I've been itching to play around with the suspension for my wife's wagon. It feels a bit squishy at 95k miles, and the 16" wheels make it look like it needs to be lowered about 1".

I'd love some suspension recommendations to tighten up the ride and lower the car a bit -- springs, shocks, sway bar? Also, given the rear leveling, will it be a problem lowering it with different springs?

Thanks - H

There are several suspension lowering kits for the S124.

Most of them compromise spring changes, and the new springs let you more or less decide how much lower you want to go (1", 1.5", 2", 2.5"...) It is a simple swap.

Although, be certain that the ride quality will suffer and that the suspension will bottom out faster if the car hits a large pothole.

From what I know, there is no way to play around with the Self Leveling Suspension System (besides over-riding the weight sensor to make it start levelling the car at higher payloads). Anyway, that system is very sensitive and only serves the purpose of levelling the car when loaded (it is not an actice/semi-active suspension system), so I would advise you to leave it alone.

A. Rosich
S320, 1998
E320T, 1995

There is also some maintenance you can do on the self-leveling suspension.

There is fluid that needs to be replaced at regular intervals, as well as something called 'nitrogen spheres' or something like that.

Many owners of cars with the self-leveling suspension have noticed huuuuuge differences in ride quality when these have been replaced.

FWIW, most of the high performance models have the self-leveling suspension, like the 190E 2.3-16 and the 500E.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".