Hi everyone. This is my first time on the forums and my first Benz. I must say that I am very impressed with my recent purchase. I have searched and done my homework as to my selection and just the other day picked up my very own 2001 CLK 430. Now a few questions here. Being a true performance car nut at heart and being around cars of all makes,models,and years in my lifetime I have to say I believe that this will most definitely be my most favorite car I have ever owned. It has 105,556 on the clock but doesn't show it anywhere. A few minor blemished due to parsking lot dings and some rock chips on the leading edge of the hood but otherwise immaculate. After purchasing it I took it to a local dealer and had a complete service done along with a full indpection of the entire car front to back, top to bottom, and inside and out. The vereict was as I had expected, Simply perfect minus a few maint items. However the control panel for the audio system did have an error code but as I have done my homework I knew this was simply the system requesting the security code,my dealer took care of this for me at no charge. In the past I was a ford technician for about 11yrs and worked in three dealershios throughout my career, but when i pulled up to the dealership I was floored at the amount of booty smooching and pampering I got. Ok now a few questions, as I have had the car for a few days now and have been trying to figure some things out. First, I was made aware that upon filling up this afternoon on the way to work i noticed after the top off the fuel guage only read half. As I am always checking my vehicles and this is my new baby and my first benz you can imagine that my heart dropped. After a few quick searches I found that this problem can happen and that it is most likely the fuel sending units (left and right) that are probably bad. Cost to repair, online roughly 400.00 US for both units and the dealer can probably do the install (with out the part warrenty of course). Ok no biggy there, as a mechanice if I decide to try this on a vehicle I have never worked on this should still be straight forward, if anyone has any recommendations please feel free to reply. Next and this is one that the dealer did mention and I have already taken care of in that that fob was apparently dropped in salt water and the internals are showing sings of corrosion, ok no problem I ordered another fob from germany, will be here in three days and delevered to my door by the dealer,(talk about service) at no charge. This car will need an alignment and four new tires so as you guys and girls are familiar with this car more than I do you have anyrecommendations as far as tires(I like to drive fast,thus the reason I bought this car in the first place). Next the brakes have a slight vibration to them so this tells me that some or all of the rotors are warped(most likely due to highspeed braking and then driving through some water while the rotors are still"hot") so I am going to upgrade the brakes. This I cane most likely do my self as brakes was one of my specialties. So any suggestions as far as rotors and pads, I want crossdrilled and slotted all the way around and would prefere ceramic or some other high speed pads with little brake fade and low dust. Lastly what kind of performance mods are available for these cars and do they really need them,as this afternoon I smoked some fool in a cammed out and loud GTO. Getting onto the freeway this guy was on my ***, now I know GTO's are fast but I had no idea that this CLK 430 was such a beast. As he got around and then beside me he started that blipping of the throttle to announce that he wanted to add another notch to his kill list, sandly mistaken. I thought for sure as My buddy has one of these that I was toast, but little did I know that when we both dropped the hammer, to both of our astonishment this CLK was still side by side......until,yup after about 100 he started to fade and this beast of a car put a grin on my face that has yet to fade. after I had about 5 lengths on himand he was still in the throttle and i could see him just fading away I looked down and was totaly blown away (the speedo read 135 and was still pulling hard). This not only scared me, but also excited me. I am hooked on this car. So thanks for the welcomes in advance and I look forward to hearing from yall. Sorry for the longwindedness of this post.

 

Congrats, what's the color scheme? Mine is new to me as well, no issues besides needing motor mounts and steering wheel wear. What did you pay?

 

Its glacier white with the amg package, grey leather,has 106000 on the clock as of this evening. Runs like brand new, one owner,clean carfax, and loads of power. The only thing I have had to spend on it is a new fob. My dealer said it was tip top. I only discovered the fuel issue this afternoon. What about yours?

 

Lucky, I wanted a white one, I think they look fantastic in white. Mine's an Opal Black with Oyster Interior, 78K on the clock, full dealer service history, was a one owner car, runs fantastic. Mine also has Xenon HID's, heated seats and the sunshade, aka K3 and K4 packages. Love mine.

 

Mine also has these options. Sunshade, Heated seats, etc. It has a few minor nicks from parking lot door dings and rock chips on the hood. I will be upgrading the brakes to crossdrilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads or something similar in performance. Some3 new rubber and an alignment with a new camber adjustment kit to correct the abnormal wear on the front tires. Was thinking of stepping up the rim size but i like the amg rims. What is there out there as far as performance mods like exhaust or intakes.

 

You can go with a free flow exhaust from the likes of SuperSprint. Headers are not available unless ghostrider wants to have more short tube headers fabricated. Do a search for cold air intake on this thread and you should be able to find pictures from Williams007 to show you what you can fab on your own. Other than that the only other thing you can do withou spending big bucks on the motor is have the ECU tuned by someone like Powerchip, Eurocharged or INMotionusa. There are other tuners out there but those are the ones that come to mind.

 

I want flow,but I don't want obnoxious. I like that this beast is so very powerful yet quiet. Just a little bit of growl would be ok, but not loud.

 

This page an be used to determine which options you have. The rear shade indicates a K3. If it also has Xenons, heated seats and rain sensing wipers, that will point to both the K3 and K4 packages.

Black Opal was a special charge color. I don't remember whether white was, but both are highly desirable colors.

 

This is very good to know as I really like the color of this car. Very clean, and straight. The wipers actually startled me yesterday as it started to rain and they came on all by themselves. I didn't expect it but I like it. My most immediate mods will be better tires(most likely Nitto or Falken), brake upgrade(slotted and drilled rotors and ceramic pads) and maybe some aero work like a front bumper swap with a splitter and some kind of wing or rear spoiler for that high speed work(I like to drive really fast on the freeway).

 

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum too and just bought a 2001 CLK430 coupe with around 65K miles.
Its brilliant silver with black interior and completely stock. It has Xenons, cold weather package (I'm in Canada), rain sensing wipers, CD changer etc.
When I picked it up it had new Michelin Pilot Sports, new control arms and ball joints, A/C service, coolant service, syn oil change, new air filters. One owner car, service history, no winters, no accidents and super clean in and out. Very happy with the speed and fuel mileage. Can be harsh over some bumps though. All I've had to buy was a new battery, it had the OEM still and died when the weather turned cold last week. This is my 2nd Benz, I've had 4 Porsche, 4 Jags, several VW/Audi products and various other Japanese and American cars. I can honestly say these cars stand up to years and miles better than anything else I've owned.
Love the car.
Cheers.

 

Congrats on the purchase. I have only had mine three days and love it. Cant wait to get more wheel time in it.