DMan918

Hi all,

Just joined. Purchased my 2011 E550 on Friday (came from a BMW 335i). So far, I really like the car.

At any rate, I was researching tunes (mostly from OE Tuning) but I am not finding much of any concrete evidence that it really is providing a whole lot of performance improvement. I see a couple dynos on the S550 and such, but I am not sure if those are even from independent testers. I am not trying to be a jerk about it all, but I am wondering what people are actually seeing out of this. Is it worth the extra as compared to a Sprint Booster?

Just looking for advice. Power is decent, but I certainly can always appreciate more. Really looking at usable power as well (from 0-60 or so).

Thanks for all your thoughts and assistance!

stale-bread

Sprint booster is nothing but instant throttle response. I have it and it really gives me the feeling the 550 V8 should have. OE Tuning is a sponser on this site, and I'm sure they will comment about both options. I believe what they offer is the same instant response, WITH added horsepower. Hence a few more dollars, but if added HP is what your looking for, go with OE Tuning Best of both worlds.

dirtyguido

From what I understand OE Tuning does substantially more to the car than the sprint booster does.

All the sprint booster does is literally fool the car into thinking you have pressed the accelerator further than you actually have. You can achieve the same effect by kicking through the first 1/2" of pedal travel yourself.

Now as far as I know, the OE tune completely changes the driving dynamics of the car.

Besides a 5-10% gain in peak hp / torque which really only matters at the extremes and for dyno / e-racers who are obsessed with stats and theoretical track times etc.

The biggest difference is the modification of the torque management in the software. Sure the NA 550 makes 392hp and 400 something ft / lbs but in factory tune Mercedes decides when you can have it.

This is for two reasons - (maybe three).

First driving characteristics / refinement.

Mercedes doesn't want the car to launch violently or bang gears or get stupid sideways (even though I have a 4matic so I dunno if 4 wheel powerslides are theoretically possible)

So they dial out the torque at low rpms and in lower gears.

This allows your wife / grandmother etc to drive the car in a perfectly smooth refined manner regardless of the power and potential that is there. It also contributes to that feeling that at least I have of that you have to drive the car like you are mad at it to get the the performance you expect. Compared to a e60 bmw 550 which I had for a while the MB is tuned so conservatively that it's not even funny.

Second reason for this:

FUEL ECONOMY

Not that anyone buys an N/A e550 expecting stellar gas mileage - but making the car lethargic around town and hunt for 7th gear all the time allows it to get to the 17/18 mpg average rating. If the car came out of the hole like a raped ape and held gears etc you would prob avg something more around 12/15 mpg. Now honestly I don't care. If I was worried about my carbon footprint and fuel consumption I would have never purchased a mid size car with a 5.5l v8 in it.

But you know who does care? The government for one both in meeting CAFE standards and in dodging gas guzzler taxes. Apparently the whole v8 package wasn't that appealing to consumers to begin with - less than a 5% buy rate in the w212. So mb dropped it for 2015 entirely.

So so far we have two factors that encourage me to get the tune. - changing the cars characteristics from luxury car that can hold it's own on the autobahn to a much more performance oriented car at real world useable speeds.

Now we come to our third factor that is a maybe.

And that is to protect the drivetrain / transmission from all the violent launches and harsh shifts etc that I described before... It's not that the tune will hurt the car, but rather that the tune will enable the driver to abuse and stress the rest of the drivetrain in ways that were verboten in the MB factory tune.

I'm still on the fence about adding the tune to mine. I've got a few things I would like to do first but I would certainly consider it. Especially if I was inclined to order a sprint booster.

Take care,

George

ml320owner

nice comments. I agree. Been thinking of a tune as well OE most likely with the programmer. Just got a 2011 E550. It is fast when pushing it, but off the line speed would be nice to have. Great car!

DMan918

Yes, great comments. Thank you!

So would everyone agree the oe tuning flash adds a lot on the bottom end? That's what I'm most concerned with. I want more of that torque, push you back in your seat type feel that is more adherent in v8s.

samkimg

+1 Sprint Booster loved mine in my 2010 E350, didn't need it in my 2014 E350, and I'm happy to see it is still have a great life with stale-bread.

BTW - there is a SB for sale on the boards at https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...t-booster.html

Grego3031

Bought the sprint booster for my E550 and returned it 2 days later. Yes, it improves throttle response off the line but I didnt like how it operated at 40-60Mph speeds. Inconsistent throttle tip in, strange downshifts, etc.

Considering the OE tune myself currently.

SoCalCLK

I prefer the tune myself. I'm thinking of going with the RennTech ECU tune.