Mr Purple

Hello,

did a search but no one seems to have mentioned the BRABUS ECO PowerXtra chip? Dealer mentioned it to me, said price around £1400

anyone got this done? i'm tempted..but bit of a high cost for a chip + insurance hike. Still 50bhp + 70nm increase for a C220. plus, usually, a chip results in more fuel consumption. but it seems to be the opposite case here.

http://www.brabus.dk/brabus_powerxtra_kit_eco.2008.pdf

http://www.buyamercedesbenz.co.uk/Ac...ECO-PowerXtra/

http://www.mercedestuningmag.com/brabus-eco-powerxtra/

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Jun08/2...er_Gallon.html

you can see i've been busy on google, while the wife sleeps...

Bokx_350

It is available for CDI engines only, right?

Mr Purple

hi there, nope there is a version for the petrol engine C350 as well.

http://www.brabus.com/en/deliver.php?id=380&W204 B7-EN.pdf

*EDIT* Sorry my mistake, this is performance kit upgrade not a chip. there isnt much for petrol engines in terms of chips.. http://www.brabus.com/index_en.html

so your correct, it is only for CDIs

evilweasel

Just to bump this up to the top - does anyone now have any experience of such a kit? I'm *almost* about to buy one for my 320cdi from John Weir up in Scotland and I'd like extra real world accounts of consumption and performance to help justify the extra costs...

I spoke to the Brabus guy at MB World this Sunday and he said that it would improve MPG (if I drove it normally...)

PS. Mr P - thanks for the pic on the other thread

Mr Purple

Hi there. oh how close i have been to buying one of these just two weeks back!! Was offered one for 1050 inc fitting from a MB dealer as a "just for me" offer..

But i have a problem in that MB are warrantying my car for 5 years due to stall issue that may or may not occur again. But, there is this weird policy between MB and Brabus in that if you have it fitted after your car has done 18k miles than Brabus pay for any problems. Fitting it under 18K MB deal with it all. so the end result was that if i do get an engine problem, i could end up being passed around from pillar to post. note that i dont at all expect to have an issue related to the Brabus chip, but more to do with the engine cut-out issue i had.

Also, i had an extensive discussion with a chief engineer at Mahle Powertrains (engineering firm that deal with all sort of car engines, Aston Martin, MB, Audi etc). most of the conversation were verbal, but this one i have in an email. The basis of the Brabus chip seems to be that it runs in a higher gear so less downshifting, hence the fuel saving.

"Yes, if you are in a higher gear, your engine turns at a lower speed. If the engine has the grunt to do that, then that is possible. - Change up at low rpm and save fuel. Called 'downspeeding'. Using a small engine and putting a few turbos on to keep the same power as a bigger engine is called 'downsizing'. Buzz words at the moment...

"If you want the chip for power, better fuels are reccommended (to avoid Exhaust Gas Recirculation circuit clogging, valve sticking open etc), so the price of the chip and fuel would possibly outweigh the savings. "

Mr Purple

your welcome with the photos.

PPS.- have you taken your car in to the dealership lately? i say this because mine went in about two weeks back and since then the car has been pulling like a beast. i know for sure they did a ECU flash. dont know about you, but each time they have done a ECU flash upgrade, i could feel the car being sluggish. it might be worth getting the latest one done and you might find it sounds and pulls like a small furry (non-AMG!) beast...

evilweasel

Thanks for that.

Food for thought then. I do notice that when I'm driving around 30mph areas the 7g tronic does seem to hang onto gears too long (even in non sport mode), and I often find myself flicking the upshift paddle to reduce revs. So you can understand what your Powertrains fella was on about.

But - the temptation remains - 270 odd bhp is hard to resist!

If I get one I'll chime in with a review

Cheers

PS.- the car was serviced 3 weeks ago so I guess I'm on the latest ECU s/w

JJW

Hi EvilWeasel,

I almost bought the brabus power extra 3 months back when mercedes had it on sale for £799! I had finally made the decision to buy and it went up to £1350 the day i went to buy it! I do think it is a high price to pay for basically a chip. The thing that drew me to it, was the cover under my mercedes warranty. I have been looking around and have seen a few different options out there for plug and play digital ecu upgrades around the £400 mark.

You can buy through this site http://www.chipexpress.com/diesel-tu...i-kit-799.html for £495 or £399 on their ebay site. But like you I would like to hear a few reviews before investing any funds. It would seem this site has great wealth of knowledge for the C class w204 but not much on the diesel oil burners, as I appreciate most posters are over in the US with cheap fuel.

My previous car was a B6 audi A4 TDI130 and I had that remaped to 170bhp and the difference was immense. The strange thing is that Although I have 170bhp on the C220 It doesn't feel as quick as the A4? I also have the Advanced Sport button on mine which I'm still not sure how this will be affected by a chip. Basically when you press the button the suspension stiffens considerably and the steering tightens up, but the biggest part is the ECU seems remapped to provide a very sharp throttle response. When I first got the car and used the sport button, I was almost kangeroo hopping as it is that sharp off the clutch(mines a manual).

Trouble is it feels like the power runs out very quickly on the sport mode map. Unfortunately as this is a fairly new car and not the cheapest their isn't very much info out their on the web on whether the car with sport mode has 2 ecu maps? If so I would love to be able to get the sport mode remapped as well, however if add a plug and play chip, will this remap both parts or just the normal driving mode?

Regards

Jonathon

redbaron1973

JJW,

I think the Audi will have felt faster as the delivery on the PD lump is just that.... lumpy... where as the Merc CDI goes about its work is a much smoother fashion... which doesnt "feel" as fast.

As for lack of response on here - its mainly a USA site and most dont have an interest / knowledge of the diesels...

Im torn between chip express and Kleemann at the moment. Kleemann is cheaper but the CE box sounds a bit more advanced and at least has 14 day moneyback guarantee.

As I only collected my 250 this moning and it has done but 86 miles im not going to order just yet...

evilweasel

OK - Just to let you know, I've given in to temptation and ordered the Brabus kit now, and when it's fitted I'll report on the difference in both performance and MPG.

evilweasel

Well, it's fitted now (after a bit of a palaver between MB Manchester and MB Beaconsfield). Just spent a few hours this weekend washing the car and have fitted the all important Brabus badge...

So - what about the difference in performace and economy?

I've just done about 10 miles in the car this week so not much data to go on, however it does seem to idle along in a higher gear now, and I am seeing higher MPG (4-5ish) around the houses.

On the performance side of things, I personally don't feel a *massive* difference (only 21% extra BHP at 275 up from 224), but the car will now much more easily kick in TC (or spin the rears with ESP off) on hard accellaration from a standing start, and in gear accelaration is definately faster.

I did do some GPS 0-60 times before the upgrade and I've yet to do some since, but when I do I'll update the thread with the details...

I'll also post some pictures of the box when I work out how to do it!

evilweasel

http://www.icklefish.com/images/rearafter.jpg - The badge
http://www.icklefish.com/images/Box.jpg - The box is mounted on top of the ECU
http://www.icklefish.com/images/tapedbrab.jpg - application of badge (I removed the old C320 badge with dental floss!)
http://www.icklefish.com/images/both.jpg - next to the other half's Fiat Coupe 20vt