klonsbury

How hard was it to get them to fit? After doing some research, I've found that it might be a challenge fitting them on my 550. I appreciate any insight guys.

Thanks,
Kyle.

Fatz

I assume there is something you didn't communicate. Are the headers for the CLK550? I had mine installed by my dealers performance department about 2 years ago (08 clk550). No problems with the install or since.

Louie D

I hard the same thing as Kyle,and yes they where headers for the CLK550 I even talked to Corey at Kleemann and if I recall he said it had something to do with hitting the steering wheel shaft or something like that. I have not researched it much more after that.

Rudeney

Fatz, your dealer installed them? I am very surprised since that requires deleting the cats which renders the vehicle illegal to operate on the streets. Even here in Alabama where we have no vehicle or emission inspections, no dealer would ever touch this.

Flame3g

I think there is a Mercedes Performance Dealer in GA that installs all sorts of performance stuff.
http://www.mercedesofbuckhead.com/AM...ifference.aspx

klonsbury

I didn't mention this but Cory @ Kleemann and I have exchanged several emails. He's been very helpful in my quest for info on CLK 550 headers. He basically said that the drivers side could have a fitment issue with the header hitting the frame and/or steering shaft. He doesn't stock them for the 550 but can still obtain them. He warned of the possible issues above. He doesn't have any on hand NOT because of the fitment but because of the low demand.

The only other vendors are CKS (England), Kleemann directly (Germany?) and Vivid racing (Arizona?). I'm sure that all 3 vendors' Kleemanns would pose the same issue. It's wheather or not I want to drop $1900 and modify to make it work. I would be more inclined to give it a shot if we could see the "end of year" discount prices the other model Kleemann headers go for.

I really thought that there were more CLK550 owners that have tackled this issue before. ???

Fatz

Mercedes of Buckhead (Atlanta) has a perfromance department and they did the work. They installed "hi flow" cats. I have the originals in the garage. They also did the H&R springs and Quaife differential. While the car was still under warranty, they covered any issues (had a couple non-drivetrain repairs).

Fatz

BTW - I've gone thru inspection twice now since the modification. I had to get a re-program before I could get thru the first one. The last one was no problem.

Rudeney

Fatz, did they do a tailpipe check, or just OBDII? And where did they install the ho-flow cats? From looking at the Kleeman installation instructions, I see no place to put cats before the "secondary" cats, which on the 550, aren't really cats, just resonators. Since we don't have inspections here, I'm not worried, but, it is a Federal offense to sell a vehicle with a modified exhaust system that has been "hacked" to pass the OBDII test.

Fatz

Rudeney, they do both tailpipe and OBDII here. I think the failure I was getting was was "computer not ready" but I do not recall on which parameter. If I can locate the inspection summary sheet tomorrow, I will get the details.

I never really looked for the cats, but could feel a "bump" on the downpipe. The cat is lowered and my head is too "big" to just crawl under it and take a look. (No comments about the big head) I plan to have the car on a hoist or jack it up next week to take some exhaust pipe measurements. I'll try to get some pictures of the headers and pipes.

Appreciate the clarity you bring. Thanks

Rudeney

I'd love to see photos - I am considering doing this.

Louie D

hell yea I wanna see CA is going to the OBDII only here starting next year I hear..

Klinh

Were your ECU also tuned by kleemann as part of the header mods? If it were tuned by kleemann, theu might have turn of the sensors so it does not throw faulty codes and the system will always say "not ready" and it won't pass OBDII inspection.

Klinh

Ca required smog stations to checks tailpipes and OBDII for years now. I saw they checked OBDII on my Honda, Clk500 and also Slk55.

Fatz

Yes. Both the headers and ECU tune were done by Kleeman. When I went to them regarding the inspection fail, they were aware of the problem but could not reprogram it locally to fix. It was shipped back to Kleeman for the reprogram.

Fatz

Rudeney, I did not get to the shop today as planned.... But just for you.. I jacked up the passenger side of the car and took a bunch of pics. Go to the link below to see pics of the header, cat, and exhaust tube. I only took pics from top and bottom on the passenger side.

I will delete thepics from my account when you have viewed them (did not intend to take them with such high resolution).

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/th...NAME=snapfish/

kameno

I think it's visual + OBDII. Only the actual emissions test is being omitted. They can still see if we've removed cats etc. ):

Klinh

So I was right. They simply just turn off the sensors so no check engine would appear. the down side is, when time for smog check, the system will say "NOT READY" until those sensors is turn on. But then even if you turn it on, the system will still fail anyway because of the header.

Louie D

Next year they will not be doing the sniffer check.

Klinh

On all cars? What about the older car models that does not have the OBDI/OBDII?

Louie D

2000 and and up. http://www.smogtips.com/new-smog-law-AB-2289.cfm

Fatz

Not sure I understand this.... There has never been a check engine....... the first attempt to pass emissions test failed with several "not ready" readings..... after kleeman reprogram there is still no check engine and it has passed inspection twice (2 years) w/o any further involvement of the dealer or kleeman.

I had the upgrade done in august of 09 but emissions testing was not required until my bd in 2011.

Fatz

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/th...NAME=snapfish/

Fatz

passcode = tonight

Rudeney

Thanks for the photos, Fatz. That looks great! Those front cats are too small to do anything, so they are using the Kleeman ECU tune to disable the O2 sensors. And this presents a problem. This is what Klinh was talking about - the "readiness indicators". This is part of the OBDII emissions check system. In addition to fault codes, the OBDII system has readiness indicators which are not set until certain sensors have run through a wide range of operating conditions. This ensures that not only are there no faults, but there are no faults at any of the typical operating conditions (temperature, RPM, speed, etc.)

It seems that the Kleeman ECU "tune" is actually spoofing the O2 sensors so not only do they not produce errors, they also set the readiness indicators. As much as I hate the crazy Federal government's emission law crap, I'm not ready to roll the dice with them. I guess I'll stick to a cat-back system.