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Haven't been on in a while, busy with work and just recently switched jobs. Here's quick update.
The last CEL I posted on 2-15-2014 came out:
P0446 Evaporative Emission Control System Vent Control Circuit Malfunction
P0452 Evaporative Emission Control System Pressure Sensor Low Input
A couple days later on the light turned off by itself. I talked to my buddy who is an MB Tech at the dealer in Germantown and he said sometimes the purge valve will stick open and give it these readings, especially if it turned off on its own. It came back on once again and then off and it's been off for a while now. Basically, I can just say F it and not do anything so I haven't worried too much about it.
Two weeks ago Saturday I finally got the secondary cats and resonator cut out and replaced with SS piping. Had my buddy do it who has a shop with lifts in his backyard. Noticed a leak and came back this last Saturday and he patched it up and all good to go now. Anyone who hasn't done this, DO IT. If you want to get a nice, full exhaust and spend that kind of $, go for it. But if you want a quick, cheap, and not bad exhaust and good sound, do this. Cost me $200 to get it done and it sounds awesome!
And now back to the problems
The other day I turned the car on and it said "check coolant level." Bought some coolant from the dealer, looked at it, didn't seem too low but I topped it off a bit and let it go. Came on again a few days later. Checked it this time and it was definitely a little lower so I filled it up again two nights ago. It hasn't come on again but I'm going to check the coolant level when I get home from work tonight. I'm thinking one of the radiator hoses could be leaking, or the radiator itself (I really hope not because $$). Anyway, it's definitely some sort of coolant leak so I will investigate and post my findings.
2005 C55 black on black aka DVS C55, 2007 C230 sport silver on black for the boss
Yeah, these benzz kick codes easily, in the winter my C55 and the 230 kicked the coolant code, seems to be normal. PM me your buddies # if your buddy wont mind. I need to get the 2nds popped out, already have the resonator out.
Yeah, these benzz kick codes easily, in the winter my C55 and the 230 kicked the coolant code, seems to be normal. PM me your buddies # if your buddy wont mind. I need to get the 2nds popped out, already have the resonator out.
Yeah, I'm thinking maybe with this crazy weather we've been having with 70 degrees one day, then the next day 5 inches of snow, the drastic climate shifts are screwing around with the overall cooling system.
The guy's a busy man and I'll get a hold of him. He shot me a text that said he'd definitely be interested in doing it for you but it'll be a while. It's basically his side job on the weekends so he gets pretty tied up. Works a regular job during the week and then repairs people's cars on the side on the weekends/does this kind of stuff to my car. Definitely does great work and will stand behind it and take care of any issues that come up. I'll let you know when he gets back to me.
Quick update: so I picked up a '98 VW Jetta TDI for daily driving into work (45 mpg, oh yeah ), and I hadn't driven the Benz for a week and a half. Yesterday I went to it to see if I could figure out the coolant issue.
Before even starting it I opened the coolant reservoir and the level was all the way down to the bottom where the tube feeds out of the reservoir. I had to use the rest of the coolant I had to top it back off. So I did that and then started the car.
Drove the car around for about 5 minutes and let it warm up to standard operating temperature. Parked it again, turned it off, and opened the hood to inspect.
There was coolant all over the undercar engine cover, and also in front of the radiator between radiator and front bumper. Dropped the cover off and inspected underneath and it looks like it is mainly dripping from around where the radiator drain plug is on the driver's side of the radiator. Soooo looks like I'm going to need a new radiator
Otherwise, it was so nice hearing the Benz exhaust after driving the damn turbo diesel for a week and a half haha
Thought I would jump in and give people an idea of the cost of these parts. Purchased this stuff from RM European:
Radiator - $257
Radiator hose seals (2) - $14
Trans cooler line seal ring - $2
Thermostat o-ring - $2
2 liters trans fluid (will lose about a quart or so according to my MB tech friend) - $25
MB Coolant - $30
Right around $330 or so for all of that. Might not need all of the seals but they were so cheap I thought it was good to have them handy just in case. Might just replace them anyway since I'll be taking all that crap apart.
I also bought myself a trans dipstick so I can check the trans level for $16 from Amazon.
Ok, so last week was a busy week with this car. Sunday I replaced the passenger side valve cover gasket and re-sealed the breather cover, no issues.
Monday I did the driver's side but did not re-seal the breather cover because of how much of a b**** it was to clean the old sealant off the passenger side and re-seal, and the driver's side cover is much bigger. It's not leaking or anything so I just said F it. Good to go.
Radiator and seals arrived so I did that Thursday afternoon. Drained all coolant, disconnected all of the hoses and electrical connectors and pulled it out. I will say it was a little bit of a PITA pulling both fan and radiator up and out of the engine bay because the fan has those little tabs on the sides that stick out and would get caught on all this crap on the sides so I would have to angle it different ways and move it to get it out. Radiator was the same way. Put everything back together, filled with 50/50 distilled water/coolant and started her up. Checked tranny fluid with the dipstick, looked like I actually didn't end up losing much so let's go for a quick drive around the block. And here is where it gets interesting...
Literally on about the first turn out of the street I shift into second and then a little further down I try to shift to third and it won't shift. So I'm like ok, need to head back. Route was a small triangle so start going back up and get caught at a light. Light turns green and torque converter is totally disengaged and just revving in drive, so I immediately turn the car off. Inspect under the hood and one of the ATF lines to the radiator hadn't seated quite all the way in so it was out a little bit and a lot of ATF had spilled out of it. So now I'm stranded 3 blocks from home and it's uphill so I can't push.
Friend comes to help me out, we go and get some fluid from Wal-Mart (it's 9:30 at night so we have nowhere to go), and I fill up maybe 2 quarts just to get the TC to engage and get it up the hill 3 blocks to home. Now I'm freaking out of whether or not I did any damage to the tranny and I have to go get fluid and do a full flush. So the Friday I go and pick up the trans filter, gasket, seal ring, and some spec fluid (12 quarts). Jacked up the car, drained oil, removed pan, cleaned everything out, put in new gasket and filter, secured it, poured in 3 quarts of new fluid. Started the car, didn't drive it, just shifted through all of the gears several times over a period of 5-10 minutes and get the fluid into the torque converter and through. Drained the fluid again. Refilled with a few quarts, checked the fluid level and it appeared ok. Drove it right out of parking lot and came back in and everything seemed to engage ok. Took it out all weekend and checked trans fluid a few times after at operating temperature and everything is good to go! Nothing leaks underneath the car, no coolant, no ATF, nothing!
Tranny shifts nice and smooth just like before and I'm in good shape. Could have been much, much worse.
I also feel like an idiot for not seating those lines back into the radiator properly
The t-barb clips were a pain in the *** and I got impatient, or at least that's what I think. Anyway, for the rest of you, if you have to change the radiator, double, triple, quadruple check those lines!! What I found was maybe better than putting the t-barb clips on afterwards was to set the t-barb clips around the fittings, then push the lines really hard in and they will snap into place.
Seems like you had a hand full getting this car into the shape it is today!Props on that. I always enjoy reading threads like this to see what owners are doing to their C55. Keep up the good work!
Seems like you had a hand full getting this car into the shape it is today!Props on that. I always enjoy reading threads like this to see what owners are doing to their C55. Keep up the good work!
Thanks man!
It has been a project, but in the end I think it's well worth it. Considering the small handful of C55s that were produced for the US, I think it's worth keeping this car for a long time. I've got a daily driver so this is my fun car, and I won't be putting many miles on it.
Took car to the drag strip last Friday. Best time I could get was 13.228 @ around 104mph. It's weird because when I went in the fall to a different drag strip I got down to 13.075, and if I remember correctly 109mph or so?? Maybe the length was just a little off on that strip. I also now have 265/35 and previously had 255/35, so maybe the slight increase in diameter (rotational inertia) slowed it down just that little bit.
Anyway, on the list of things to do, planning to have this done by next summer gradually over the year:
-Kleemann long tube headers
-Eurocharged tune
-Needswings DCAI
-Bilstein PSS9 Coil-Overs
-Enkei Tuning Raijin wheels (~20 lbs per wheel, super light!!)
2005 C55 black on black aka DVS C55, 2007 C230 sport silver on black for the boss
Do you still have the factory rims? If you ever decide to part with them send me a note.
Didn't you break into the 1.9x 60ft times the last time out?
Post some of the time slips when you can and I can compare them to some of my stock times and maybe identify where the issue is for the low MPH. 107mph should be a minimum... but you may be right, it could be heavy aftermarket rims and tires
Last edited by EDgineered; 05-23-2014 at 03:18 PM.
Do you still have the factory rims? If you ever decide to part with them send me a note.
Didn't you break into the 1.9x 60ft times the last time out?
Post some of the time slips when you can and I can compare them to some of my stock times and maybe identify where the issue is for the low MPH. 107mph should be a minimum... but you may be right, it could be heavy aftermarket rims and tires
Yeah, that last run we did (fastest 1/4 mile time) I got 1.9xx at 60 ft time.
If I had the stock ones I would put them back on but I don't. Whoever had the car before me replaced them with a different set. It was the same set that I have now except just standard silver. After I cracked one of the wheels on a pothole, I couldn't find regular silver ANYWHERE, so I just bought a full set of the gunmetal.
Definitely going to have to make a switch to something different with higher offset in rear so it sits further in before I get the coil-overs.
I'll hit up those time slips when I get home from work tonight.
Installed my Kleemann headers Saturday...couldn't be more pleased with the results! Did it at Ft. Meade auto skills shop, just used some band clamps on the downpipes to temporarily hold it until I get it to a shop to weld it together.
Took us about 5 hours to do it, could probably do it again in 2-3 now that I know the little kinks. Passenger side wasn't too bad to get in and out. Ran into a little hold-up on the driver's side getting the headers between the engine mount, firewall, and steering shaft. Solution was took top engine mount bolt out so we could move the heat shield on top of the mount, and the removed the two pieces of heat shield to left of that and it gave us just enough room to squeeze it up through so we could bolt it on. Also had a little hold-up when we were tightening up the bottom bolts on the driver's side and realized one of the gaskets had moved and didn't have the bolt going through it so we had to lower the lift and loosen all the bolts on top, then back up to loosen the bottoms so we could move the gasket back into place, then lower and lift again to tighten them all again. But we got it done!
Here's a video Cerberus took once we were finished. Thanks to EDgineered and JakeMS3, and the other guys not on this forum that were there and helped out with the install. Was a productive day. We also did my friend's catless downpipes on his BMW 335i.
I Have said it over and over again, No video does any AMG's Exhaust justice. Especially the bass and the volume! IDK What to compare it to but for those watching it's about 30% louder than a resonator and secondary cat delete. It will make your eardrums close up on you. Excited to see the exhaust get fully done bro.
Good times on Saturday. I will definitely get another install day set up and possibly make a thread for those that want to come out and help or just shoot the ****.
I thought I'd post an update since my last post was 5 months ago lol.
After the Kleemann header install, took it to IAP racing in Sterling and got it dyno tuned (I swear one of these days I'll actually scan the dyno sheet and post it up when I remember to). Pulled 328 whp and 372 wtq. Wondering why the HP wasn't higher, attributing it to maybe needing to open up the intake? Will do some future experimenting...but anyway, man does it feel awesome with that increase in torque! Stock wtq is around 300 and this is a HUGE difference. Made me pull off the 12.6 at MIR back in November (posted timeslip in the drag thread). Thanks again to the guys that helped me with the install and shoutout to IAP Racing for the tune.
In other news, more reliability report things: around 101k miles or so, I got the "coolant visit workshop" message. I noticed when I got it it was at lower speeds and stopped, the temp gauge would slowly creep up to around 100C or so, and then drop back to normal op. Would be intermittent in and out. Replaced thermo and coolant temp sensor since they were cheap and I thought maybe thermo was sticking closed at times and then opening up; didn't solve it. I was planning on replacing the water pump and all radiator hoses at 100k as PM so I figured might as well do it now, and good that I did because that was the problem. So basically now I have a whole new cooling system except for the fan.
The water pump was actually pretty cheap, $85, the radiator hoses were freakin' expensive. With coolant, seals, and everything it was roughly a $400 cost of parts. Did it myself in my parking spot outside the condo, took about 5 hours.
Since then, haven't really had any other issues with the car. Just this past weekend with the help of JakeMS3 and plain_ol_d and one of Jake's buddies we installed my Bilstein PSS9, adjustable sway bar links in front, and adjustable rear camber arms. I'll do a 2nd post with the pics. I couldn't be happier!
Alright so here are the coils. I had to stare at them for 3 weeks until we could get up to Ft Meade and do the install. Man they look pretty
These are the old rear shocks next to the new one. The old shocks were so shot that D could press down on it using just his weight and compress the shock fully. It feels so much better riding with the new ones.
This is the coilover with the new strut bearing installed for the fronts. For the record, the fronts were so ridiculously easy to install compared to the rear.
This is Jake and I working on the front and then checking out our finished product.
And then the rears...
And then the finished ride! This is right when I was pulling out so it hasn't quite settled all the way yet. I left the upper spring pad in the rear and set the fronts on a fairly high setting so it's just slightly lower than stock. I may either switch out to a smaller spring pad or no spring pad in the rear and adjust it a little higher (for an overall lower stance). Then I'll have to play around with the settings and figure out where exactly I want it for street vs. track. I set the setting on the struts to 6 (goes from 1-9, 1 being hardest and 9 being softest).
This is a shot from Sunday's cars and coffee where I've driven for a little bit and it's actually settled down somewhat. Excuse the dirty car, it was freezing rain/snow Friday night and Saturday morning so I didn't have a chance to wash it from all the salty roads. Couple of C63s pulled up to C&C that day as well.
Looks good dude! The front is definitely looks lower than stock now.
Glad you got it all figured out. I discovered that the rears were MUCH harder to install also. The front was just a few bolts + spring compressor work. For the rears, I suggest using the biggest spring pad you can get, but then just lowering the car more via adjustable CO perch unless you're trying to get as low as possible :P
I actually just ordered the smallest #1 (5mm) spring pads from Needswings, lol. Gonna keep it at a higher setting for street and then slam it down for track days so I can maximize the handling.
Funny thing about the fronts, since the C55 sits lower than regular w203 we actually didn't need a spring compressor to take the hats off and get that little washer that attaches the hat to the strut. D just used his weight to hold it down while I unscrewed it with the strut tool and it wasn't under all that much pressure. Same with attaching the new coilover, since it's made to sit low it was cake getting the new hat on.
I'm thinking I'll also get adjustable rear toe links and then after looking at those other members (tie rod, control arm, etc.), I think I'm going to need to replace those soon since they are pretty worn after 106k miles.
How do you like the 6 setting on your PSS9? I've been running 7 front and 9 rear on the street.
So far so good. I only drove it from Ft Meade back to Fairfax (about 45 miles or so), and then down the street for cars and coffee yesterday and that was it. I drive my TDI as a daily to work so I'll have to check it out more this next weekend (if it stops snowing that is). I guess the honest answer is I haven't had enough time to fool around with it yet, but the handling definitely feels much, much better than it was before. I also can't really push it too much in the weather we're getting right now. I hear you're supposed to get a sh**load of snow up your way, how is it up there right now?
EDIT: I guess you were really asking how does the stiffness of 6 feel on the street. It's not too bad, definitely can feel it when you're going over bumps on the highway but IMO it's not terribly uncomfortable or anything. I can definitely deal with it. On a side note, I can't imagine what the stiffest setting is like...
03-20-2014, 03:57 PM
), and I hadn't driven the Benz for a week and a half. Yesterday I went to it to see if I could figure out the coolant issue.
