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Wagon Front Coils

4K views 58 replies 12 participants last post by  tuttebenne 
#1 ·
Hi All,

So, I've looked high and low and I can't find anything with the exception of some really complicated documents saying I need to find dashes and colors on my existing springs.

Looking to sort my suspension out on my 95 e320 wagon. 166k.

the rear SLS system seems to be working fine - don't touch that.

I can find Mercedes OEM springs on pelican real easily.

Now the tough part.

I found the part number and avail for Bilstein B6 HD's - Bilstein 22-100436

But the front springs are discontinued on the Merc website and I can't find any other listings for them.

Anybody have any ideas or can lead me to a forum post?

It's got an auto transmission, sunroof - I did find one page that said all these things matter.

thanks,
dave
 
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#5 ·
So I'm going to do the front shocks - I'm seeing weeping and the car is too floaty.

I figured since the springs are like $40/pop, why not do them when I do the struts and bushings.

I've seen the w124 performance site, but it's worthless to me. It's just a bunch of sportline spring part numbers that are NLA.

All I want is a part #/link to the appropriate stock-like springs. The B6 HD's will make it less rolly and floaty.

I'm getting 124-321-22-04 as the MB part number, but I can't find any aftermarket equivalents.

no rust on the springs - do you guys think I should just leave be? At what point do they get tired?

-dd
 
#7 ·
its too late for me tonight, but tomorrow I'll try and remember to transcribe the scoring table for a E320 wagon.... EPC has a base score, then points you add for each option in the car, add all that up, final score you look up in a table, and it says which spring and pads to use. there's typically 2-3 springs, and 2-3 pads giving about 6 combinations. these are matched to the factory Boge/Sachs OEM shocks, but the Bilstein touring/TC shocks are pretty close. Bilstein HD are much stiffer, and will give a harsher ride on rough pavement.
 
#11 ·
Ok, great - let's just leave the springs alone. The ride height looks fine and I don't see a lot of rust even though it was a pacific northwest car originally.

So now that leaves bilstein B6 HD or the B4's . . . . I've read that the B6 will stiffen it up, but not to the point my teeth will rattle over bumps.

Has anyone installed the B6's - or should I just go OEM style B4's, pay less, and call it a day?

I took a look at my control arm bushings and the seem cracked, but when I did the pry bar test they seem fine.

Part of me is just do everything when I'm in there, and the other part is like do one thing and then move on.

thanks again for all your insight.
-dd
 
#13 ·
Last year I put B6's on all four corners of my '94 E320. They thoroughly transformed the car. The ride is still great, but without all the bouncing over bumps. I would highly recommend them.

No surprise that your Pacific Northwest car is virtually rust free. The roads aren't salted in this region. Rain doesn't do anything to these cars unless you let them sit outside undriven for long periods of time, or you never bother to wax the paint. Also, with the high number of overcast days, you don't get nearly the UV damage to the interiors that you get further south. There are a lot of time machine cars here.
 
#19 ·
Shhhhh.......secret stuff there. Let's keep our cars recirculating here as much as possible...lol.


Everyone always seems to immediately jump to some aftermarket spec Bilstein. The OE's were Sachs and they work fine now just like they did then. Bought mine at autohaus and assume they still carry.

Kevin
 
#27 ·
I dug back and realized, it was VOLVO 740/940 replacement shocks that are coming from Mexico. the originals were made-in-europe BOGE, the SACHS branded replacements are Mexican, and the Volvo enthusiasts are seriously annoyed. someone on the Volvoforum found a NOS european Boge, and put it on a shock tester and compared it with the current Sachs, both had the same low speed compression damping, but the NOS Boge had twice the high speed damping at the extremes of its travel (I might have low and high speed mixed up here), so obviously they were nowhere near the same shock. both were supposed to be twin tube low pressure gas shocks. the OE factory Volvo/Boges from the 80s/early 90s lasted 200K+ miles and still had decent damping, while the replacements are mush at 100k. I believe those OE Boges were branded ProGas in the aftermarket (as compared with the sportier/stiffer TurboGas, both types were available for my late 80s VW Jetta)
 
#28 ·
Bil HDs on stock springs is not harsh, its controlled and works very very well. Infact they work best with stock springs. When you up the spring rate the bils dont work so well. Bil HD's is the way to go on stock springs. And I live in LA where roads suck, anything stiffer than the bills would not be good. BUT you can go with a koni sport too on a the lowest setting....the issue is going too stuff on the front is gonna throw your stock rear outa wack...and I have a hard time believing 20 year old rear shocks work very well. You might be suprised at how much better it works with new rear SLS shocks. And yes, they are shocks in addition to load leveling devices. No the gas spheres do not provide the dampening.

And the stock sachs work great too no question there
 
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#29 ·
the rear 'shocks' on the SLS system are simple hydraulic rams, they have no damping at all, that's entirely done by the nitrogen spheres. the 'shock' only need replacing if they are leaking. the spheres provide both additional spring force to the system for leveling, and the damping. the hydraulic pump and leveling valve fine tune the pressure in the spheres to compensate for different loads.
 
#30 ·
No, the shocks are just that Oil filled shocks that also have the ability to be pressurized by the fluid to raise or lower the vehicle, dampening is still purley a function of the shocks. The spheres are there to deal with transients. When you hit a bump and the shock compresses quickly, the fluid in it has to go somewhere...well it goes into the sphere and the sphere forces that fluid back out when the shock expands again. People relate them to performing dampening because when they fail they fill the system with pressurized nitrogen. Well air is bouncy, so you get a harsh basket ball ride because oil shocks dont work well when you pump a bunch of air through them...There is little or no rebound control when the spheres fail. But as far as the SLS shocks go, they are just that shocks with the addition of fluid to raise and lower...just like air shocks, sortof.

I will be posting a video showing what bad worn out NON leaking SLS shocks do soon as I get my rear suspension back together. They bounce like any other set of worn out shocks.
 
#31 ·
That's not my understanding of how the SLS system works at all. They are not shocks, but hydraulic rams just like you would find on a loader or any other off-road equipment, that raise and lower the vehicle depending on load. When the vehicle bounces, the hydraulic oil under pressure will not compress, so the nitrogen filled spheres will absorb the compression/expansion of the pressurized hydraulic oil.

When the spheres are charged properly, they allow the pressurized hydraulic oil to ebb & flow into them as your vehicle goes over bumps, potholes, ramps etc. There is no dampening in those rams.....the road forces them up and down and the compressed and expanded hydraulic oil has to go somewhere to give you a smooth ride...ergo inside the nitrogen charged spheres. Without anywhere for the compressed and expanded hydraulic oil to go, it's like riding a live axle school bus.

Kevin
 
#32 ·
the damping function of this system (hydraulic ram <-> nitrogen sphere) is in the form of restriction valves that constrain the flow rate of the fluid between them. typically there would be a valve that lets the fluid pass faster one way ('compression') than the other ('rebound'). also, it lets the fluid pass faster if there's higher pressure (high speed compression/rebound) than lower pressures (low speed compression/rebound)... so the damping question really boils down to where these restriction valves are, in the rams, or in the spheres.
 
#33 ·
Gentlemen, please allow me to clarify!

The dampening which is done by reagular (misleadingly called) “shock absorbers” on non-SLS cars, is done by the struts in case of SLS … by the same principle … namely by oil flow through passages in the piston … which, needless to say, distinguishes them majorly from “hydraulic rams”. :wink_2:

H.D.
 
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