Re: New Ground Control Coilover Suspension Kit and Links for W124

[chicky]

Hello all

I chanced upon these and wanted to share with the forum ...

New Ground Control Coilover Suspension Kit and Links for W124, Fits all M119-powered W124 Models including the 500E/E500 and 400E/E420

New Ground Control Coilover Suspension Kit and Links for W124 For Sale | The MB Market

Bid for your chance to own this New Ground Control Coilover Suspension Kit with Links on The MB Market. This complete kit is all new in box and comes with every part needed to completely overhaul your suspension. The kit fits all 500E/E500 and 400E/E420 W124s.

thembmarket.com

... just sharing, not connected with the seller

 

[gsxr]

I've mentioned this previously, but I'm not comfortable removing the front coil spring and having the entire front end only supported by the strut mount/tower. The chassis was not designed for this. It also adds significant load to the strut and spindle, which now must support all the chassis weight. I don't understand why "tuners" think this is a good idea.

Replacing all the rear links with solid bushings / Heim joints makes for a noisy, harsh ride on the street. That stuff is better suited for the track (and, I'm still not convinced they're great on the track either).

All the components sure are shiny, pretty colors though!

 

[ArauzMotoring]

Wonder what the spring rates are that they supply for the 500e chassis

 

[500AMM]

I've mentioned this previously, but I'm not comfortable removing the front coil spring and having the entire front end only supported by the strut mount/tower. The chassis was not designed for this. It also adds significant load to the strut and spindle, which now must support all the chassis weight. I don't understand why "tuners" think this is a good idea.

Replacing all the rear links with solid bushings / Heim joints makes for a noisy, harsh ride on the street. That stuff is better suited for the track (and, I'm still not convinced they're great on the track either).

All the components sure are shiny, pretty colors though!

...exactly my thoughts as well. And to my understanding it's no deep engineering put into this besides from making it fit the car.

The W124 will never be a race car and except from some lower level racing, I've never seen any racing team running a full blooded W124, and the reason is they were too big, too heavy and needed too extensive modifications. That was also the reason for the smaller and lighter W201 was picked for the early DTM series (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft 1984-1996) and BTCC and the like, based on conventional cars with restricted chassis mods.

As for Heim joints; in the time frame 1998-2004 I was a member of our local motorsports club representing the gokart group. We prepared for building a B-licensed 1000++ meter gokart track, and to build up equity for the project we rented the hockey hall during the summer season and ran a gokart rental business. We did this for 4 seasons and all was based on volunteer work among the club members. Rental gokarts on indoor tracks are heavily beaten up and the most frequent replacement part was the outer Heim joints on the steering linkages. We even beefed them up to a larger size but they didn't last long anyway. We didn't use any superior quality - if that ever existed, but I must say I'm generally not impressed of Heim joints. The free play and "click-clack" noises starts surprisingly early and it is no way to tighten them up AFAIK.

 

[500AMM]

I didn't mean to kill the spirit with my post above or offend those who like to install such a suspension KIT. So dear petrolheads out there - the KIT looks great so go ahead and do what you like, it's your car. Just keep attention to some risk factors with it.

Thanks for posting @chicky, the mere the merrier!