[besprak]

Dear All,

I am considering lowering my 2007 SLK on H&R springs that give a 30mm drop. I was going to have these fitted and leave the existing OEM shocks in place. The car has done 55k miles.

I spoke to my local Merc tuner here in Hampshire and he said that sometimes the existing shocks can start to 'knock'....

has anyone on here lowered their 55 and had this problem? I don't really want to go the coilover route as it's more than I really want to spend.

Any advice chaps / experience etc?

Andrew

 

[Durkatlon]

The existing shocks are not designed to handle the shorter throw. I recommend replacing them with a set of Bilsteins or something along those lines.

I personally did *not* do this when I lowered my 350 on Eibach springs a few years back, and the OEM shocks wore down within about 10K miles of installing the new springs. I then went to Bilsteins after all, but you basically end up paying more in labor this way.

The Bilsteins have been on there for over 60K miles now and still going strong.

 

[besprak]

Hi

Thanks for the reply - as I thought, you have confirmed what I was thinking.

What about the H+R Coilovers - anyone had any experience with these?

A

 

[Lioninstreet]

On the H&R's several on SLKW members seemed to feel the ride was a bit harsh with them.

I chose to go with a Bilstein B12 kit with the Eibach springs when a member put a set up for sale that he never installed. The kit comes with the shorter throw struts as noted by Durk, but you can source them separately if you just have to get the H&R's.

The wife said it rides better than with the original AMG suspension. Believe me when I tell you, with the low profile 19" tires I have you feel everything. So to hear that from my wife, that's saying something.

 

[Durkatlon]

Also what I've seen from the coil-overs, is that even the highest setting results in a pretty extreme drop. Forum member "discoduck" used to have a bunch of pictures in this thread:

http://www.slkworld.com/performance-mods-r171/23577-r171-h-r-street-performance-coilovers.html

But it looks like those have all expired now. You can still see the comments of others expressing their opinion on the stance of the car with this suspension.