Ken Rogers

I need help. Just purchased a CL65 and want to do a few things to the car.For starters, I want to lower the car and do a software upgrade. My local aftermarket guy in San Diego closed his business and I'm having a hard time getting answers. I have used Brabus and Carlsson's lowering units in my cars in the past, but Brabus tells me that the 65 is already lower than the 55, it doesn't look like it to me, and their unit will only lower the car 10mm when they get it in January. I can't get Carlsson to respond to me.

I have a friend that had his SL65 lowered by my old aftermarket guy. He tells me that the Carlsson unit lowered the car about 1 in., but it raises at speed. He also had the software upgrade done, but again by the guy that is out of business.

Has anyone had their CL65 lowered. If so, what unit did you use and how much did it drop the car. Also, how about the software.

jsloan01

Can't help w/ your issue, but if you get a chance, post some pics of the car and the rest of your stable.

Ken Rogers

The 65 looks a little to stock for me to take a picture of it. I will when I get my mods done. Thanks for asking.

AMG2GO

Is money an issue? If not, then get the Kleemann lowering module, its $2200 and its the best. ECU I recommend Renntech over Kleemann, its a little more expensive, but I believe it to be a better unit after seeing many dyno sheets and having talked to both engineering departments. If you really care about performance, you can upgrade the wheels too, but you have to be very selective and get wheels that are lighter or else there will be no performance gains. Taking one pound off each wheel is the equivalent of taking several pounds off the car itself. So if you save 50-60 pounds (which can be done), you have essentially taken a couple of hundred off the car's sprung weight.

Renntech also has an airbox you can get, which in combination with the ECU will give you something like 20 more horsepower and save a bit more weight still.

Other than this leave the car alone. If you want a good deal on some of these parts, you can contact some of the guys that advertise on the forum. In particular, I recommend Neal at Euroteck, www.euroteckmotorsports.com.

The ECU is a drop in, you don't need a "shop" to do it. If you can unplug a couple of harnesses, you can do it yourself. The airbox and the lowering module require a bit more work, but anyone familiar with some MB basics should be able to do it. You can also lower the car a bit through STAR diagnostics, but the Kleemann module allows much more adjustability and will not let the car go too low at high speeds when the ECU drops it anyway.

Please do post some pics, even stock, we love stock pics. Congrats and nice choice on a car!

Ken Rogers

That's what I call an answer, Thanks. I will take your advice and check with Neal.

Your right about the wheels. On my CLS55 and E55 (just sold) I put on Carlsson's untra lights. Lots of weight saving over stock. I bought the CL for my wife and she wants something different this time, so I'll have to be patient with her while she makes up her mind.

Again, many thanks and I will post some pictures in the near future.

ClayJ

I've been real happy with my Carlsson UL's.

AMG2GO

Are you trying to tell us that you are going from 604 H.P. to close to 700 H.P. on YOUR WIFE'S CAR?!! Who is your wife? Danika Patrick?

Nice try Ken... you bought it for your wife... right... OK, we're with you man

Ken Rogers

The UL's have worked out great, except for one thing. My wife hit the lip of three of her wheels. Not very easy to fix. I'm thinking three piece this time some I can just change the outer piece and not the whole wheel.

ClayJ

Got one word for ya, 'curbfeelers' LOL
Some tires have a rib for 'wheel protection' to help avoid curb rash. You could just ask your wife to pay more attention to how close she gets to the curb....
You could just ban her from...not gonna go there!
The more expensive the wheels the more one needs to pay attention to the basics...like not scraping the curb! Three-piece is just another expensive solution...prevention is the cure, my friend!

Ken Rogers

What can I say. She is no Danika, but she does love speed. Spent a number of year at the track riding race bikes and playing with our past Ferraris and Vetts. You know you need that kind of HP when you have a heavy weight like a V12 CL. Anyway she's happy and so am I.

Ken Rogers

I agree with you. But, what are you going to do? I'ts to expense to change wifes, so I'll change the wheels and save some money. However, I think she hated doing it as much as anyone could. It all happened within about the first 2,000 miles. After that all was okay.

I also had lowered her E55 and put a Carlsson front lip spoiler on it. The front spoiler would not clear a parking bumper and she never hit it, so she did learn how to take care of her car.

ClayJ

I hear ya. And a 'teachable' wife is a keeper..... I scraped up my first set of alloys too? Don't we all?

NdnMbLova

Is the shop you are talking about MBWerks or something similar? if it is IANSL55 is having trouble contacting them also.

If you would like to lower the car, i would highly suggest using Steve. Im pretty sure he uses Star Diagnostics to lower the car. Just do a search and contact any number of people on the forum and im sure they will give solid reviews about him. If you are looking for overall mods, i would highly suggest going with klee who have different stages for their mods such as K1, K2, and K3. These will each vary in price. Also try out some tuners that arnt so popular on the board such as MKB. Ive heard good reviews about the.

In the end what i can say is Try klee or MKB for performence mods and from there on try some avus wheels or some HRE's.

AMG_Mike

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...t=lowered+cl65

egnahc

ken rogers, im liking your taste of cars.. im in san diego too.. if i see you around i'll give you the 'hell yeah'

Ken Rogers

MBWerks, formerly know as AutoWerks, is out of business. Randall, the owner, did a great job on MB's, but a business deal came along that he couldn't refuse. I'm surprised that he didn't try to sell the business, but it all happened so fast. Now all us MB owners in San Diego are looking for someone to take care of their cars.

How is Steve and where is he located?

vraa

I'll be another one to vouch for neal @ Euroteck for all your performance parts.
You can e-mail him at info@euroteckmotorsports.com
Euroteck Motorsports carries almost every performance enhancing product and they also sell an insanely wide range of wheels from various companies.

Another company you should get in touch with is D2-Autosport @ sales@d2autosport.com
Experts in wheels and body kits.

Those two companies should be able to supply you with almost every modification you need.

AMG2GO

Three piece wheels are mainly advantageous to the manufacturer, not to the end user anymore. They allow a wide variety of offsets and sizes to happen without a lot of cost to the manufacturer.

But it adds weight and replacing the outer rim is usually just as costly as buying an entire new wheel. You have to send it back to the manufacturer for repair, and when it comes back, it has cost you 90-100% of a new wheel.

The ligtest wheels are single piece forged wheels. The absolute lightest will be magnesium wheels, second lightest, forged aluminum. Your factory wheels are 33 pounds each. My Renntech Monolites are under 20 pounds...

http://renntechmercedes.com/images/Monolite.html

and you can go lighter still if you have the cash by purchasing magnesium wheels. They are available from Neez, and Eisenhaus imports them. You are into the teens with those. www.eisenhaus.com

One thing with the monolites is that they are offered in an offset that will allow you to mount a 295 section tire in the rear with no rubbing, you can do a 295/255 staggered setup. No other wheel will allow that without body modification.

Right now, because of their rarity, you can get around $4500 or more for your factory wheels. That will get you a nice set of the real high performance stuff. Also be sure to check tire weights, I believe the stock tires are Mich PS2's which are excellent. If you change tires, don't go with something heavy, it will negate your benefits as it sits on the outer most part of the rotational mass and makes the biggest performance difference.

If you have TPS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) on the CL65 make sure the new wheels can accept them. If you decide to do away with them, that feature can be temporarily disable through STAR.

HLG600

First off, congratulations on your car. I've been hearing questionable things regarding Kleemann lately. As for RennTech, it appears as though they are very effective both on the dyno and on the drag strip. Yet, Brabus is MB's Premier Tuner and they offer the highest hp upgrade on the 65 engine. Their ECU offers a jump to 715 hp. Just saying it's worth a look.

http://www.brabus-online.de/prog04e.htm

Good Luck.

AMG2GO

What Renntech gets out of the 65 motor with the ECU upgrade is the limit of what that engine will output without other non-software modifications. There is no seceret here with any of these ECU upgrades. Raise the boost, remap the ignition curves, remove limiters, and voila... you have more power.

If Kleemann, Renntech, Brabus, or anyone else does everything right, they should get in the vicinity of 650-675 HP out of that motor on a cool night. If they ask for too much from the turbos, then you have heat soak and a loss of power at higher RPM's, nevermind much reduced life from the turbochargers.

I have said it before many times... the limiting factor on this engine is the turbos. I spoke to Brabus a while ago and they were working on an upgrade that included larger turbos, as did Kleemann who eventually shelved the idea. Perhaps that's what this "S" conversion is, and I am curious about it myself. Someone should contact Brabus and find out. But if it isn't, and they are claiming 715 HP without internal engine modifications, it ain't happenin'.

Looking at this engine and its dyno sheets, its pretty clear that AMG has extracted most of what is safely possible from this motor. There is a much larger margin on the 600 engine, and that's why you get much more power from an ECU upgrade on that car.

The problem with larger turbos is that you have more lag, and you lose responsiveness. Something unacceptable in a car of this class. You also have drivetrain issues to contend with.

Bottom line: there is around a 10% safety/reliability margin on the motor that can be exploited. This is what these ECU upgrades are doing. If you want more, you have to change a whole host of parts on the car. As it is, I am absolutely sure that the lifespan of the turbos, and the drivetrain are compromised with any of these upgrades.

D2-AUTOSPORT

And the wife isn't half bad either! Sounds like a great duo. As far as wheels, go, there is another option in the event of any curb damage, which is local repair. There are many shops that do a excellent job of repairing curbrash, in all honesty, before I will let a client shell out the $$ and spend time shipping a wheel back for dis-assembly and such, I refer them to a repair shop. To date, this has worked very well for our clients, with the repair costs being a mere fraction of the cost of replacement.

Good luck with your project, and you can still share pics of the stocks its always great to see the "work in progress".

If you need any assistance with the wheels, module, etc feel free to contact us

Ken Rogers

Thanks for the info. Sold the E55 with the wheel issue, but if she does it again I'll look into the repair route.

You have a nice website. Can't decide on wheels yet. Want to get the car lowered first then look at it. Most likely 20 in. by 9 and 10's plus. Not sure on the brand or style. HRE is 20 minutes from me, but never have purchased their wheels. To many of them in my area.

Have been buying the Carlsson UL wheels, but want to made a change. The car is black and has the grey center AMG wheels now on it. Not a bad look, but considering other finish options. Will give you call when I decide.

David M///

Hi Ken,
Nice cars! Let me know if you're thinking of selling the stock wheels from your CL65. I'm in Orange County. Thanks,
David M///
dtmiyasako@yahoo.com

D2-AUTOSPORT

Sure that's just fine. Its funny you mention that about HRE because we consistently attempt to demostrate the alternatives, which accomodates those that may want something a little different. While we are Authorized HRE Retailers and have excellent pricing on them, variety is key.

If you decide to go HRE, we can provide them, if you decide to go another route we can do that as well.

Check your PM I have a really good idea I'd like to run by you regarding wheel finish!

BlackC230Coupe

Just saw this thread, i responded to your email Ken. Goodluck on the mods!