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Suspension Harshness Question

5K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  LeftyS7 
#1 ·
I am new to the SLK world, but certainly not new to cars. (I've had a bunch.) This 1999 SLK 230 (with 110,000 miles) seems to be harshly suspended. I realize that one man's "Firm" is another man's "Soft", but hopefully someone can help me understand my suspension. Here are my questions:

1.) My shock absorbers have imprinted on them large letters. The fronts have "V1" on the them and the rears have "H2" in LARGE block letters. Are these shocks the originals? Do those numbers mean anything?

2.) Does anybody else think this vehicle is too stiffly suspended, or is it just me?
 
#4 ·
#5 ·
shocks for your car
 

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#7 ·
Regards #2 : No, it's a sports car. I found the 2000 SLK230 to be an excellent balance between the stiffness required for good handling, good compliance to let the tires track the road surface, and ride quality. The 2006 SLK280 is a bit more biased to the sporty/stiff side but still has excellent ride quality and compliance for a middleweight sports car.

Some thoughts:

Presuming your springs and shocks are standard and not worn out (you can estimate wear on the springs by measuring static ride height and a good suspension shop can measure wear on suspension dampers using an appropriate gauge and jig setup*), a potential cause for harsh ride quality is also worn out motor mounts. I bought my SLK230 with 122,000 miles on it and it definitely needed motor mounts immediately ... the engine was riding very low due to the worn-out mounts and it rode harshly as a result. Ride quality was much improved the moment the engine/transmission mounts were changed. I believe the motor/transmission mounts on SLK cars are intended to be changed at around 65,000-75,000 miles, but most aren't.

* The shock absorbers Mercedes uses as stock equipment are generally speaking very good quality so you rarely have to worry about having them measured until you reach very high mileages. The ones in my SLK230 were still working well at 170,000 miles.

Tires ... both the size and the brand/type, and their inflation pressures ... make a huge difference to ride quality. When I upgraded the SLK280 to the Sport kit 17" wheels and matching tire sizes (my SLK230 was completely standard with 16" wheels), I went with Continental ExtremeContact DW tires and inflate them to the standard pressures listed in the fuel filler door plus 1 psi. I chose them because I know these tires perform well (excellent braking and cornering stick, not too razor sharp a turn-in bite, etc) and give a plush ride quality. These same tires gave an excellent ride quality on the SLK230 at standard sizing and with standard inflation pressures.​

There's no getting around the fact that the SLK is a small, tautly sprung car intended for a sporty driving feel, however. Anything that makes it handle better (lowering, aftermarket springs for less body roll, shock absorbers with more spring control, etc) will generally make it feel firmer and likely increase ride harshness and noise. If it's a softer, plusher-riding car that you're after, you likely need to consider something else.

G
 
#8 ·
V stands for Vorderseite "front" and H / Hintere for "rear" in German. I don't know the meanings of numbers but my facelift had H4 V4 installed originally.

Now I run on Bilstein (HD) B6 shocks for better handling. For oem dampening they have B4. And B8 for lowering kits and even stiffer ride.
 
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