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Finally, after months of dithering (on my part) and then delay with shipping from Germany (did they have to actually make this thing for me?!?) the 203 specific emergency triangle arrived. Paid way too much for it, but nothing fits like OE.
I had been getting a licence plate bulb error due to one of the LED modules failing. But I delayed fixing that until I got the new emergency triangle, so I wouldn't have to tear apart the trunk liner twice.
But, now that winter has truly arrived (winter arrived the day we left for Mexico, came back five days later to a huge shock, let me tell you, a 50*C temperature swing is horrible!) so the AMG is parked and I'm back to driving the Audi (and wishing it was an S4 instead of an A4 - fingers crossed I can change that sometime!!). So I probably won't get to installing everything until spring, unless I can find a clear warm day and some free time.
Winter is long. On an unrelated matter, I found a screaming deal on kijiji for a set of Bilstein Damptronic coilovers for my 911. I do have to buy separately the adjustment wrenches and a pair of bespoke Bilstein links, but still worth it. Should be cool to get these onto the car next year!
Thanks boys. Now that winter is here, most hardcore wrenching ceases for me (unheated garage!) and I just go into survival mode, keeping the Audi on the road.
I've ordered a couple of new adjustment wrenches for the coilovers, plus a couple of bespoke Bilstein links that are required to fit them onto the car. Still waiting on a set of extra nice (and expensive) Esco jack stands so the 911 can sit on them in the winter too.
If I find time, I may clean up the coilovers a touch, but they are pretty fresh. Seller said they only had about 2-3,000km when they were removed.
But you know...this car habit is like a drug. My wife keeps telling me to cut down! I should tell her to cut down on buying shoes!
A quick shot of the 911 hibernating in its OE Porsche indoor car cover.
so i joined this forum years ago when i had my old 2000 C230 Kompressor. I purchased my c55 in may of 2013. For the longest time i thought i was the only c55 in the city until i started lurking back on the forums and came across this thread. nice to know i'm not the only one! very nice progress with your car saaboteur! also, the 997 is spec'd exactly how i would want one as well. personally, i'm hoping to find a 993 C4S. but that long from now.
would be great to meet up over the summer and have a photo shoot!
And I thought I was the only C55 owner in Edmonton too!! Lol.
There's an Alberta based Facebook group for Benz owners, with mostly local guys. PM me your email address and I can send you an invite. Azn.ttr is also a local member, he invited me into the group too. I haven't made it out to any events, but I do know they do stuff once in a while. Bit more difficult for me to get out with busy work and family life. One day though!
trevor actually pm'd me and I joined the group, along with my brother who has a C63. if you ever need some help with wrenching projects let me know! I have a bit of experience(going on 7 years in the automotive trade).
Lovely vintage reproduction poster, plus two pretty rare C-Class DTM models, one 202 as driven by Ellen Lohr (love the 'peeling-paint-revealing-engine-underneath' livery) and the other a 203. I searched high and low for 203 bodied DTM race car models, and this was the only one I could find. Snatched it up - Wilkinson's Automobilia in Vancouver is shutting down their bricks and mortar shop, so a lot of items are on sale.
Another semi-off topic post - here is my new coffee table in my office.
It's a spare F22C engine block from an AP2 S2000, ie. the later 2.2L version. I sold my S2000 and basically all of the spare parts I had kicking around last year, but kept this project block. Turned into a different kind of project, LOL.
The glass is from a cheap, $30 side table from Ikea that I just bought for the glass. Then added four small rubber thingies from Home Depot to keep the glass off the block, and done.
I already have an old F1 wheel as a coffee table at home, so my wife said this one had to be in my office.
Some Benz ****: Lovely vintage reproduction poster, plus two pretty rare C-Class DTM models, one 202 as driven by Ellen Lohr (love the 'peeling-paint-revealing-engine-underneath' livery) and the other a 203. I searched high and low for 203 bodied DTM race car models, and this was the only one I could find. Snatched it up - Wilkinson's Automobilia in Vancouver is shutting down their bricks and mortar shop, so a lot of items are on sale.
Awww been looking for a W203. Checked the sit and they're out.
Did the front control arms and sway bar end links over the Easter long weekend, and alignment yesterday. On removal, the 'cross strut', ie. the rearward, steel, control arm bushings were fine. However, the bushings were starting to tear on the 'torque strut', ie. the forward, aluminum one.
A notes that isn't mentioned in the WIS instructions (posted here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...ml#post6381879) - I had to drop the entire sway bar to get at the fasteners on the torque strut - the sway bar bracket is too close to get a regular sized wrench on the torque strut's nut on the chassis side. Could be rectified with a thinner wrench, but I only have the higher end 'pro' series wrenches from Canadian Tire, not Snap-on or Mac, actually professional tools.
Pix:
Comparison, new vs. old, hard to see the bushing starting to tear on the old:
Better shot of the tearing:
New:
Because the tearing wasn't substantial, the car felt fine before - and still feels fine now!
Okay, thread revival!! Nearly five years since the last post - geez, owned the car for just over nine years now!!
A few years back, bought a set of Eurocharged shorty headers. Got them ceramic coated, but didn't have them installed until this past summer.
Felt a bit more throttle response. Still have the primary cats, but I bought the car (in November 2011!) with the secondary cats and resonator already deleted.
I really haven't done many mods to the car until spring 2020 - guess I got bored with the pandemic and all. Some of the mods were dictated by longer term plans, others by whatever just came along. Longer term planning - this past spring I also sold my winter car, with the idea that I would keep driving the C55 in the winter too. That meant I wanted to have CarPlay in the car. So over the winter of 2019/2020 I started gathering up parts - Metra/Axxess dash kit, Metra/Axxess wiring adaptor and steering wheel control module, and an AvinUSA MOST adaptor. If I get the energy over Christmas, I may do up a write up with the details of the install, as it's not 100% documented elsewhere. That said, the install is very similar to the one I did on my 997, though in that car I don't have steering wheel controls. I wrote up a very detailed PDF on that, which you can link to here:
For the USB ports, I bought a mount from Amazon and mounted it in the glovebox. I had to clearance some of the styrofoam behind the glovebox for the port to fit though.
This area will require some rethinking when/if I move to the upgraded HVAC heaterbox (more on that later).
One of the other mods that I planned out, and gave to myself as a birthday present in June, was a secondhand set of early SLK55/CLK55 6/4 piston calipers. Have always wanted a set. Dunno why they put them on the other cars, but not the C55. Well, I guess later on they put the cheaper, smaller brakes on the SLK and CLK anyway. Every once in a while I'd check eBay or car-part.com looking for a set, but they were few and far between. Plenty of brakes off the bigger and newer cars, but hardly ever see the SLK/CLK55 calipers on eBay. Anyway, then I remember that my mate Zayed - @cm60k on the forums here - always seemed to have a hook up for calipers, so I got in touch with him. A few weeks later, a big box from DHL arrived at the office...and a few days after that, the calipers were bolted to the car!
I won't regurgitate the install, as it's been covered many times, here's the best thread about it:
I did not buy new front rotors, as they are quite expensive. At some point I will likely upgrade to the proper two piece rotors, but for now, a small 2mm spacer on each of the caliper to bracket bolts has spaced out the calipers for proper spacing to reuse the stock 345mm rotors. I did buy new 330mm rear rotors, and then cut the rear dust shields for the larger calipers to fit.
The last two photos show the front caliper clearance with the OE wheels, important for me as I now use those for winter rubber.
One of the mods that came to be out of opportunity was the installation of a set of rare Brabus sway bars. Got them from a friend, price was too good to refuse. He even threw in some new mounting brackets.
Funny story - the rear sway bar mounts use the same bolts as the rear subframe. After I installed the new rear sway bar mounts, I forgot to torque them down to spec. So the next day after driving, I heard some really crazy groaning noises from the back. Torqued them on and good to go. That said, now it's been a few months, sometimes when the car is turning onto a curb, with a transition over a bump, I hear some clonking from the rear. I think it may be the end links.
The box my friend sent me the sway bars in included some Brabus USA tape! Kept a section of it for kicks and posterity's sake.
In May 2020, my wife and I bought a 2014 GLK 250 BlueTec from the Mercedes dealer in Calgary, about 2.5 hours' drive away. So we headed down there in the C55 to check it out, then returned the next weekend to pick up the GLK.
Eagle eyed readers will notice that some of the shots at the rest stop are at the same rest stop where I took some photos of the C55 after I bought it, on the way home, back in November 2011 - pix on the first page of the thread, if the Photobucket preview thingy is still there.
I also installed a Mid-City Engineering remote start. Very cool, plug and play, uses the factory remote. I did not add the optional range extending gear, as I literally walk about 10 steps from the car to the office, and my detached garage is obviously quite near the house too.
Interestingly, I recall a story a buddy of mine told me years ago. At his work a few years ago, he was hosting some guys visiting from the Middle East. They told him that there, they have these devices called 'car starters', so that they can remote start the car so that the AC is blowing cold by the time they get to the car. My buddy laughed because obviously in Canada, we have remote starts for the exact opposite reason.
I liked the Mid-City Engineering remote start so much, I got one for my wife's GLK too. Every car that I now buy in the future will contemplate whether one can buy a plug and play remote start system! When I see in the local Benz club FB group questions about who to use for remote start systems, I always respond that the person should just buy a Mid-City Engineering remote start. Why anyone would want to hack apart the wiring in their cars, or somehow need to leave one of the keys physically in the car so that the remote start would work, is not reasonable when there is a plug and play solution.
11-19-2014, 12:35 PM
, 
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