Lowering CLK 230

[Balal]

Hi there
Has anyone lowered their CLK ? I have changed alloys to 17" AMG. and they still look too small. So I am thinking of lowering the car by 30mm .

Also I was told that CLK 230K sports (W208) has self levelling suspension!! I always thought all suspensions are self levelling . is it not the case ?!

So any suggestion to if I use GMAX kit to lower it ? would it affect stability ? ride ? am i still better to go to 18" or keep 17" and lower the suspension.

Thanks
Balal

 

[Blobcat]

Is yours an Elegance or Avantgarde?
AG = 20mm lower than Elegance already

Very few suspension systems are self-leveling. They are generally fitted to estate cars to compensate for weight. A lot of them are air operated and raise the back of the vehicle to compensate for extra weight

Changing wheel size does not generally alter ride height. This is beacuse when you go up in rim size you go down in tyre profile. Therefore overall rolling diameter is the same. This is also why larger rims are more uncomfortable. There is less sidewall to help absorb bumbs so more deflection is passed onto the suspension and car body.

 

[Balal]

Mine is CLK 230 K kompressor - SPORTS.

i was checking parkers and in tech details for height it says

Sports :1345 mm
Avantgarde:1371 mm
Elegance :1371 mm

does that mean its already lowered then the other two. ( i know it sounds sad) but i actually parked it next to an avantgarde yesterday and they were of same height

i have attached a picture...do you not think the tyres look too small!!!

 

[Blobcat]

Yes they do. Do you have the original wheels & tyres? It would be worth cheking the sizes of the originals against your new ones as although your rim size has gone up the overall diameter may have gone down due to the size of the tyres.
There does appear to be quite a gap over the tyres.

 

[Blobcat]

Put your Tyre / Wheel figures into the this site; http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html

You can then determine where you are and if your new shoes are the same size as previous.

Quite an interesting site.

Mine came with 18" AMG's which I changed for the standard AG 16" wheels - comfort over bling for me.
AMG's have overall diameter of 645mm AG's have 643mm a 0.31% or 2mm difference. - On mine.

 

[Balal]

I actually sold my old alloys on ebay but looking at the picture of car when i bought it. they look small too.

The picture below is when the I bought the car.

 

[Blobcat]

If you check in the manual in the technical data section there is a list of all the wheel and tyre sizes fitted by MB.
From that you should be able to work out the original sizes and then compare them against the new hoops.

 

[Balal]

Thanks for that weblink.

According to that my tyre diameter has gone small. To make it bigger then the original ones I have to get 19". so I guess lowering is a better option .

I saw these pictures below on an american website. Both the CLK shown have Lorinser body kit. They look good. even the wheels look good. but just too much chrome ( abit over the top).

 

[Blobcat]

Thanks for that weblink.

According to that my tyre diameter has gone small. To make it bigger then the original ones I have to get 19". so I guess lowering is a better option .

What are the figures?
How far out have you gone. If you have a 40 section you could go up to a 45 and gain your size back
You will find that your speedo is out now your rolling diameter has changed.

 

[Balal]

The original tyres were front : 205/55/16 and rear : 225/55/16.
The Alloys I changed them to are 215/45/17 ,all 4 same.
this makes -4.43 % difference in rear and -1.11 difference in front ones. It says on the weblink you gave that max difference should be +2.5% or -2.5%.

Diameter is smaller now, so how shall i go about calibrating the speedo setting? so does that means if speedo meter is showing 100mph, teh car isnt really doing 100, its less than that!!!

 

[dagd]

Bali,

Also, have you tried your cruse control since you changed the wheels? There have been threads that say that altering the wheel diameter(rim + tyres), can affect this over certain speeds.

 

[Balal]

cruise control, speed limit function all work fine.

I will try to check the speedometer today. maybe by running it parallel with another car and then checking speed on both speedometers. lets see if that works!

But to think of it, the shop that sold me the alloys and tyres, did ask me for car make and model and after that suggested them wheels. I wonder! if they knew it that they are giving me smaller ones!!

 

[Blobcat]

cruise control, speed limit function all work fine.

I will try to check the speedometer today. maybe by running it parallel with another car and then checking speed on both speedometers. lets see if that works!

But to think of it, the shop that sold me the alloys and tyres, did ask me for car make and model and after that suggested them wheels. I wonder! if they knew it that they are giving me smaller ones!!

They are in the business of selling...

Get hold of a GPS navigation or speed camera warning device. These are pretty accurate and you can compare it against your speedo. I woudn't recommend testing against another car as who say's there's is correct - even if it has blue lights on top...