| Re: Wheels, Shocks, etc.
I've heard about the Monoblocks in the width you described - there usually used in apps like yours. I would love to have to real AMG rims especially 17's but oh well. You could have gone wider in the rear with the staggered look (or simply cause rear can take wider rims) but then you run into the lack of ability to rotate tires and a more expensive tinner profile tire in the rear. Since you have 17's on ultra low profile (I assume) you're getting the handling, performance and look (maybe, almost) you want. The only real reason to have gone wider in the rear would have been the "fat tire" (real noticeable on older Porsches and C4 Vette <- some of them have WIDE rims) look which can be cool depending on the person.<p>No, you don't have to change the shocks - you can go ahead and get the car lowered with H&R (by the way-they softer around town than Eibachs, but actually provide better performance when the car starts to engage their potential) but the lowered springs change the forces acting on the shocks and will wear them out sooner, plus you mine as well do a two for one deal labor wise and get the Bilstein sports put in (since their so cheap from shox.com - (call them up for $71 price quotes) instead of doing them later, plus your stocks are probably worn out since its a 1995 (I know mine are worn out by the push down test and they were leaking at the heads - but I got my car into a accident with $14,000 repair bill - got side swiped while making left turn and caved in right rear quarter panel + wheel of car, and misaligned trunk, right rear door smashed in and I had just got new rims and tires - life's a trip sometimes, but thats a whole other story in itself - I'm waiting to get the car back to see if it will be the same again or potentially better, but most would say it won't be same again, but not what MB bodyshop says - it should be better since rear suspension was rebuilt - I hoping tranny was repaired, replaced too, but probably not) Anyways, back to your car, I the route to go is defintely do shocks/springs at the same time if you can afford it, plus everyone pro I;ve talked to have advised doing both at same time plus Bilstein SP's are specially desginged for lowering springs.<p>Anyways, how many miles are on your car and do you have any complaints with it - ie: does it still fell tight, sound, drive like new, etc? Mine has 75,000 on it now and had some interior juggles on both front doors (which hopefully will be fixed in repair - everything can be fixed and I no Mercedes should have loose interior except M-Class I hear) and I always thought brake pedal wasn't tight enough and i knew suspension was bad - but that will be fixed one way or the other) Maybe its just me - but don't you think $14,000 is a lot to spend on repair bill for 5-y/0 MB - but hey I'm glad their doing the job right, but I was hoping it was totaled - I wanted to get into a 98 or newer C-class or (god forbid) E36 328i (I heard their easier to mod and cheaper) but overall I love MB. Look forward to hearing from you again Ron.<p>Troy<p> |