Yep, unfortunately. My brother in law may be interested in the car as a 43. I have my eyes on a black on black W203 C55 I checked out on Saturday...

 

I also may be interested in the car, in 43 mode or possibly 55-sitting-on-a-pallet mode too. I just didn't want to say anything earlier to give you any more reason to throw in the towel than you already had

You have put a considerable amount of work into that car over the time on here. I'm sure it's one of the most well-cared for 43s on this forum.

 

Yes, there will be considerable value to the next owner. All the suspension work last year cost about $1000 in parts alone, so the suspension is basically all fresh with the exception of a couple of bushings.

And of course the motor has new intake manifold gaskets, valve cover gaskets, front and rear main seals (this is on both the 55 and 43), engine mounts, water temp sensor (size of a raspberry, $30!), crank pulley, idler pulley, belt tensioner...

I have the parts to sort out the C32/55 calipers to orient them in the proper way, but haven't installed those yet. If I get this W203 C55, I will likely swap over the pads and rotors - as those are fresh, maybe 1000km only on them and I want to keep those!

The only problem for nd4spd, is that you are waaaaay on the other side of the continent! I still have the pallet for the 55 motor actually...

 

True, but not quite as far as it seems. I am actually at university in Montréal so not quite as far to the southeast as North Carolina. If things don't work out with your brother in law, let me know!

 

Ah, Montreal...McGill? I had my first experience of Brazilian BBQ in Montreal. Wowza, been a fan since. And can't forget Schwartz's smoked meat sandwiches, or La Belle Province for similar munchies....

 

Yep, mcgill indeed! I have yet to try the bbq, I have heard a lot about the smoked sandwiches, and I think it's impossible to avoid la belle province poutine

 

So Vincent, have you got the 43 back in and running, or is the car going to be sold with a lot of bits and pieces? We all need to know if the engine 55 is the culprit or is it something else.

 

I really hope you are not parting it out but if you are If you are parting it out I call dibs on the drivers side mirror and the passenger side jack point cap.

 

The 43 went back into the engine bay last night and has been mated up to the trans. I will spend the rest of the week, and probably a bit of the weekend, connecting everything else up and hopefully will fire it up soon.

 

Hope it all goes back in with no problems. Guess you have had enough of them these last weeks. Keeping fingers crossed

 

If the 43 motor starts I can only conclude that there is an issue with that 5.5l motor you have Vincent.

 

Pulled the trigger on a lovely, ~97,000km 2005 C55. All stock except for a roof spoiler (unknown name), tinted corner markers (on the bumpers), and resonator and secondary cat deletes. The latter gives a nice crackle and pop on the overrun. Also a plus is the already installed iPod adaptor which charges my iPhone 3GS and still allows use of the steering wheel controls.

I really don't like the interior looks of the pre-facelift (-MY04) 203s, and I didn't want a V6, supercharged or not, so I steered clear of the C32s that are really cheap right now. The C55 is just one step below my ultimate daily driver, but the perfect C63 with Performance Pack will have to wait a little longer...

There is much rationale in this purchase. I could spend a lot more time and effort trying to figure out the 43, but at the end of the day, it still won't have quad exhaust, 320kmh speedo, steering wheel controls, indicator lights on the mirrors, memory seats, much more modern interior or steering wheel 'button' shifters for the complete manual mode in the trans (which won't shift up if it you are in that mode). Apparently one can swap in an SLK55 wheel with the actual paddles, so maybe that'll happen sometime in the future. Mileage is less than half of what I have on the 43, and despite all the suspension work on the 43 to make it effectively zero miles, the KMac bushings still squeak over bumps. Anyway, all that extra effort into the 43 just puts me that much further away from a newer car, hence ceasing work on the 43. The shape of the C55 is really distinct too, to the trained eye. It doesn't have a C-Class front end, rather it has the whole CLK front end, fenders, bumper, lights and I believe the interior sheet metal too - the M113 just wouldn't fit into the 203 chassis, which I guess is why they went with the supercharged V6 in the C32 to begin with.

Almost have the 43 back together and ready to fire again, but have had such a busy week, weekend and all next week. In fact, I'm in the bloody office right now, it's Sunday morning, getting ready for a judicial dispute resolution that is going to take all next week....bleahs.

More on the 43 later, hoping my brother in law will buy it from me, my sister in law hasn't shot the idea down, so it might happen! Meantime, here are some pix of the 55, currently sitting on a staggered set of 17" snow tires I picked up off a local guy who didn't need them on his W209 anymore.

 

Congrats Vince! Looks like a gem. Can't wait to see what you do with it

 

Congrats Vince. The C55 is a wonderful car. Hmmm, and those wheels look familiar . . . . . . . .

Hopefully the C43 starts and sells with minimal effort. Although it wouldn't surprise me if the intake was leaking.

 

Unfortunate you are scrapping the C43/C55 and moving on to a W203 C55. Good luck with the new ride, you will be missed

 

Agreeeed..., we well definitely miss you......

ZAYED,,

 

Jayzuz guys, it's not like I've died or something, I just bought another car! Marcus doesn't have a C43 but he posts here all the time! I'll still be kicking around, don't worry...

My parents say they want to buy the 43 now, which is nice as it'll still be in the family. Seems they have decided not to acquire the low mileage SLK280 that was being offered for sale by one of the local dealers. Of course, I won't get a market price for the 43, or rather, a fair price given all the work and parts I've put into the car, but there's pluses in be able to keep an eye on the car, and will be nice to get it out of my hair. More than likely now I will just acquire new pads for the 43's stock calipers, and get the el cheapo route for replacement discs, and have a mini part out. Once the car's up and running, I'll be flogging the old 32 calipers and the existing discs on the 55, and also the brakeline set up I came up with to properly orient the 32 calipers.

As for the C55...yes, a very nice ride. The suspension set up as been a revelation to me. It is nicely firm, yet still compliant. Stiff enough to make cornering fun - though not at S2000 levels of cornering capability of course - but still very comfortable. A run on the freeway ring road this evening, which is a bit more bumpy than it should be - and the car just soaked it all up. In my other cars, I would be expecting an uncomfortable karumph. Anyway, very happy with it, just a very lovely car.

 

Very nice. Glad to hear your C43 will be staying in the family.

 

+1 and I hope you stay around in the c36 c43 family too
I hope you keep us also updated on the new start up of the c43....

 

Please keep up posted on the outcome of your C43, we are all interested to know what the problem turned out to be.

 

What plans do you have for the new ride?

 

Plans for the new car? Pretty much just drive! . Car doesn't really need anything, I don't think. I wouldn't mind integrated Bluetooth, but the little aftermarket voice activated speaker works okay for now. Nav would be nice but I don't really need it. I like the ride height as is, but maybe spacers to punch out the wheel arches a bit. A set of BBS LMs at some point perhaps...

 

Oh I guess I will convert the fog lights to HIDs. I see the CLK63 calipers and rotors are bolt one but that can get expensive and I think will require 18s (meaning I'd need another set of 18s for winter).

incartronics.com makes a really cool 'Comand Plus' Nav/iPhone/Bluetooth unit that is plug and play, but it's $2k. Looks very trick though, even allowing a back up camera.

All in all though, very pleased with the car. I did have some misgivings, but those have been banished now.

Another couple of notes: my factory accessory floor mats from the 43 fit just fine into the 55 so I was quite pleased with that. Need to hunt down a trunk mat and cargo net now.

Also, parked up at the grocery store last night and when I came out a grey C63 with performance pack (red calipers is the giveaway I'm told) was parked next to me. Normally I'm quite pissed off when people park next to me in an otherwise empty parking lot, but for an AMG I'd make an exception! funnily enough there was also an absolutely gorgeous 997 GT3RS in silver with orange accents and wheels in the parking lot too. Nice car.

 

If you come across a black E63 wagon somewhere in the westend during weekend it's probably my brothers. He said lease is up in 6 months so you may see another 997 come next summer.
(Bitumen biz is doing really good) - makes me wish I chose petroleum engineering sometimes.

 

Oh yeah, last thought for the day - I think the car is actually blue! Not obsidian black like the 43. The car looks black from a distance but up close, in the light, it looks dark, dark blue. A friend who saw us on the highway on the way home remarked that the car looked blue in the sunlight too. Weird, eh?