Mr. Happy

I got my ECU back from Kleemann on Friday. My CLS63tt who was so docile and domesticated but strong and respectable, has just become a wild and uncivilized animal, almost dominating her master. I was scared of her until Saturday evening. However, after driving over the weekend, the car has considerably become much smoother as the ECU gets adapted to more socially acceptable conditions. Here are some observations the way things stand 3 days after the tune:

• The gas pedal is ultra sensitive. If I want to accelerate from a stop, I need to go gently on the pedal and let the Continentals take their grips. I have read other posts from some of you complaining about the grip of the Conti’s but I didn’t have that issue before…now I understand. The throttle opens up much faster at any given pedal position.

• At low speed, the car has such a high torque, I feel like I’m sitting on a well of infinite power. This might be the biggest surprise to me.

• On the highway, the grip is fine even though the acceleration feels almost instant – I’m constantly about 150 kph without noticing it. I have never experienced that before. This is really above my comfort zone.

• I find that if I step hard on the gas pedal on 4th or 5th gear at low rpm (say 2000 rpm), the acceleration is not smooth every time…there is a hesitation at about 3000 rpm. The ECU may still be in its adaptive phase…have you experienced the same? If I ever step on the pedal above 3500 rpm, the car just takes off like a jet (no more hesitation for sure). I hope that the uneven acceleration issue at high gear/low rpm will get better over time.

• The transmission has probably reset as it was back to how it was when I got the car early May: a bit jerky especially in gears 1, 2 and 3, not always responsive, delay in down-shift blip sometimes. But by now, it’s almost back to normal already. No improvement to what it was before.

At this point, as she’s still a bit outside of my comfort zone and the ECU has not adapted (to me), I’m still a bit nervous. I feel we need to know each other a little better before having real fun. Unfortunately, the tires will become a priority sooner than I expected.

Has any of you experienced anything similar in the first week of your tune and has it gone smoother over time? Kleemann is known to be a bit less aggressive than others (10-20 hp or lb-ft of torque less than Renntech for example). I’m certainly interested to hear from others.

One more point: the ECU unit has now a screw that is sealed on top of the heavy metal cover. I’m told that it’s quite risky to open these new ECU models and that’s why they need to drill a hole accurately positioned to access a certain pin allowing reprogramming. I certainly did not expect this as the ECU tuning of my previous C63 was invisible to the eye. Do other tuners do the same?

As I said before, I didn’t need the extra power (I don’t track the car), just more aggressiveness although I also enjoyed the smooth side of the ride. Today, the extra power is just ridiculous and barely usable without going to jail. The ride can still be smooth with a very gentle right foot, no passengers would notice the difference. And concerning aggressiveness, I haven’t seen the limit of the car yet, only mine. Wow.

hyperion667

thanx for the review......
so what was the cost of having this done to your chip?

be safe bro!!

Vic55

Ill comment later about the initial feel when I got mine done because Im in a rush but WTF about that screw!!!!!!!!!!!!

The now clearly indicates a tampered ECU if you ever have warranty work. Even if you flash your car back to stock the ECU will show that mod.

Yes the ECU is very hard to open because the glue is very very tight and if the board is flexed it can be ruined but drilling from the outside is archaic IMHO.

Im sure the other tuners do not do this and I know mine did not. Sorry but that just seems really wrong to get into an ECU via a drill.

Rock

^Agreed regarding the alteration of the ECU...........that would be a big concern. What did Cory say about this?

Also Happy, are you happy with the tune or not? From your post I'm not sure which way you are leaning.

xtyper

Who actually installed the tune? Did you go through Cory at Kleemann directly, or a third party vendor? I ask because I would be very surprised if Cory did that to your ECU without at least letting you know first.

As for the tune itself, I was considering going Kleemann over Renntech on my new 2012 E63 since I had such success with their tune on my previous C63, but reading your review actually makes me a bit hesitant. Especially that hiccup you mention when accelerating from 3000rpm. That doesn't sound like an adaptive issue and frankly would have me a bit worried.

I hope you sourced the tune directly from Cory since in that case I'm sure you will be well taken care of and made fully satisfied with the product.

Good luck and keep us posted.

vdubpower

gosh i really need to drive a tunes mercs......


does the gas pedal seem ultra sensitive in all tranny modes,

Mr. Happy

Cory did all the work and he's been monitoring since then.

Hyper, I suggest you contact Cory for pricing info. cory@kleemannusa.com

The uneven acceleration was quite obvious on the first day. Today Tuesday, it's almost gone. I have to drive about 800 miles over the next week or so. I'll report back afterwards. Cory says that it's still adapting and the way the car improves seems to support the same story.

Am I happy with the tune? Was trying to be factual as much as possible in my review but if you're interested to know, absolutely! I'm just in love with the super responsiveness of the throttle. And after a few days, the car can still be driven smoothly if I want to (but why would I?). It's harder to keep it smooth if I'm not in C transmission mode.

Am I pissed at the screw? Absolutely, for the same reason that Vic mentionned. I wish I knew that before. All the precautions have been taken to seal it back. Cory even emailed me pictures of the process. I'm not worried about the quality of the work or potential damage to the ECU. I'm unhappy about the visual mark.

dbasons55

Congrats on the tune I am sure you are happy with it adaptation is usually 20-25 miles you don't need 800 miles to do that, hiccups are usually caused when the torque limitations are removed, I have seen cars that hiccups and fly but thats not good news for your tranny best of luck.

Mr. Happy

Thanks. It's not a hiccup though if you mean a hole in the acceleration. The best way to describe it is as if I was slightly releasing the gas pedal and then pressing in back gently. The variation is subtle and smooth so I'm not worried about the tranny. At first I thought it was my foot involuntarily releasing the pedal combined with the high sensitivity of the pedal itself. Only happens at high load, high gear low rev.

Vic55

I had the same feeling--- removal of the ecu also reset your adaptation so that just enhanced it. The tune most likely changed the boost levels at lower throttle pushes as well so the power is on right away. I love that in my tune--- I always felt the M157 PP throttle needed to be pushed past 50% modulation to get the most out of the car. The tune, with added boost, has now moved that towards the first 50% of modulation via throttle.

Ditto. The car scares me even from a roll where in straight line at 40 mph I still get relatively sideways with a mash of the throttle. Im running 305 rears too!!!

Same feeling here- easily hitting triple digits daily to 150 mph is very easy.

I never had such an issue nor do I now on 2 M157's tuned. Im not sure what is happening there with your tune. Your ECU is fresh right now and should be the most responsive in regards to tranny adaptation. Keep driving it up and down the scales and see if things change.

I found that my tune improved my downshift blips immediately. I will blast the car up to 80 mph and come up on a turn and the tranny immediately down shifts for me to keep me in the rpm sweet spot (S+)

dbasons55

Oh if that's the case it's something to do with your tune maybe your tuner missed out on few maps

Mr. Happy

I have not noticed this since I usually drive the car in M. I just tried it in S+ and you're right, it doesn't take long to downshift when I slow down and it doesn't upshift for a while if I stop accelerating.

Vic55

Im now on my 4th MCT tranny (just got a C63 BS) and S+ is your ONLY friend IMHO.

COR Forged

Vic you just got a BS!!!!!


Congrats on the new ride. Did you get rid of anything?

Vic55

The Wagon is no longer with us...

Rob@vividracing

Thats awesome. Now we need specs. I'll look in the C63 section. There better be pics already.

Interested to see how you modify this car.

EnzoX

I'm going through the same issue with a Porsche 911 after an ecu reflash since this Tuesday, the hesitation has slightly decreased now that I've put 120miles on her, but it's still noticeable.

I get to feel it between 2700rpm ~ 3000rpm in 2nd and 3rd gear most of the time and past the 3xxx it takes off like a jet as you described, 2nd day felt much faster and smoother.

E-SICKTY3

Sold your wagon with the HREs on it?

E55 RUSS

+1

Vic55

Nope- I have them.

AMGTECH

can u post pics of the hole in the ecu ? or the pics cory sent you

Karl901

I was I think the 3rd tune for Renntech back in 11/11. All I can tell you is that the new power is really like a drug addiction, you will be hooked.

Mr. Happy

I had to drive to Montreal and back (500km each way) over the last couple of days. On the way there, it was late pm/early evening on a week day, alone in my car, with virtually nobody on the highway. At last, I could see for myself what this car with a tune can do. From a roll at say 80 km/h in S+, I just floored the pedal and tried to last as long as I could. It's like being in a slingshot with a giant elastic band. It was so thrilling that I kept doing that over and over again on my way there. I wasn't able to get passed 250 km/h before chickening out (I'm disappointed in myself). What's really remarkable is that even at this crazy speed, the car still felt like being in the elastic band wanting to go even faster.

So a week after the tune, here's the situation:

1. To make sure the initial hesitation was not caused by a programming glitch that could have damaged my engine, Kleemann said they carefully reviewed the backup of my tuned file and all the values were fine. They even went the way extra step of downloading my file on another cls in their shop and tested it. They concluded that the issue was a matter of adaptation.

2. Well, they were right. The acceleration is now smooth in any gear at any rev, no more hesitation. Apparently, my slingshot driving took care of it. This tune really needs to be driven at higher rev in higher gears for a while to get fully adapted, something almost impossible to do around a large city like Toronto with all the traffic at all times.

3. On my highway trip, I put the car on S+, the first time I drove the car in a mode other than M for more than two minutes since I got the tune. I quickly realized that the tranny was not well adapted either, which my slingshot driving also took care of. S+ has now become my favorite mode surpassing M. Maybe I'm crazy but the car feels like it performs better in S+, more integrated with the turbos or timing or something. Especially with the tune, S+ anticipates very well my next move and I have learned how to give it some warnings too (quick step on gas or break pedal or quick release of gas pedal) so it reacts perfectly.

4. This is my first turbo car. In my spirited driving, I also found that the car needs to be driven a bit differently under high load maybe? If I quickly depress the gas pedal to 50%, the car takes off like a jet but only to a certain point where the acceleration starts to decrease pretty quickly feeling flat after that point. If I depress the pedal to 75% or 100%, the first stretch of acceleration is more or less the same but the slingshot effect lasts much longer in the rpm range. So past a certain point, depressing the gas pedal more does not really accelerate more but rather gets you a prolonged slingshot effect. Does it make sense? Maybe this is caused by the tune which gets the turbos to kick in much earlier in the rpm range.

5. The car is now aggressively responsive with an incredible exponential force of acceleration, while still being smooth if I want to.

6. And yes, the screw is still there I attached a picture as a few of you PM'd me about this. It was done professionally for sure but certainly visually noticeable nonetheless.

hyperion667

nice write up Mr Happy.......glad it's working out for you

AC24

Let's see some pics/videos of your CLS!