w201 H&R lowering springs in-now 1" higher?!
 

Hey everybody- hope you're enjoying the summer! I finally got the H&R kit installed on the Euro 190d 2.0- with konis in the front, KYB shox in the rear and #4 pad in front, #3 pad in the rear. The rear fender lip sits at 24" from the ground (so with the pad increase from #2 to #3 it dropped the rear one inch from 25" with 195/65/15s) just right. The front is a different story- the front fender height with the original #3 pad was 25.75" and after the change to a #4 pad and the new springs & struts, I'm sitting at 26.5." It looks pretty ridiculous- and I'm going to have to address the problem. I checked to see if the LCAs were loosened/tightened when the shop did the job- and the hardware appears to be completely untouched. Any thoughts?

Anyone know how an increase or decrease in spring pad affects fender height? Hmm... Maybe I should post this separately....?

On my w201, I put the H&R 2.3 springs in and it really lowered the car, especially the front. I had to switch to the #4 pads up front (was on #2 before). I didn't measure but it's probably in the range of 24.5-25". There's maybe 1/2" of wheel well gap between the tire and the fender.

FWIW, the car lowered another 1/2-3/4" from driving and sitting around to settle. And I did not loosen the LCA bushings at all during the install.

Thanks for the reply. Just in case, I checked with H&R and I did get the right springs (the lighter w201 euro crosses to the 2.3 gas model in their book.) So, I measured to see if things had changed/settled since I've been driving it- and the rear has come down about 1/4 of an inch. The front hasn't budged and is still at 26.5" though.

I know I'm going to have to change the fronts from the #4 spring pads to something else. I just don't know which pads to get/install to even things out....

Not sure on your car but they should be pretty much the same listed 1 through 5. From my SLK 320

Spring pad sizes
Fronts
5mm: 210 321 0184
9mm: 210 321 0284
13mm: 210 321 0384
17mm: 210 321 0484
21mm: 210 321 0584

Rears
5mm: 210 325 0184
9mm: 210 325 0284
13mm: 210 325 0384
17mm: 210 325 0484
21mm: 210 325 0584

Thanks Chris! Now to figure out which pads (#1,#2 or #3) to use with the H&Rs... If I can get my front end down- that would be a good thing. (And I still gotta get tires...)

If you wanna just drop the front down I would go straight to the #1 pads.

I have H&R's on my SLK and it sits pretty low. note the soup can. http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t158/Chris-A-album/moresoup.jpg

Very nice! Wanna trade?:)
Right now my 190 looks like the front end is on jackstands...

I think they were installed wrong.

My car is in the shop for over 3 weeks getting the main computer replaced.. twice!!!!

Stop messing around and get out the trusty old angle grinder.

Tempting.... But I think I'm in the market for some more spring pads. Probably #2s. After spending a completely ridiculous amount of time researching this- and finding out about the "point" system MB used to decide which spring pads to use, and the differences between US and Euro models, etc. I'm relatively certain that these H&Rs are generally more compatible with US model w201s, which isn't what I have.