Hi all,
While my 2014 C63 sedan is currently down for some engine work, I got bored and have already looking for my next set of mods.

I'm thinking a set of KW DDC coilovers would be a good addition to the car, but the wrinkles in the plan are:
1) It needs a button installed somewhere in the cabin.
2) I'm told their app just is horrible (plus additional wlan module and it's possibly iphone only?) so i don't want to just mount the button in the glovebox and forget about it.

The cleanest solution would be to retrofit one of the blank buttons on the center console. Ebay seems to call this "MERCEDES-BENZ C W204 SWITCH BLOCK UNIT UPPER PANEL" (Mercedes just seems to call it "Switch Assembly" with one variation having a part number of A20490503022A17)

I was hoping I could take a 3 stage heated seat button, and just splice the wires in the background for the contact points. From everything I'm reading though, it doesn't seem possible and I've been struggling to find anyone who's successfully managed to "reassign" one of the buttons for anything else. Each thread I'm finding seems to have just died out. I can't find any pictures of that assembly disassembled and I haven't gotten far enough in the plans yet to buy a test unit or have a technical discussion with KW.


I'm hoping my google-fu is just failing me, but should I read between the lines here and believe this is really that impossible to do? (I saw a thread where the PFL guys just drilled a new hole in the plastic of the center console and mounted the button there, but I haven't seen any clever ideas for the FL cars)

My Plan B is just to put the button in the center console compartment as it looks like it's got some LED "tackyness" I'd prefer not to have in the open...Anyone else have any better ideas here?
Crappy picture for visual aid.



Thanks in advance!

 

I had to install a switch for my diff cooling pump and also looked at what you’re contemplating. In the end, I just threw a toggle switch hidden away in the ashtray next to my air/fuel gauge. If you’re not a smoker there’s tons of room to put fun stuff in there that can be easily hidden when not in use.

 

Here is a photo of where I placed the KW DDC button. The button also changes color based on which mode you are in and you may not want to lose that feature.

kw ddc button

 

I place mine in the ashtray compartment in place of the cigarette plug.
Bear in mind that the LED light is VERY bright and will be distracting at night time.

 

Thanks for the advice all!
I'm not a smoker, so ya, the ashtray makes sense. I was also thinking of putting it by the USB ports in the center compartment, not sure how feasible that would be.

I appreciate the feedback on the button LED, I thought it looked bright from the low quality pics I could find... I was thinking i didn't want the button in plain view anyway; I'm not generally an RGB kind of guy.


I'm getting quotes for about ~$3-4k to install, does that sound in the ballpark for y'all?

I'm going down one more road and chatting with some engineers... I'll update the post further if anything comes from this, but it does seem that this switch assembly isn't easy to mod. Sigh.

The current wishlist is:
coilovers, wide body kit (full though, not just rear), war viking transmission.

I assume the priorities will set themselves once I get the supercharger installed.

Cheers,

 

$3-4K for labor? Remember, this is just a set of coilovers, + a few additional hours to run wiring.

 

Yeah that is ridiculous. Even at $150 per hour that is 26 hours of labor at $4k and 20 hours of labor at 3k. Jeebus, they using a blacksmith to build the coilovers? I think I'd get someone else to "ballpark" those numbers unless there is something else included in that estimate.

I will say I've seen shops charge flat fees that are very high for what they call "track" setup when installing coilovers and if they are going down that path and doing this install correct by also corner balancing then that could result in a lot of trial an error which could result in a very high price tag. Anything over 2500 still seems exorbitant to me but one has to factor in where you do or don't live as well.

 

Yeah honestly install should be ~6 hours and then setting and alignment so you should be around $1500-2000 tops

 

Agreed, even with a thorough corner balance, which is overkill for the street, that seems high. With just an install, they've lost the plot.

 

Thanks all for the input! I appreciate the wisdom. Glad to hear it's not a horrible cost.

Houston has 3 "official" KW dealers. 1 is Porsche only, 1 didn't return any calls yet. The last one couldn't find the part number for the w204 DDC and said no such kit exists.
Once I gave them the part number, they threw out an ~$8k budget estimate while they "confirmed availability".. haven't heard back since.

Here's the part numbers if anyone's curious. The kits do seem to be getting harder to find availability on it seems.
KW DDC ECU Coilover Kit - C-Class C63 AMG Sedan (W204) Part No.:39025004
KW DDC ECU Coilover Kit - Mercedes C63 AMG Coupe (W204) Part No:39025007

I still haven't given up hope on programming the switch assembly. I'm trying to get people smarter than I to look into it.

Cheers,

 

Definitely don't buy from them then. Tons of independent resalers that are about half that cost. Odd they didn't even know it exists and that price is insane

 

Reach out to Golan @ @AutoTalent . Good dude, will hook you up with whatever you need.

 

Quick/Final update on this.
I chatted with the guys at MidCity Engineering on the concept of retrofitting the buttons flanking the hazard button.
I thought with their knowledge hacking the main comand system, they might have a good solution...Unfortunately, while they never said it was impossible, here's what they told me:

So, that is outside my budget for this project, but for anyone more adventurous than I, all you need is a donor set of coilovers, a new set of buttons, and the car itself around the Chicagoland area.


What I've moved to is buying an android tablet for the car from Accessory International, here, and will likely just hide the button in the glovebox/center console and use the app.

Cheers,

 

Question. That seems needlessly complicated. The “button” you see is only a cover really for the actual button or switch. You just want it to operate the KW DDC switch instead of whatever OEM function ia press communicated through the SAM. Forget using the SAM or going though the control modules etc, just totally unnecessary. Can’t you simply rig it up so the button action instead operates the DDC switch directly? A button is just an open-close signal, I’m guessing it’s be pretty easy. Am I missing the point?

 

So, for the moment, all this is completely theoretical and i have no idea how the DDC stuff works is the honest answer. For now, all I have is the info I can read online, and with that, I'm told the LED ring around the KW button has feedback and changes color depending on the mode the suspension is in. This to me implies some kind of feedback, likely from the ECU, but coding for something beyond a basic switch.
I have ordered the kit, but I've been given an eta of mid-June before it'll arrive so I that's where I thought I'd see how all the pioneers have done it.


With that, in my "perfect world" goal, what I wanted to do was use a 3-stage MB OE button instead of the KW light ring, to display that feedback.
I was shooting for either either a second heated seat button, or pull something from an SL/K airscarf button (attached pic) as that's the only 3-stage OEM type buttons I've seen in that row.


That "feedback" (which number of LED's to light up) is what I was ultimately trying to get lined up & working for the best possible OE experience.

Since none of that's practical though (without prior post's complexity), I don't think it makes any sense to hack apart the row of buttons & splicing in a wire at all VS just adding this KW button somewhere else then like you were mentioning with your diff cooler switch.

I was really hoping for then even instrument cluster feedback, like Midcity does with an escort radar (here).
But that would have been way too awesome...