I have a '92 245 and it rides like a boat. I want to stiffen it up a bit and make it feel a little tighter. But I dont want it to ride hard.

Are the IPD springs still going to comfortable?

And what shocks should I go with?

TIA!

 

By IPD springs I assume you mean the shorter ones to lower the car. Have no idea what those do to the feel of the car except lower the center of gravity on the car, should make it feel more solid. As for the shock, go OE for a nice stock feel that will stiffen it up with some room to feel comfortable in.

 

When I had a 740 GLE, I put hd iPd springs on it and it just firmed it up a little. Not harsh at all. I had original shocks on it and over 400,000 miles and rode nice.

 

i have stock front springs, overload springs in rear, and a fresh set of bilstein TC's. if you want comfort, I'd go with the boge/sachs OE shocks and stock springs. if you want a little firmer handling, add the sway bars so the car doesn't lean as much on hard turns. next step up would be the bilstein TC/touring shocks on stock springs like I have. I kinda regret the overload springs in back, they are harsh when the car(wagon) is empty, but man they are nice with a heavy load in back.

sport springs and bilstein HD will give you a really stiff car, you'll feel every crack on the road, and anything that can rattle in your car most certainly will. but it will handle great, if your bushings and tie rods are in good shape.


p.s. I should add, I live in the Peoples Republic of Santa Cruz.... the city and county roads around here are in really bad condition, I drive a lot on narrow windy mountain roads too. my current setup handles these roads really well. I wouldn't lower this car 1", I like hte ground clearance the way it is, and hate scraping hard parts.

 

yah, I live in the east bay, so I know your roads pretty well.

I have a set of virgo's and am thinking the car would look good with those and a slight drop, plus a little stiffer. It drives like a boat right now.

 

So IPD springs and stock shocks work well?

have you done the sway bars?

And how likely is it that I will kill myself if I do my own struts/springs?

 

on a 20 yr old car, odds are pretty good the suspension bushings are mostly shot. 240s, the main pivot bushings for the rear end trailing arms wears out, and the back gets all sloppy. if the panhard rod bushings are gone, the back end clunks from side to side on S turn transitions. and the inner tie rods on the steering rack can get loose, which makes the steering feel all sketchy. the stock front sway bar has two bushings that wear out, and leave the car much more wallowing than it was new. [7/9s also have a bushing that ties the lower control arm to the trailing arm, but 240s dont]. replacing that stuff and using stock boge/sachs shocks can do wonders without doing any actual 'upgrades'....

in the past, I've 'overdone' suspension upgrades, with too stiff springs and shocks.... on a daily driver it gets annoying when your CD player skips on turns

I do recommend getting volvo stock bushings and not using poly, unless you're building a rally car. if you do go poly, use SuperPro, not that cheap chinese ('Uro', etc) stuff. there's a guy on turbobricks who does group buys of superpro (comes from australia). Poly won't last as long as the stock rubber stuff, and often develops annoying squeaks and rattles. its not as resiliant as the stock rubber, so will give you a harsher busier ride.

 

Thanks. The mechanic is doing the control arm bushings and fixing the AC on monday.

We'll see how it drives after. I can probably do the rear shocks and various other bushings myself.

The struts scare me though!

 

me too. after I collected everything, I ended up deciding I'd have my mechanic do the struts, and then I said to heck with it, and had them do everything. ended up being like 8 or 10 hours labor, eeek. but I really had them replace *EVERYTHING* on my 200K mile 745T.

 

I recently installed IPD’s Sport springs, sway bars and Bilsteins. I also exchanged the two large rear axle bushings with IPD’s poly bushings. With over 400k on the clock, I decided to also replace the ball joints and tie rod ends. I took a good look at all the other bushings and many just didn’t look like they had any wear at all. I did change out the panhard bar with IPD’s adjustable bar. I had also replaced the front A-arm bushings with stock bushings.
So now I’ve had a few months to live with it and I have totally gotten used to the slightly higher noise level. I just turn up the stereo. But the benefits that I’ve received from the changeover have far outweighed the slightly extra noise. I only really noticed the extra noise at first because, like anyone, I tend to be really critical right at first after I’ve put in a lot of work on something. I am extremely pleased that I made the decision to go with the Sport springs and other goodies.
As far as cornering ability goes, the weak link in the entire system is the driver’s seat. The car takes corners SO well that I have a difficult time staying in the seat. Also, the car is a little too old for me to be thinking about any kind of competition. That’s not why I really did the change.
One unexpected advantage of this is that the car also has some pretty amazing load handling characteristics. I’m able to fill the trunk and back seat with stuff OR take 3 or 4 passengers along and the car just drives superb.
To anyone thinking about this change I say, “Go For It!!”