Well, that explains it all. I guess the old nickname for Volvos "The poor man's Mercedes" wasn't quite accurate. Say, do you know anything about Intrax springs for 940's? Made in Holland and supposedly they lower without stiffening the ride. Which I guess would allow you to use stock shocks to further maintain the ride?

 

the stock shocks have automatic valving which is optimized assuming the standard ride height. if you lower the car, the shock travel is now centered around a lower point in the shock, this will mess up the automatic valving.

in addition, a shorter spring HAS to be a stronger spring, otherwise the car will bottom out easier. a stronger spring should be matched to a stiffer damper.

 

OK. I didn't know about automatic valving, which I guess Bilsteins don't have? And I believe these Intax springs are a smaller diameter coil which would allow a shorter height without stiffening?

 

the coil diameter doesn't matter as much as the wire thickness in the spring's strength.

think of a spring like a scale. standard coil springs are quite linear. every X lbs of force you press down, the spring compresses Y inches. with the car fully loaded, the wheel still needs to travel up farther to go over road irregularities without jolting the frame of the car. lets say the stock spring has 4" of remaining travel when the car is sitting at rest, and bottoms out at 1500 lbs of force. if you shorten that spring so there's only 3" of travel and it has the same spring force, it will travel those 3" and bottom out with 1500*3/4 = 1125 lbs.


re: bilsteins, as I understand it, Bilstein Touring and Bilstein HD are both setup for stock spring heights. Bilstein Sport springs are setup for sports lowering springs such as IPD and others sell.

 

Very interesting and makes sense. I guess I didn't clarify that these Intrax springs are made from a smaller wire so when they're shortened they have the same stiffness as stock springs. Also, I believe they're wound progressively so they stiffen more as they're compressed more, result: good handling and soft ride. They question is will stock shocks work, they drop 1 inch.

 

again, the stock boge automatics, and the bilstein touring and HD, are all valved for normal suspension travel range. with shortened suspension, you need a shock valved appropriately.

re: progressive springs, these work by having some turns of the spring with closer spaced coils, so when the spring is partially compressed, these windings run into each other, effectively shortening the moving length of the spring wire, which increases the spring rate. I had progressive springs on a rather sporty gen2 VW Jetta GLI I had, I found they gave a decent ride under normal conditions such that my wife didn't complain too much, but got kind of noisy when driven hard on rough mountain roads as those progressive turns would be banging into each other

 

"banging into each other" - didn't think of that. Thanks for the tip, another thing to consider. By the way, I still haven't found the 940 I want and started thinking about a classic Mercedes, which you seem to like so much. Any suggestions on the best year, reliability, easy repairs, etc.?

 

I'm hooked on the W124 series, these are the E class mercedes (midsized) from 1986-1995. The models were 300E (sedan), 300CE (coupe), 300TE (wagon), 260E (sedan with the smaller 2.6L engine), 400E (V8 sedan) until 1994 when they renamed them all E320 or E420 to match their new corporate branding (these 1994, 1995 cars also got a mild face lift with new grill, new headlights, body colored bumpers)

US model 124's include a sedan, coupe, wagon, and cabriolet. the standard engines were straight 6, and V8's in some sedans. two versions of the straight 6, with a couple variants, the M103 2.6 and 3.0 liter SOHC using CIS-E (KE-Jetronic) fuel injection, and the M104 2.8 and 3.2L DOHC using HFM-SFI motronic injection. there was also a transitional model M104 3.0 DOHC using KE-Jet, I'd avoid these as there's a couple key replacement parts that are scary-expensive, this engine was used on a few coupes (300CE) in the early 90s. the V8's are mostly 4.2L M119 engines, and a rare 5.0L model known as 'the hammer' (fastest production sedan ever at the time).

there's gotchas up the whazoo, 1992-1997 mercedes all suffered from 'eco junk wiring' harnesses, but most should have been replaced by now. the straight 6's may have weak head gaskets. the automatic transmissions have a reverse clutch pack that fails early if they have been abused (maybe around 150k miles, although some go 250k miles) but a complete better-than-new rebuilt transmission is only about $1700 from a couple specialist vendors. Warm the car up thoroughly, stop on level ground, put it in neutral, and shift to reverse and count how many seconds before the reverse gear actually engages. 1-2 seconds is normal. 5 seconds, its going to be time to replace soon. 10 seconds is a almost-dead transmission, if neglected TOO long, they can grenade inside.

these are complex cars, many repair procedures require intricate disassembly and reassembly, which is quite time consuming, but everything comes apart and goes together nicely as long as the car hasn't been botched by a sloppy mechanic. extensive service documentation is widely available, as is the full factory parts catalog ("EPC"). Mercedes is much better than post-Ford Volvo at stocking parts, and maintaining very high quality standards on the OE replacement parts. I'd recommend avoiding the 4Matic all wheel drive version, this was first generation AWD and problematic and expensive to repair.

There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes, its DEFINITELY worth paying more for one with complete service records as deferred maintenance can turn these into real money pits. And for SURE its worth the $100-ish for a full PPI (Pre Purchase Inspection) by a Mercedes dealer or independent mechanic on any car you're considering.

Here's my fleet of W124's which has replaced most of my fleet of Volvos...





the white one is my wife's 1994 E320 wagon. the black one is my 1993 300CE Cabriolet. the grungy gold one is our spare 300E2.6, soon to be my daughter's.

the M104 HFM-SFI 3.2L in my Cabrio...


the other model Mercedes I strongly considered prior to getting that Cabriolet is the 500SL/SL500 of the same era, which are model R129, this is a 2 seater roadster, based on a downsized W124 chassis. a cherry 500SL is $$$$$ and most I looked at were not in that great condition.

folks say the build quality on Mercedes after about 1995 started going down hill, they were built to a price point rather than to an engineering standard.

the cars before the W124 (E class were model W123) had swing arm IRS, and were much simpler/primitive mechanically. Most 123 sedans and wagons were diesels, the infamous 300D that goes a half million miles.

the S class mercedes are considerably MORE complicated and more expensive, these are the large luxo-barges often driven by bank presidents and such when new. the smaller C class are the 'baby benz', first example was the 190E of the mid 80s (back then E meant fuel injection). I don't know as much about these, although I know the 190E's engineering and design aesthetics were refined for the 300E...

 

I just sold an '02 E55, meh... Not very impressive. I have an '02 320 SLK which is pretty good and fun to drive.

Sure, MBZ have the best ride around, no doubt but the problem is that the upkeep and deferred maintenance will kill you, and no, they are not like a Volvo at all! Because of that they are dirt cheap. A 10 year old Civic costs more than an S Class which is a disaster to own. The E class is better, and a helluva good value as long as it was not neglected. A C class is even better, lighter, more nimble, also dirt cheap.
124 are not bad at all but they are 20+ yrs old so finding a decent one is not easy, and they are at a point where things will start going wrong in a big way and then come the bills... Newer MBZ wear badly.

If one runs to the shop and pays all the money they want, then, OK, who cares what car you own? The Volvo are nice because they are user friendly repair wise, I never take mine to a shop, I can do it all myself, and there is great amount of satisfaction and pride in that. Paying the money to mechanics, well, OK, nice, you get the consumerist bragging rights of being "able to afford it", but that's not what being an enthusiast is all about...

 

I do like to do my own work, partly the satisfaction(as you said) but also I've seen too much shoddy work for $100/hr. So I'll have to figure this into my final decision.

 

A LOT of good info, especially about the trannys. I did know about the wiring(must of been the same guy selling harnesses to Merc and Volvo) but I believe they updated them in 96. Thanks