W220 S500 coilovers

[Richard sharratt]

My mate did exactly this conversion on his S500. Took him a few goes to set up the way he wanted it but it handled and drove nicely when finished.

The guys at Ti motorsport in Stoke-on-Trent did the second set up today and now it's handling great more sure footed

 

[Richard sharratt]

So you've gone from a superb, well developed pneumatic controllable suspension to... a normal setup?

Is the ride and handling performance any better than with airmatic?

Lots better than air more planted and great ride

 

[Botus]

So you've gone from a superb, well developed pneumatic controllable suspension to... a normal setup?

Is the ride and handling performance any better than with airmatic?

I wouldn't choose the words you did. The Marketing bling I'd use to describe air suspension is more along the line of....

"airmatic provides the user with a supremely wallowy ride, that on occasions manages to feel like a boat struggling in a big swell, in addition it provides the vehicle with very poor body control that becomes distinctly unsafe when pressing on. Overall a conventional steel spring and hydraulic damper set up provides a far more rounded experience, that has a wider operating envelope better suiting a larger range of driving styles and conditions. Further more by selecting a std system you get the added benefits of reduced complexity, running costs and reliability down time"


"designed to fail" would be a great reason why the manufacturer is so keen, from a driving and ownership perspective I don't see any benefit at all.

My car would be 50% better if there was ONE setting that's as simple as a midway set up between sport and comfort for the suspension and gearbox and the steering needs to be 10% lighter than comfort.

Comfort = provides suspension with overtly wallowy ride and a dangerous lack of control, a gearbox that's lazy and increases emissions and fuel consumption by 10% and stodgy steering that should be lighter

Sport = provides brittle overly firm suspension with insufficient quality damping, a demented gearbox that on occasion is downright dangerous and steering that's stodgy yet too heavy

Manual - same as sport for suspension and steering, but with beautifully judged gear changes, transforms the feel of the car and always changes perfectly in all conditions, sadly its MANUAL and done by the operator and NOT AUTOMATIC like it should be !

my original post was more to mention the down sides of slamming a car... (or "ruining it" as I should more correctly state)

 

[shayes]

What did it cost?

 

[Naraic]

What did it cost?

The kit is about £800 all round. No idea about installation cost.

Given that an air strut or hydraulic strut is dearer than this you can appreciate one of the reasons people do this.

 

[Mr Kripling]

I wouldn't choose the words you did. The Marketing bling I'd use to describe air suspension is more along the line of....

"airmatic provides the user with a supremely wallowy ride, that on occasions manages to feel like a boat struggling in a big swell, in addition it provides the vehicle with very poor body control that becomes distinctly unsafe when pressing on. Overall a conventional steel spring and hydraulic damper set up provides a far more rounded experience, that has a wider operating envelope better suiting a larger range of driving styles and conditions. Further more by selecting a std system you get the added benefits of reduced complexity, running costs and reliability down time"

An air suspension system is not intrinsically better or worse than an entirely passive setup - it just depends how it's been set up. From a purely technical point of view, its main advantage is that it provides a constant effective spring rate (for a given ride height) irrespective of vehicle load.

 

[Richard sharratt]

I had coilovers fitted to my S500 and install costs were £250 plus £800 for the coilovers and it's so much better than air