C24owner

Hey guys,

My name is Nick, some of you may know me from the w203 forums, and some may not. I traded in my 2004 C240 4matic back in may and picked up a CPO 2008 E550 4matic. I'm planning on keeping it fairly stock, but I have changed a few things already.

Here is the car when I bought it.



Then I swapped out the amber corners for some smoked ones.


Blacked out the emblems.


Then I bought AWOL'S E55 exhaust. I also have a magnoflow xpipe, but I havent decided if I want to install it or not since I leave for work around 4:30 am. and I don't want the car to be super loud. I may do electronic cut outs instead.





And lastly, I bought a set of lowering links.



And here are a few more pictures I took today.

















and if you cant tell by now, I'm a bit of a picture *****.

Robaustin

Very nice!

fila0220

I have the same exact car. Yours looks very clean. good job. How do you feel about tints?

And where did you find those corner lights on the front bumper?

C24owner

Thank you.

Tints are next on my list. I haven't decided if I am going to go with 20% or 35% all around.

I got the smoked corners off of ebay.

fila0220

I didn't think mine would come out so dark, But the front windshield visor is 20% the front windows are a little lighter. And the back a darker than the front. I am not good with the % numbers as they always confused me. haha

C24owner

I like the way it came out. I had 20% on my w203 which was silver with ash interior and it looked light at times. Since our cars are black on black then 20% will look dark.

MB4tronic

I have the same model, minus the 4matic.. although I wanted it.. people told me the car drives much better and being in SoCal I don't need it.. (now that I got the roof rack it would be nice though in retrospect)..

Planning on keeping it fairly stock is easy there is only so much you could do to the car..

Air Filter - the K&N's, or the Green Filters - but many people report the slightest bit of over-oiling will really mess up the car on the re-oil kits. So use at your own risk.. (I used K&N for years and never set off any CEL's or anything).
Programming - Several vendors for a whopping 10+ hp maybe?
Electronics that make you think the car is going faster but are a total waste of money- AMG Sprint Booster
Brakes- Putting on AMG 6pot? brakes and Goodrich SS lines ($2300 in parts from used AMG's)
Lowering - electronic($$$$) or lowering links
Exhaust - various
Suspension- been trying to see if any other AMG parts work for E550's well, i.e. I wonder if the front and rear suspension components will carry over, etc..
Radio- various upgrades
Lighting - Can probably replace the bulb with a nice 5000K Philips, and the city lights and other lights to LED replacements.
Tint - The Huper Optik is popular, I took a stab at it myself.. not as dark as I'd like still, but it DOES keep the heat out very well on my Black on Black in SoCal.
Wheels- I like the AMG bumper and Wheels, I did not get it on mine.. anything is nicer than these multispokes the rest of us have, feels like I'm in a horse carriage.

fila0220

Whats up bro. I've been wondering how my car's twin is, Anything new?

C24owner

Hey man.

I've done a few new things, but haven't had the time to take pictures.

I installed an hid kit, added a rear spoiler, tinted the tail light, and installed a carbon fiber diffuser. All that's left to do is tint the windows.

How's your car treating you?

-Nick

AzCamel

nice upgrade sir!

fila0220

Man I gotta say I have the same plans for my car too. (Quad exhaust with cf diffuser and rear e63lip).

HID kit? do u mean the fogs?

My car is good i just blacked out the side marker, and ended up removing my side tints. I wanna get lowering links and fix up all 4 of my rims after the winter. (i got a combination of like 6 tickets on the LIE a few weeks ago, this car sprints too 130 too easily). Went for the fuaxhawk look haha.



When u get a chance up load some pics. The car is sounding like its coming together nicely.

K-A

Looks great! Some great angles and pics to show the great stance of the W211.

C24owner

Thank you.

The hid kit was for the headlights, it doesn't have bix. The performance is amazing in this car. I cant count the number of times I've been cursing at 100+ and didnt know it. I've been having issues with it lately, though. It seams like the car looses all power after driving for a while, or after a hard acceleration. I brought it to the dealer this morning and they upgraded the software on the transmission, but that didn't help.

Thank you.

C24owner

New pictures.

fila0220

^ ur car looks amazing. ^

this was the same route i wanted to follow. Where did u get the diffuser, how is the fitment just bolt on?

sorry to hear about the performance tho. Thats a real bummer. At first i thought you were too used to the car, then i thought it was maybe heat soak, but those don't apply to the car. Is it going into limp mode? Hope u fix the problem

C24owner

Thanks man.

I bought the diffuser from jlmotoring. The fitment isnt bad considering its made for an e55 bumper. There is a bit of a gap on one side, but that could be fixed if I tinker with a some more. I had to remove the rear bumper in order to install the lip correctly. Glue and screws is what holds it in place.

Not sure if it goes in to limp mode since it will start accelerating after a while. The best way I could describe it would be as if the car changed up 2 gears. The car drove fine all day yesterday until I pulled into a parking lot and basically had the pedal floored in order to move at all.

I have the 135k mile warranty so I'm not too concerned about it, but I hate having to leave my car at the dealer and be stuck with a nissan versa as a loaner.

joeyrocks

Hey man, The car looks great, really clean.

Question on the HIDs, where did u get them from and did you match the city lights? If so what did u buy? Any CELs?

Thanks

C24owner

Thanks.

I bought the city lights from AZN Optics and the hids from ddm tuning. Id stay away from ddm since they never reply to emails, and I get flickering every now and then. I ordered 6000k hids from them which should match with the city lights, but these seem too blue to be 6000k. I am going to order a new set of hids to replace these.

joeyrocks

Any CELs? Did you order that type 3 error eliminator from them?

C24owner

Yea, I bought the eliminator and I don't have any codes. If I want the lights to work properly, I need to just put the key in the ignition, turn on the lights and wait for them to warm up then I can turn on the car.

WaveyKat

wow nice let me run that

MB4tronic

Did you say you did the lowering links? What brand did you go with? I saw ghostlinks and other kit everyone seems to get from the main website.

Did you notice any significant handling changes from the links/center of gravity?

I'm not eager to lower the vehicle but would would like the handling upgrade.

C24owner

Thanks Mike. How's the w203 coming along?

I bought a set of links off of ebay, not sure what brand they are. I haven't noticed any improvements in handling after lowering it. It feels exactly the same as it did before.

joeyrocks

Seriously ur car is hot...

How did u smoke the tails? Did u sprayon something like vht night shade? I want my light just like that with the level of transparency on the red.

Thanks

C24owner

Thank you!

Yes, I used nite shades to tint the tail lights. Its pretty easy to do, just remember to do light coats as they can get dark quick.