av1994

I recently purchased 2002 CLK 430 with 135,000 miles. Looking to make some upgrades. Can anyone give me some beginner suggestions on:
1. Suspension upgrade - smoother/tigher ride
2. Exhaust upgrade - deeper sound
3. Perfromance chip - increased gas mileage and hp.

Thanks...

myworld

1 - re-torq steering bolts
Replace
- Steering dampener
- Shocks & springs
- Idler arm bushing
- Sway bar bushings
- center link / tie rod ends
- lower control arm bushing
- lower ball joints
- Wheel bearings

2 - Alot of high end exhausts to choose from, or A Magnaflo... listen to
them on youtube w208 exhaust.
- cold air intake

3 - use the search box for chips
- not a chip, but Sprintbooster

Hope that helps. Use the search box of the main page. Most of the questions have been asked. Some of these cars are 16 years old!

Williams707

Other High End Exhaust Options

1. Supersprint
2. Eisenmann

Josh K

AMG airbox from a CLK55 with good filters will give a 15 hp increase at the rear wheels (I've dyno verified this).

Canned tunes (one size fits all, not actually custom tuned) are not worth the money. Some like sprintboosters, I feel they're a waste of money as well.

Don't forget adjustable rear control arms if you lower the car unless you like wearing out the inside edge of the tires in 8-10k miles.

jonUF02

If you just want the exhaust a tiny bit louder, then take it to a muffler shop and have them cut out the rear cats, under the center of the car. I love the sound and it only cost me $100.

I'm thinking about Sprintbooster, seems like it works well.

There are a few sway bars out there, I'm interested in feedback on how they change the handling.

The AMG intake is something else I'm interested in, but the stock intake box seems to suck air pretty efficiently, direct input tubes from the grill. I put K&N filters in mine.

Most suspension "upgrades" will actually make the ride stiffer, not smoother. If you just want it lower get some springs or spring pad change. Replace the shocks, they are cheap and easy.

I would check and replace as necessary all of the previously listed bushings on cars of this age. I would also replace all the vacuum hoses and the tubes coming off the top of the valve covers because they are all probably rotted and about to fall apart and cause problems. Cleaning out your intake manifold and throttle body is a more challenging process, but well worth it if you see my thread.

Unfortunately, this car does not have great handling. I see it as more of a GT cruiser with straight-line power. Like a muscle car.

sirswift93

I installed a Sprintbooster on my CLK 320 Cabrio and even my son tells me to shut it off or put it at medium; it really makes the car take off from the line.

On the 2001 the throtle sensor is not at the pedal but in front of the break booster. I don't think they put it behind the pedal until the W209. In that case the cord on the remote was too short to go through the fire wall and attach back at the console. I emailed the company in Greece and they were nice enough to mail me out a longer cord free of charge!

sirswift93

My car has 131K on it and the rear end is squeaking like mad. Where did you pick up the bushings, tie-rods, etc.?

Thanks

Josh K

It's because it reduces the resolution of your throttle input curve. Makes it think you're flooring it before you actually are. My car is supercharged and that would not make launching it fun.

You should still check it out. The filters only accounted for 5 of the 15 wheel horsepower I got from the swap. The AMG intake has a larger plenum and fins inside to help direct the airflow. Definitely worth it over the stock box. Smarter purchase than a sprintbooster IMO.

sirswift93

It's not simulating the driver flooring the pedal. If I press down on the pedal 20% the ECU interrprets the singal that much quicker. In fact, MB USA purposely slowed down the response time based on the driver studied market.

jonUF02

I just can't see spending about $400 for the used intake box. But if you say it makes 10HP dyno proven to the rear wheels, then it might be worth it. There are not many performance upgrades for this engine unless you want to double the price of the car with a supercharger.

Josh K

I had one on my car before I supercharged it. I was very happy with it. There aren't many of the typical bolt on mods for the M113 motor. Even headers aren't effective as the bottleneck is in the exhaust side of the head itself.

Josh K

From their own website:

Sprintbooster modifies the signal between the accelerator pedal module and the electronic throttle body. This modified signal forces the throttle body to open 'more' than the stock signal at a given pedal position. In effect the idle-to-full-throttle pedal travel is reduced . This makes your car 'feel' more powerful because a given pedal input produces a greater throttle opening.

There you have it. Move your seat forward 20% and boom - free sprintbooster.