Figured I'd start a thread to introduce myself, and have a place to document all the work I'll be doing to my car.

Just picked up a 2002 C230 Sport Coupe Kompressor to replace my carrera as my daily driver, and be the new "island beater." It's silver with black cloth interior, only 53k miles. I feel like I got a pretty good deal, as I scooped it up for only $4k. This is my first Mercedes, but I'm well versed with German cars, as every one of the 12 cars I've owned since I started driving has been either a BMW (mostly M's) or a P-car except for one (and that was a mistake). This car marks another first for me as my first force induction car, as well as only my second automatic (surprised I haven't forgotton how to drive one).

I've only had the car for a day, but actually really enjoy driving it. It's not quick by any means, but it's not the slowest car in the world either. It is pretty comfy, and I can't complain about the car as a whole for the price I got it for. The panoramic sunroof doesn't work, as I've already read that's a very common issue. The motor just makes a barely noticeable click noise when I try the switch in any direciton. Regardless, I am excited to work on a car a little foreign to me.

I do already have some plans for this car to make it more enjoyable. Since it obviously has the supercharger, there is easy horsepower to be pulled. I was surprised to see how little aftermarket support for this car there is. There seemed to be many more options in the mid/ early 2000's but most of those options seemed to have dried up. I was able to get a good plan in place, but it required a lot of digging.

Here's what I hope to do so far:
ASP Overdrive pulley
Eurocharged tune for the pulley upgrade
NGK BKR7E copper spark plugs
56" 6-Rib belt
Valve cover/ spark plug gaskets
Refinish Valve cover due to bubbling paint
18" Sport Edition ST3 Wheels (AMG type look) to replace the curbed up, brake dust stained 16" stock wheels
Dunlop Direzza ZII's

I think that'll be a good start, the car will look a tiny bit more aggressive and hopefully be almost as quick as my E36 M3 was.

I'll post pictures later today, I guess I should've started with that.

 

Welcome to the forum...you have a good plan, now lets see some pictures??

javvy

 

Welcome to the forum. Good choice - 02 coupes were the best of the W203 generation. Don't mind Javvy - he's a bit impatient.

I have to mention this - those rims are 26.5 pounds each. They are cheap, which is a good thing, but it would seem a shame, given the rest of your upcoming build, to burden your car with rocks at the four corners. Just something to think about.

People have been very happy with the Eurocharged tune, so that will waken up some ponies, but the pulley upgrade will be what really makes the car more fun. No suspension upgrades in the future?

FYI - air filter/exhaust/header upgrades tend to result in no significant improvement, except for sound. So not much need to spend money on these items. Since you're not in CA, when the cat goes, there's a Magnaflow that fits our cars perfectly, and is about $1.2k cheaper than a stock replacement (yes, that's not a typo).

As you've noticed, not much aftermarket for these cars, but there's enough to make these cars a bit more exciting as a DD.

 

Yeah, I expect the wheels to be heavy at that price. I haven't auto crossed in awhile, but I'm considering wrapping the heavy but pretty wheels with Hankook V12's. And maybe keep the 16's for autocross, throw ZII's or Rivals on them or maybe R comps, and keep them on hand for snow wheels if I end up back in the North East. But overall, as just a daily driver I don't think I'll mind the extra weight. Obviously a trade off for sportier look, at such a cheap price. I can't see myself spending BBS $ on a $4k car.

The car was a city car in Honolulu it's whole life, so the suspension even at 50k miles is a little bouncy. When I do get new shocks & struts I'll likely just stick with stock or close to it (I read the Bilstein HD's are similar to OEM) the roads aren't the best here, and even if I do autocross it wouldn't be worth the trade off in ride comfort. As for intake/ exhaust... I likely will just stick with OEM. I read the supercharger will be a little louder after the pulley upgrade, I'm sure I'd be happy with that. My Carrera, and previous M3's were all very aggressive, stiff suspension, sport exhausts. Kind of leaning the other direction with this car. My "fun" will soon be replaced with a 2014 KTM Enduro R I'm waiting to arrive.

Oh, and yes pictures soon. Not much to see yet though, just a silver stock C230 with roof racks.

 

Speaking of which, where to get the pulley?

 

ASP directly I think is the only option, and I'm not sure they would even do any orders at this point. Worth a call, though.