Hi Everyone,

I've got a 1994 C280 with about 80K miles on it. I have made the decision to upgrade the shocks to Bilstein HD and the springs to the Eibach Pro Kit. Now in a perfect world I would do both at the same time. But my wallet doesn't live in that perfect world, and I can afford to do one or the other right now. My question is this: which one should I do first, and why?

I don't feel that the springs or shocks are broken, so there isn't a concern with needing to replace them. I'm sure they are both showing their age, but nothing worse than that. And I will have both elements replaced by summer 2004. I'm just wondering what makes the most sense to do first.

Thanks,

Jonathan

Interesting question, but not that hard to figure out. First, from an chronological analysis, the shocks on a car generally wear out before the springs, so replacing the shocks first would be logical.

There is also the experience of some members here that using shorter springs on OEM shocks causes the shocks to wear out faster (valving not designed for the shorter stroke length), so if you run lower springs, you'll need to replace the OEM shocks in an accelerated amount of time.

Unless you're getting an extremely good deal on either the springs or shocks, is there any harm in banking the bucks and waiting until you can do both, and maybe add larger anti-roll bars and a camber kit, at the same time?

I don't think it really matters if you're changing both, however, if it were me, I'd do the springs first to set the ride height where you want it then get struts/shocks. If you end up lower than stock, then I would recommend the Sport shocks vs. the HD's as the Sports are valved for a lowered ride height where the HD's are not.

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Glen Tokuhara
Beauty & the Beast and the wagon that could!