[bumpa2]

I don't know if this is SLK55 specific or general R171.

A previous owner lowered my 2005 SLK55, and it's a little too low for my tastes - it bottoms out / scrapes the road on occasion over bumps with my 19" wheels.

The garage I went to said it was lowered about 2 1/4" front and 2" rear (not sure how exact). I don't know much about lowering cars, but I think it needs raised about an inch to help with the issues I'm having. Is there a 1 inch lowering kit that I can replace with?

Does however it was lowered previously (cut springs / lowering kit) affect what I have to do now, or would a kit include everything needed for replacement?

The garage (not a suspension specialist, but a German car jack-of-all-trades shop) said it would be $3k parts and labor to go back to stock replacing springs, struts, and something else (mounting bar?). I'm hoping a kit would be much less.

 

[Durkatlon]

It kind of depends on what was done to lower it. Just springs, or springs+shocks? Coil-overs?

The amount the car is lowered by does not sound too outrageous, so if it still has the stock shocks, some new springs might be all that's required. If you are willing to back to stock ride-height it is quite possible that there is someone on the forum that has a set of springs left over from a prior lowering job.

If you want to maintain some amount of lowering it becomes tricky because now you need some springs that are in between stock and whatever it is they put on it. This might proof tough to find.

Hopefully they used some actual aftermarket springs, instead of just cutting the stock springs (*yuck* ).

 

[MarkR171]

It really depends what's on the car now. I have the BC Racing Coilover kit (shocks and springs) on my car and it was less than $1000. The ride height is adjustable on these, but does not go all the way back to stock height.

2+ inches of drop on an AMG sounds like a severe drop, I doubt it's lowered that much. Any pictures?

 

[Beekster]

I too doubt a 2-inch drop. I put the Bilstein B12 kit, which included Eibach Sport Kit springs,on Sunhilde and the drop was slightly over an inch. There's still about an inch of visible gap, so with a 2-inch drop there would be no tire clearance at all.

 

[bumpa2]

Where did you all get your lowering kits installed? Was it a local speed shop / customizer type of place or just a tire shop?

I want to take it somewhere to get it looked at again by a more specialized shop, but some quick googling didn't find anything really.

 

[Durkatlon]

I had my work done at a tuner shop. The dealers won't touch it, and a tire place I wouldn't trust to know what to do.

 

[etyu]

You may want to check if there is something like Brabus tuner shop in your area. Or one can ask a dedicated MB independent garage and see who they trust to do their suspension work.

 

[Beekster]

I had mine done at my local Mercedes-Benz dealer in Beaverton. They had no qualms about installing the B12 kit and aligning the car. They were concerned that the factory bump stops on the front struts would not fit the beefier Bilstein units, but a quick call to Bilstein confirmed internal bump stops in the struts and the service advisers response was "Oh, OK...that's cool; we'll let you know when the car is done".

 

[Nikken]

if you go lower than a prokit springs you have to deal with front and rear camber issues to make it work

 

[Zenman 63]

if you go lower than a prokit springs you have to deal with front and rear camber issues to make it work

I am in the process of making adjustable lower track control/ lower arms with an adjustable inner joint to help get the rear camber right.

 

[Durkatlon]

I am in the process of making adjustable lower track control/ lower arms with an adjustable inner joint to help get the rear camber right.

There are also other solutions available for this problem, such as KMAC adjustable bushings. I've had these on my SLK for quite a while and they work good.