Spring pad thickness question

[Ingvar]

Anyone know which spring pads the 1992 500E came with originally? I know thickness of pads depends on amount of extra equipment installed, but most 500Es came «loaded», didn’t they? Like most owners I have played around with different pad thicknesses, so in my case there’s no way of knowing which pads were installed when the car left the factory .

 

[JC220]

Usually 2 bump pads front and rear is the factory setup.

 

[gsxr]

Anyone know which spring pads the 1992 500E came with originally? I know thickness of pads depends on amount of extra equipment installed, but most 500Es came «loaded», didn’t they? Like most owners I have played around with different pad thicknesses, so in my case there’s no way of knowing which pads were installed when the car left the factory .

It depends which color springs were installed, AND what options it has. For USA-spec models, they all had the same equipment, but could still have different spring colors.

The EPC has a spring chart which shows the options, spring colors, and appropriate pads. But in general, as Joe said, a good ballpark is 2-pt front & rear (which usually has the front too low and rear too high).

 

[Ingvar]

Thanks guys. I think I have 3 bump on the front and 1 at the rear at the moment. This makes the car a little bit to low in the rear. Will try with 2 bump on the front, hopefully this will level the car.

 

[gsxr]

Thanks guys. I think I have 3 bump on the front and 1 at the rear at the moment. This makes the car a little bit to low in the rear. Will try with 2 bump on the front, hopefully this will level the car.

Are you sure the car has factory springs front & rear? And that the rear springs have not been cut? What you describe is the opposite of normal.

 

[Ingvar]

Yes, the car has factory springs. I really don’t see that what I descibe is opposite to normal. You say using 2 bump pads front and rear will make the car low in the front and high in the rear. Like I said I have 3 bumps front and 1 bump rear and this combo makes the car sit a a little bit lower in the rear compared to the front. That makes sense in my opinion.

 

[gsxr]

What I meant was, normally the 500E is too low in front, and too high in rear. And it's basically impossible to lower the rear enough to level the car, without replacing rear springs with aftermarket, or cutting rear springs.

You said your car was currently "too low" in the rear, which is almost never a problem with all stock components!

If measuring from wheel center to fender lip, front & rear, on a level surface... what are the measurements on your car? And how much fuel is in the tank, and do you have any unusual items in the trunk (subwoofer box, etc)? Typical on a bone-stock USA-spec E500E is about 14.0" up front (maybe a bit less) and around 14.5" in the rear: