Here is my VIN, let me know what you find.
WDB1240511B834275
Oooo, that VIN has code 653 Sports Undercarriage, along with code 957! Datacard
here. This car should have come from the factory with Sportline swaybars, steering gearbox, stiffer front LCA bushings, and stiffer rear/large subframe bushings. I think code 957 would have included AMG springs+dampers but I'm not positive. The AMG parts are NLA. I'd go with the factory Sportline springs. The dampers are recent Bilstien Sports, correct? If so, I'd leave them alone.
Interesting - I had not seen that particular kit before. A few comments:
1) Poly bushings like to squeak. Yeah, you can lubricate them, but you may need to do this on a regular basis... or add zerk fittings to make it easier. On the racetrack you don't care, around town, you might.
2) All this adjustability seems cool, but can create an absolute nightmare for the alignment tech - some alignment shops might not want to touch the car. In reality, 99.9999% of the time you'd only want to adjust rear camber slightly less negative to reduce wear on the inner edge of the rear tires, if wider than stock. All the other adjustable links are, IMO, sort of a waste. They should all be set so the length is identical to stock as a starting point, btw.
3) The factory links have bonded rubber bushings which cause the suspension to want to "return to center". More details and video link
here. Poly bushings won't do this.
4) The seller incorrectly identifies one of the links as a "caster arm". This does not exist. Mercedes identifies the 5 rear links as pulling, pushing, camber, toe / tie rod, and spring link.
5) That seller's feedback is not fantastic. Have you received the kit yet?
My car is lowered 1.5 inches.
Can you measure ride height from wheel center to fender lip, as shown
here and
here? That is more useful data to work with, for actual ride height. Remember there is such a thing as "too low", especially for street use. Once the car is sitting on the suspension stops, you could literally remove the springs and it wouldn't go any lower.
I'm having issues with the rear caster, thrust, and camber angles.
This is unusual. Does the car have all factory components on the 5-link rear suspension, i.e. not adjustable links? What shop told you the caster and thrust angles are out of spec? Those are normally fixed and should never need adjustment. (Camber adjustment is a different story.) The dealer alignment computer does not even show data for rear caster - only camber and toe.
For example, I'm running negative 2.8 camber on the driver's side and negative 3.6 camber on the passenger side. I need to adjust the rear to negative 2.0 on both sides.
Rear camber is directly proportional to ride height. Lower = more negative. But, left to right should be closer together, you have almost 1° difference left to right, which is fishy. -2.0° would be a good compromise for performance driving/handling. Closer to -1.0° would help the inner edge of the tires last longer since you have 10" rears.
Also, either the caster or the thrust angle is affecting how the driver's rear wheel is sitting in the wheel well, it's about 3/16-1/4 to to forward and needs to be centered in the wheel well.
The 124 chassis does not have the rear wheels centered in the fender opening / wheel well, they are normally pulled forward. However, left to right should be reasonably close to each other, assuming the custom rear fenders were welded on symmetrically.
I am running 18X10 rears, the car is a widebody, and I have room to go wider, which I will, hence why I'm trying to dial In my suspension. I need all 4 corners dialed in and adjustable down to the mm. Since I will be maximizing my wheel and tire fitment, I need all the adjustability I can get.
Current wheel size set up: 18x8.5 Fronts w/235/40/18 and 18X10 rears w/275/35/18.
Whoa, that is a phat setup! Any wider in the rear (or, pushed out any further) would be strictly for appearances. These cars tend to understeer, so for performance, you'd want wider wheels/tires up front to help balance the handling. That said - adjusting any of the 5 rear links to try and make bigger wheels/tires clear is a Very Bad Idea. The rear suspension should be dialed in per factory specs (other than camber, for tire life).
I got the sway bar measurements.
Fronts measure 28mm and rears are 17mm. Sometimes I would get a 27.9 and 16.9 but mostly it was solid 28 and 17.
Assuming these are factory Mercedes sway bars, they are very likely 27.5mm front and 16.5mm rear. The paint on the bar adds a bit to the measurement. The part number is stamped into factory bars, if you want to know for sure, you could try and locate these numbers - may need to wire brush the number to read it clearly. On the bright side, you don't need to upgrade these bars.
I should mention that I have a Sportine style steering wheel and what looks to be r129 brake calipers.
The Sportline style steering wheel was factory, per option code 281 in your datacard. This also had the different airbag shape as seen on your car. However, your car has an aftermarket steering wheel with wood and sculptured leather, which is not original from the factory. If you post photos of the brake calipers we can probably figure out exactly what they are, front & rear.
