed hands and I stay as far away from there as possible now. I must give a lot of thanks to Dave gsxr's technical resources and direct assistance and recommendations too! Without his help I probably would have had to do a few more runs up on the lift and messing with a car chassis is not easy or fun to me either.

My first installation resulted in a ride that was too high. I changed spring pads at least once.
At one time I had access to a lift at a friend's shop but he passed away and that ended my chassis work. I now have a shop I use that is run by a Mercedes experienced man. I'm getting too old to crawl under a car anyhow.

I guess to my credit I persevered and the results are my ride height is 14.25 inches after 4 years of installation (I just went out and measured it), so I hit gsxr's target min on the button! anything lower would not be welcome with street driving, I bottomed out once on a city street but it was a pretty bad dip in the pavement. High curbs are a problem too as there is no spec on the height of curbs so when diagonal parking one has to go in very gingerly.

Otherwise I like the handling immensely over the factory mushy ride in the sedan, I intended to use it as a commuter. Until I retired.

OTOH I prefer OE ride qualities of my wagon for long trips. I wouldn't mess with the hydo suspension on it for a zillion bucks either.
And in gsxr's comments about poly bushings, I also echo the opinion they suck, unless you are driving autocross, the noise they make is always an issue. The PO put them on my '99 E300D and I sometimes think I will change them back to OE rubber. But too many other projects...

DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

The initial account was indeed Bummer, not Bimmer (possibly a typo). Seems his new account is working now - here's a link to the 2.5T build thread:

Bimmer-Bob's 300D Build

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Dave
Boise, ID
Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

Ha! When I first registered for the forum and sent gsxr a PM, my user name had been autocorrected to "Bummer-Bob" until I had the mods fix it. lol.

Anyway, I'm pretty Type A when it comes to vehicle modification. I like to do it "right" and I like to keep documentation on everything, along with service records, etc.

Dave's technical resources have been hugely beneficial when it came to formulating a plan of attack for the suspension upgrade. I used the OE spring/pad charts for a Euro-spec 250D and selected the factory Sportline springs based on my options (#29 in front and #23 in rear). Dave actually had slightly different recommendations, but I wanted as much as possible to set the ride height as it would've come from the factory (had it been a Sportline). I'm not going to try not to obsess over ride height too much beyond that, as I'm not building a race car. I'd just like slightly more controlled and sporting handling, with a little bit less of a wheel gap, without sacrificing too much of the OE ride quality. I'd like to just set it and forget it, and I feel like if I follow MBZ's specs for a Euro Sportline, I can't really go wrong.

For dampers I'm going to go with Bilstein HD's (I guess they're called B6's now?) just because they're much cheaper, easier to find, and probably as good or better than the Sportline dampers anyhow. I will be using the Sportline bump stops, though, and of course new OE strut mounts.

Later down the line will be front and rear Sportline sways and bushings for sure (although the rear bar is supposedly NLA? Might be hard to track one down...). I will be awfully tempted to do the LCA and rear subframe bushings, too, just because it'll bother me to not complete the package. Which means I might also eventually be on the hunt for the steering box, which of course means I might as well do the steering wheel and shifter and call it a day. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

OK, now I understand the moniker, shudda realized gsxr doesn't make typos!?

If you have the time and $ by all means consider replacing the rear subframe bushings. Mine were shot, not surprising considering the 200K+ mileage. The rear end needs a lot of rigidity as I found out when I shotgunned the control arms, bushings etc..
I think the biggest handling improvement besides lowering the COG comes from a stiffer front anti-sway bar. For the rear you could look for a 124 Limo, but that's like looking for hens teeth anyhow the rear is of lesser importance. I believe your correct on the Sportline ASB NLA.
I never got past the chassis mods, variable rate steering would be nice though but at some point I stopped, realizing it would be easier (and cheaper) to find a factory Sportline gasser and forgo the diesel. BTW I saw one recently on CL, I started thinking about how lucky to find an intact, pristine Sportline 124 then I quickly clicked off, after all I have a new (to me) 2001 E320 sitting in storage waiting for my wife to return from a trip/ Its a black leather on silver with only 92K and mint. I only wish it had the OM104 in it, not the V6. But it has rack and pinion so thats "progress"....
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!