Analysis of E420 suspension mods
    All of my suspension mods have had one purpose in mind, the pursuit of better performance. One can see the transformation my car has made in the following pictures.

    Completely stock suspension. The stock suspension performs exactly as it was designed, comfort first then performance. High speed stability is great, as is the very smooth and luxurious ride. When pushed one will notice moderate amounts of body roll and understeer. The stock tire size (195/65/15) is greatly inadequate for such a heavy and powerful car. The car looks great, but not sporty or unique.

    Slightly modified suspension, Eibach springs with #1 pads in front and #2 pads in the rear, slightly wider 205/60/15 Yokohama AVS db tires. The new springs lowered the car giving it a much better sportier look, significantly reduced body roll, and greatly improved handling. The AVS db tires are the best tires I have bought for this car. The tires are very quiet (one can not hear them at all), quite sticky, and rode like a dream. These tires greatly improved handling. All the gained performance did not come free, the Eibach springs are much stiffer than the stock springs, the stiffness compromised the ride a bit, on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being stock) I would give this suspension setup a very strong 8.5 or 9.

    Suspension in its current form, Eibach springs with #1 pads all around, Bilstein sport shocks, 18" Carlsson wheels, with 225/40 tires, and 500E front sway bar. I changed the rear spring pads because the car looked like it was taking a nose dive. The spring pad lowered the rear a bit and fixed my problem. The biggest improvement in this step was the addition of bigger wheels with wider tires. The wider tires helped me get better traction when launching the car, and they also greatly improved corning ability, not to mention much better looks. The wheels have made the car look much newer, and they have changed the whole characteristics of my car. The Bilstein shocks greatly improved ride quality, as well as further reducing body roll, and make for a better all around handling car. To further reduce the body roll I added a 500E front sway bar, the bar has no effect on the ride quality but I did reduce body roll by about 35%. Look here for more info on the 500E Sway Bar. The ride of my car in this stage is about 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being stock), the 40 series tires harmed the ride a bit, but the Bilstein shocks made up for the loss in side wall.


A picture of the front suspension on the E420 that includes; Eibach springs (yes they do get dusty) and Bilstein sport shocks.

    The changes in suspension of my E420 have greatly improved handling, the difference from stock to its current state is night and day. The car rides just like stock on smooth pavement and not quite as good as stock on rough pavement. I am very happy with the way the suspension behaves. I have also added a rear camber correction kit, which has corrected my rear camber problems.

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