I figured this deserves a spot here, it discusses lowering the front of the slk. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r170...val-front.html

 

That is a great article and I read it a couple of times before tearing my car apart. What I really like is that spring compressor. Wish I could have found one like that. The front would be a very easy with it.

 

Brian,

I recently purchased an SRT6 and love it. I do think that the car definitely needs to be dropped though. I checked on Eibach lowering springs but it seems like their spring rates (371 pds) are an upgrade for the normally aspirated but maybe a downgrade for an SRT6 (450 - 480 pds spring rate) so I believe your solution sounds best by using the original SRT6 spring. (Plus a huge bargain!) However, the only thing that scares me is how the car handles with cut springs in regards to rebound and how the spring fits in the perch. (I've seen guys who've cut their springs and they have that weird bounce thing going as they drive down the street). How does the car handle and feel with the cut springs? Thanks for you help!

 

I cut exactily one coil off my springs. I did have the weird bounce in the rear when i hit bigger bumps in the road. I took the back end apart again, removed the shocks and took the top of the shocks apart to get to the rubber snubbers. I cut the snubbers almost in half and reinstalled the shocks. Now the car rides very good and better than any other car I have lowered in the past with aftermarket springs. The cut springs seat just like uncut springs. Cutting the springs has the effect of upping the spring rate a bit. The only thing I would perfer now is a little firmer shock, but I think I have one shock that may be worn as it was easier to compress than the other one.

 

I'm surprised that you didnt mention installing a camber kit....I'd be interested to hear how your tires are wearing 6 months from now.

 

A little bit negitive is never a bad thing. I lowered mine with the eibach and it was not a problem at all. But the kit is on ebay not a bad idea to pick one up just to make it look back to stock.

 

Looks great.....It looks professional!!!! My next step is to lower..

 

Thanks for the feedback Latana...It sounds like it works pretty well by cutting the spring as long as one compensates by cutting the rear snubbers. I've never taken one of these suspensions apart before so would I have to just cut the rear snubbers to compensate for rebound or are there front snubbers that need to be adjusted as well? Lastly, how much of a drop did you get by cutting one coil off the springs? Was the drop the same for the front as the rear? Thanks again!

 

Update:

It's been 1 year and two weeks (11.5K miles) since I lowered my ride - with a total of 12, 9XX miles on the factory PS2's

Both rear tires wore evenly across the tire -- the front tires wore down a little more on the inner and outer edges. (to be expected with hard canyon driving)

I would guess that I have another 5K miles on the rear tires and 2-3K on the fronts (I replaced one front tire under warranty at 1,500 miles).

With how hard I drive - I'm not going to mess around and will mount all four tonight (nice have the Auto Hobby shop at your use) $10 to mount and balance all four...

Nothing like new shoes.....

 

Thanks for the update Brian! I am hoping to follow your lead and lower mine very soon!

 

it looks like this mod worked out great, good job!

 

i just tried to do this. i failed miserably. i almost threw a wrench at my car. is there some secret way to get those bigger screws out, the ones that are located right next to the exhaust, center car area. i got it right to the end and no matter how hard i tugged or hammered it wouldnt come out. i finnaly gave up. and i tried moving the jack up and down it would not move.HMM.

 

You need to take all the tension off the bolt using a floor jack.

Perhaps use a 1/4" socket extension and tap lightly. But the the key is to take all the tension off with the jack..

 

I just did this last week. The fronts are a little difficult. You have to have the jack in just the right place or the control arm will go down crooked and get wedged. I highly recommend having another person to help, one can control the jack while the other gets the bolts out. The bolts have an elongated shoulder to keep them from turning, so you have to drive them back with a hammer. I learned this the hard way! Once you get one side done the other is easy.
I took one full coil out of my limited and do not feel a difference in the ride. I did not cut the shock snubbers and have not had any problems. Maybe because mine is a limited. Before I lowered it I had 5in. between the rim and the fender, now 3.5.
I'm very happy with it! And the best part is it was free.
Thanks Brianbrave for the write up. If it wasn't for your write up I would have done it the hard way.

 

Your ride looks sweet! - great tip on removing that stubborn bolt...

 

Well, it's been 6 months and about 7000mi so I thought I would post an update. I had to go back and shave the bump stops down for a better ride. (rides as new now). I had to replace the rear tires yesterday and I know alot of people were concerned about uneven tire wear due to the car being lowered. My rear tires wore even all the way across. NO abnormal wear. Sorry, no pics, I forgot to take my camera. You'll just have to take my word on it. However, while on the rack I noticed very severe wear on the extreme inside of the front tires. Almost as if I was driving on the sidewall or the tire was rubbing on something. I don't believe this is due totally to the car being lowered, as it is so extreme and others on here have had this problem on non-lowered cars.
I went to 295 30 19 tires in the rear when I got my new wheels and had problem with them rubbing on the inside of the wheel well. 20mm spacers solved the problem until I replaced my conti's with the perelli's. The perelli's are also 295 30 19, but they are physically wider. They rubbed on the OUTSIDE of the wheel well and I had to use 12mm spacers. So now they rub on the inside again! I just finished a highly technical mod. to correct this problem once and for all. It involved a large hammer and a raw hide mallet! I'll let you know how this works.
I welcome your comments!

 

Doing your motor swap for he Mercedes. Challenging? Cost?

 

Hey folks i thought i would just add my experence with lowering my car.

I did the wavetrac diff install last week and wanted to do just a slight lowering while i had the suspension apart.

I ended up cutting just 1/2 a coil and gave me the exact drop i was looking for; perfect fender gap around the entire wheel

Its hard to notce in the pic because of the shadow on the tire, but the fender gap is perfect all the way around.

Just put the wheels on the car in the pic and took it for a quick spin so it would settle down. Didnt get a chance to put the center caps on

 

looks great! Good job cutting just 1/2 coil so you didn't have to mess with different spring pads like I did. I also like it without the center caps!

 

It funny that you mention the center caps. I didnt put them on right away because im going to paint the calipers red, and every time you put a flat blade to pop them off, the clear coating can easily crack. But after looking it at like this for a week in the driveway they are starting to grow on me, i think ill chuck some aluminum in the lathe and make a cap that has more curves then the old one but can still put the logo in the center. I know they make a small cap that pops in the center, however the lug bolts on these cars arnt really finished pretty, they just have a rough galvanized coating on them. Well see.