After installing H&R Springs and 18" wheels on my C-Class, the ride became very tough...almost bone-rattling. What can be done to ease up the ride quality? Does any tire company make a 225 or 245 50 on 18's?? My only thought was to increase the sidewall height for the added cushioning. What's your take?
Thanks, A

#1 verify the air pressure in the tires. This is sometimes the easiest fix for ride quality issues.
#2 Thicker spring pads
#3 17" wheels and tires

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Personnally, I would never do a "Plus 3" wheel upgrade on a daily driver. This is not opinionated, but "it ruins the ride"! Plus the addition of stiffer sport springs and shocks, Whew!, you are in hard ride city with every ride lossening your teeth.

Some people don't realize that these cars you see in car magazines and advertisements with 18/19/20/21/22/23 wheels are show vehicles and only used to showcase products or compete at car shows. These wheels are not for daily driven cars. Everytime I see a post of someone asking can I put 20 inch wheels on my 190E, I cringe & shake my head. I love the look of those wheels too, but I have to drive my car every day and not just look at it. This oversized wheel madness must stop!. Having 20 inch wheels on a car spec'd with 15 inch wheels is madness, unless it is a show car.

One member recommended to another member that 20 inch wheels would fit because he saw a pic on another site. Be realistic, the car may be a show car, hardly driven or just put on to showcase products because they know someone will buy them without realizing the negative effects and the harsh ride.

Word to the Men:

I once overheard a woman say - "guys with big wheels are only trying to make up for smaller shortcomings". Man that's Cold!

For those with "plus-3", 4, 5" etc., don't forget to get your teeth tightened!

akong,

Changing the sidewall height of the tire will cause false speed-readings and a lot of tire/fender rubbing.
Changing the spring pads will lift the cars' body, but will not change the harsh ride (springs and tires are still the same).
I have seen several C classes with 18" rims as daily driven vehicles. The owners of these cars changed the rims to 17" in order to be able to drive with a little comfort left.
I have owned 18" MB rims and have never considered mounting them on my C class (too big); I sold these rims before I tried to put them under my SL (with spacers).
18" rims on a C class is nice when you hardly use the car.
It is easy to say that you better get some 17" wheels, but it is probably your best shot...

greetingz,

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

i have a good history of standard and non-standard tyres and wheels on a variety of mercs. in my opinion ride comfort is most influenced by tyre pressures. my own rule of thumb is as follows; 28psi for comfort at reasonable speeds, 30psi for high speed compromise, 32psi for all out bone-jarring grip. sometimes i go 2psi lower in the front with the bigger/heavier engines. 28psi front and 30psi should be a nice setup.

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'66 W100 600 SWB
'05 W463 G55K AMG
'91 W126 500SEL
'93 W463 300GDL
'84 W460 280GES
'83 W460 300GDL
'66 W111 220SEb Coupe
'58 W121 190
'58 W180 220S
Have previously owned '99 SL600, '99 ML320, '79 450SLC, '79 450SEL 6.9 x 2, '68 600, '91 190E 1.8, '90 190E 2.0, '85 190, '90 500SL, '92 500SEL, '97 E300Turbodiesel, '91 300D, '72 280S, '82 300D, '81 300SD, '85 230E, '56 220a and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

akong did you change the shocks too?

hey yal,

No, I was told that upgrading the shocks would only add to a more harsh ride and that aftermarket springs, i.e H&R or Eibach are generally engineered to perform best with the stock shocks in place.

I guess the first thing I'll try to do is lower the tire pressure and hope for the best. I must say, I love the way the car looks with those 18's ..

Oh...and to the men,
Women will say all sorts of things about men and their nice cars....most popular one questioning a man's sense of physical security.....and we all know that's not always true!!

Thanks for all the help guys!!!!

A, I don't know about that. Performance springs will quickly expose any stock shock, unless of course you're running an AMG or Sportline variant car. Some times you can get away with installing some stock bilstiens.

I think you are bottoming out your shocks with the lowering. You are probably bouncing off the bump rubbers. There are 2 ways to fix this. One is to raise the car. The second is to get shorter stroke shocks like Bilstin sport or Koni sport setting shocks. Good luck.

akong,
that is very wrong to say that changing the shock only add harshness to your ride..
Actually using stock shock with lowering spring will cause all the harshness.
I am not saying that when you change the shock the ride will be as good as stock, NO..! but it will definitely feels better rather than stock shock + lowering spring combination.(handle better too, cause you will have proper dampening)
The reason is the stock shock is designed to work with stock height. So as soon you have lowering spring, this shock got compressed, even when the car has no load (standing/parking).

So when the shock got compressed beyond its original height/point , the stock shock dampening system will not work properly. That's why the ride feels harsh since your suspension system has no damper(not working properly as it supposed to ). All the bumps that you felt was not absorbed by the shock, so it is transfer directly to the chassis. That's why you felt the harsh ride.
Always replaced the shock with a sport shock when you lowered you car with lowering spring. These sport shock is designed to be used with lowering spring.
The ride will definitely firmer than stock, but definitely better than what you have right now.

That's my $0.02 based on my experience with my BMW and MB automobiles.
Hope this help.

Also what size of tire are running on your 18" wheel.
And the tires dimension (side wall aspect ratio) will also affect the harshness a little bit ,but not much.

Regardz,

J Irwan

17-inch rims are the answer. Going bigger in sidewall will increase diameter, slow acceleration and might make rolling your fenders necessary. What, you thought 40-series tires and a sport suspension was going to give a *compliant* ride?! I suppose you could let air out of the tires, but then you're just going to cut your sidewalls or crash your rims...

I have a 107 with a factory set of 16” AMG wheels and 225/50 tires. I thought it was lowered but perhaps it’s not. In the city, it is a little harsh for me. Everyone wants the cool look of low profile but sacrifices the ride to get it. I believe the new suspension systems can take this into account. If an older system designed for a high profile tire is shod with a low profile, a stiffer ride will result. If you aren’t autocrossing on the weekend then you may wish you stuck with the stock (or near) sizes. I am getting set up to go to a stock size for a second set of rims so I can take longer trips with comfort. This is only my soft-sided opinion, but I agree with Kevin, with exception of the “word to the men” stuff. I seek peace, MB brothers.

Steve
’85 500 SL Euro with full AMG appearance package.

Now here's a good question...

Do you need to change the shocks on an AMG, say my C36, when you change to lowering springs.

Keep in mind the original shocks are AMG/Bilstein.

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Well Rocky, according to J Irwan, you do. It makes sense. The dampeners can make the shock stiffer further down on the shaft. If they work this way, you will lower the car and always be on the smaller orifice, stiffening the ride. This is a great piece of info. I have no confirmation that the shocks have variable dampening, but I would love to know for sure.

Steve
’85 500SL Euro