Phase 2 - AMG Overhaul - Suspension and Diff

While the core maintenance and convenience items taken care of during Phase 1 of the overhaul process, what I'm most particular about with all my cars is the suspension.  

Anytime I buy a car over 10 years old I assume anything rubber has started to deteriorate so while the car was on the lift it was pretty obvious that the suspension hadn't been touched since it was new. One way would be to try and source bushings and then spend a ton in labor removing the old ones and pressing them in but I opted for the "spend more money on the parts than labor" approach. I got all new OE Mercedes/AMG bushings for the subframe, controls arms all around, shocks all around, and new diff mounts (engine and transmission mounts were taken care of in Phase 1). 

New arms and bushings installed

New arms and bushings installed

The C55 AMG also ships with an open diff which in my opinion is not great when you have this much power and rear wheel drive. I picked up a Wavetrac LSD and had that installed instead. The hardest part for sourcing was the Timken bearings needed to install it which I had to get imported from the UK.

New diff next to OEM diff

Wavetrac installed

The car feels absolutely incredible now with everything nice and tight like it should be. The wiring for the headlights also got sorted. I got the lights from the later gen CLK so they weren't exactly plug-n-play but it's all working as it should now.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 78,906

- New OE front struts and strut mounts

- New OE rear shocks and rear control arm links

- New lower control arms and sway bar links
- New OE tie rod assemblies
- New OE sway bar links

- New OE boots
- New OE Control arms all around

- New OE subframe bushings

- New headlight ballasts

- New Wavetrac LSD into diff

- New OE diff mounts

- Alignment