What is the stock W124 ride height?
 

I've been reading post after post regarding w124 ride heights for sedans and wagons and it seems that somewhere between 13.5" to 16" is where most who have responded fall. unfortunately no one has defined what the actual stock ride height is. Is it the same front to rear? Sedans vs Wagons?

Can anyone shed some more light on this questions? Measuring from wheel hub center to fender lip.

I ask because after replacing my front struts and rear multi-links my wagon seems to ride a bit higher than before. Technically changing the struts should not have affected ride height at all. I replaced the Original MB struts with Sachs (OEM) the struts were the same length collapsed and extended. The multi-links in the rear have more of an effect on ride height so I can see the change there, but I did tighten everything while under load per the FSM.

My heights are 15.25" Front, and 16" rear. The car was aligned by an indy shop and nothing odd was noticed. I just know that it now sits from .5 to 1 inch higher than before. What gives, do these numbers look normal? What are other measuring?

I believe either late 88 or 89 saw a drop in the ride height. 88 and before definitely have the highest ride height. Even with bilstein sports and eibach springs I have a small gap from wheel to fender. If you use my same setup on a later model, it would be much lower.

I saw the same ride height increase after changing my wagons front shocks. It baffles me as well...

Good to know that I'm not the only one baffled by this :P
What are you measuring with your set-up? Do you know much of a drop you had or rather what the original height was for your wagon?

So the saga continues....
 

just two years later I have now replaced the front LCA and tie rod ends all around. With this improvement in my front suspension, it has now also grown once again :confused:
The wagon now sits 16" from hub center to fender lip front and rear. My front end came up another 3/4 in just with the LCA change. What gives?

Still searching for some stock numbers. Every suspension component has been replaced on this car in the last two years, and it seems to ride much higher than it should, can anyone please help :D

14.5/15.0

Original shocks......

Big dog,
No I replaced the shocks two years ago but they have only seen 7k miles in that time as well and were riding lower than before replacing the lower control arm.

Oops... Sorry I misunderstood your post :rolleyes:
Thanks Big Dog for the numbers, that's great to know. I'm riding high and will have to fiddle with the LCA to see if it will drop back down closer to those numbers.

The "Trick" may be...
 

ALL W124 FLEXIBLE "Components" should be Torqued ONLY with the Chassis at
"Ride Height".
[I.E. Torquing the RUBBER components (OUTSIDE of "Ride Height") can artificially
affect the Chassis "Resting" height.]

Classic example is GSXR's removing the rear coils on W124 s
(After replacing ALL the rear suspension components)
to be able to [With Jacks and Stands] EXACTLY match the FSM heights
BEFORE Torquing the NEW component's Bolts.

its getting closer
 

After replacing the sway bar bushings today (my last suspension piece to replace whoo hoo) I decided to inspect the LCA eccentric bolts and found that a few were clocked further than they were with the old LCA's. I loosened these and readjusted back to the "before" state. Hand tightened everything and bobbed the front end a few times. Then when fully loaded I tightened everything up and was back down to 15.25 in. a whole 3/4 lower.

A test drive did not reveal any change in alignment, but given that I mess with the eccentrics and the ride height changed I'm thinking of taking it back to the shop for a re-check, hopefully I'll be fine until I get it there...

On another note:
I noticed that the sway bar bushings have this rubber nibs or bumps cast into the rubber, The old bushes have 4 bumps on all of them, and my new ones only have 2 bumps. What is the purpose for these bumps? Is it about stiffness? Any ideas :confused:

This may not be completely helpful, but it's a good reference to have (assuming you're pertaining to the '87 300TD):

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/legom...int-124t-1.jpg

Thanks MBeige
 

Very neat information and will use the rear bumper height measurement as a reference. Very nice and yes this pertains to the TD.

This is one car I don't mind investing in, it certainly has rewarded me for it :D