Regarding your question on spring pads. My 1984 300sd was sitting low all around and I got the impression that spring sag is a common problem in this vintage. Although I considered raising it by using taller spring pads, I felt (and folks on this forum concurred) that that would not be correcting the real problem. As it turned out, the pads already installed in front were the highest available anyway. As Steve says, if you go to the trouble of replacing pads, you might as well replace the springs too. Either way it will cost you about 6 hrs of shop time. My learning is that you need to ensure that the shop doing it is aware that on Mercedes it is not a simple swap-out operation. The ride height must be dialed in using the pads (which come in 4 heights from 8mm to 23mm).

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ROBERT IN ALASKA
1984 300SD in Astral Silver
96k miles