Help with 88 560SEC Auto Leveling Suspension
 

Hello everyone , ive been searching around for days now on this subject and have yet to find a answer to my problem. hopefully you all can help me.

The deal is my 88 560SEC requires some suspension love. currently I have a H&R spring kit for the car as well as bilstien HD's. so far ive replaced the two front springs with H&R and the two front shocks as well with the bilstiens. the problem im having is the rear end. the car is equiped with an auto leveling suspension and i personaly would like to disable or remove this system. after much research using the WIS system and various forum posts ive read through ive come to the conclusion that completely removing the oil pump / oil canister for the leveling system is not an option since i would have a gaping hole in the side of my distributor. after looking at the rear valve that actually controls the flow of oil to the rear struts i believe it might be possible to disconnect the lines running to the struts, and some how lock the valve's control lever in the Nuetral position and cap off the lines that run to the struts. then replace them with the bilstien HD's and H&R springs.


Am i crazy? what do you all think...

The suspension serves the car well, you can disconnect the link to the sway bar, there is a reference on the valve for a neutral position. You then would have to remove the accumulators and the hydraulic struts and bypass the output of the control valve, The system is a constant flow system, you should be aware that the residual pressure keeps the rear end level, so you might have to change springs or spring shims to compensate.
I hope you plan on keeping the car, because it could be a factor on resale, if you disable the system.

i guess im a bit confused then. to install bilstien HD shocks on this cars rear end what exactly am i going to have to remove. as far as i can tell the auto leveling suspension in the rear cannot remain intact if i install bilstiens. should i maybe just install the springs and leave the auto leveling system in tact?

Ok wait i see now, so it goes from the valve to the accumulator ball thing, then from there to the strut. alright this is getting clearer. just had to run outside to the parking lot and crawl under the car to get a better look

I occasionally drive the car REAL hard, in rallyes, with cars like M3s and 911s and I can assure you that unladen, the car still handles well with the self leveling system in place.

It is lowered with eibach springs and "Comfort" bilsteins, and satisfactory for normal driving though the steering feels heavy in slow in town driving and for parking.

The "cannonball" accumulators do require replacement before every 50,000 miles on the clock though.


I don't know why you are contemplating this change, or what you have to gain by it.


The only negative I ever noticed with the system I have is that when taking uphill corners really fast in San Francisco is that the rear end can wash out really quick on rain slicked streets. But that would happen with lots of cars.