I saw a video, and I've heard somewhere else that if you hold one of the paddles when you start the car that you get "Emotion Start" where the exhaust is louder. Unless I'm missing something, it does absolutely nothing. Maybe the CLE doesn't have this option on it and other models do? Anybody know anything about this?

Confirmed that this does not work on the 53, sadly.

When I picked up my car, the guy at the Mercedes dealer showed it to me and claims that it works but from what I could gather from reading online it doesn't work on the CLE.
I can't hear any difference when I do normal and "emotional" start one after the other on my car.

I can also confirm it doesn’t work on the CLE 53. On cars that have the Emotion Start feature, it is very obvious.

I seen a video where you can turn on ignition, switch to sport+ with exhaust on, and then start it up. Haven't tested it myself but I doubt it'll be much louder. Nothing like true emotion start sadly

Correct, with your foot off the brake, push the start button two times then wait for the right OLED button on the steering wheel to show C, turn it to S+, put your foot on the brake, hit the start button. The only thing is, it takes a number of seconds for the OLED buttons to "boot up" so you can put it in S+ so it's a bit inconvenient. It would be so much better if you can have it so it's automatically in S+ when you start it up. I know that there's the remote exhaust valve module that you can get but it seems a bit complicated to install and I don't know how bad I really need the car to start loud every time....

Emotion Start has been discontinued a while back. One more feature that fell victim to regulations. I have it on my 2019 C63S Coupe, but it was discontinued a few years later for new models.

Can't the wires/connector to the valve's solenoid/actuator be disconnected after the car has been started in sport+/when the valves are fully open? It may also be possible to do the same by pulling the associated fuse for the valves.

I could be completely wrong but I thought I read that when you put it in Sport+ it doesn't fully open the valves. The valves don't fully open until the car is at a certain speed or RPM or the computer can tell the car is being driven aggresively....
Also, it's unlikely that the exhaust flaps are on one stand alone fuse that doesn't control something else.

They may be able to be manipulated manually and then pull the connector/s to the actuators. As a comp, there are dedicated fuses in the BMW M850 for the exhaust valves according to others who have checked, but the best way is to follow what I laid out

Above poster is correct in that the valves nowadays only open above a certain RPM. This topic has been discussed multiple times. It's not as simple as pulling a fuse. There's a module for those who want the valves fully open at all times.

https://renntechmercedes.com/index.p...t-valve-module

Again, I stated in my first response pulling the fuse MAY be possible - but disconnecting the connector to the solenoid/actuator after manually manipulating the valves to fully open has worked (at least on the M850) and would be the first choice. The module is certainly an option, but MAY void the warranty for the associated exhaust items being affected.

There is a burger motor sport exhaust valve plug I hear being mentioned but I don't think anyone actually got it to work?