Hey guys, have any of you with a 2016-2019 installed a set of downpipes yourself? Trying to gauge how much of a pain in the *** it will be without having a lift.

 

Not hard, easy to do without a lift. Car sits much higher than a E 63. I used a set of 8" race ramps on the front. And race ramp blocks on the back tires. no jack stands. Drive it up on the front ramps. then jack up the rear tires and place race ramp blocks under each rear tire.

 

Please show install when you get around to it.

 

The install was pretty easy. Im not a tech and it took me a little less than an hour to replace the downpipes. Granted I was using a drive on lift. If I was using a floor jack and jack stands it probably would have taken me a little longer. To make life a little easier, you will want to use a long extension at least 24" to reach the bolts on the flange. Other than that, the install was straight forward.

 

How do you like the way it runs and sounds with the new dp's?

 

If I'm being honest, I cant answer the question on how it runs directly just yet. I went with OE Tuning's Stage 2 tune and its been a bit of a nightmare. I installed the downpipes Tuesday morning. Prior to firing it up for the first time, I loaded the tune that OE sent, started it up, backed it off the lift and all seemed fine. The initial start up sounded good. But as soon as i drove off i felt like something was off. The shifts between gears felt off and a little weird. Ive never tuned an AMG before so I chalked it up to me being paranoid. Especially since OE Tuning comes so highly recommended. But then my gut feeling was confirmed. I didn't even get 15 miles before having an issue. Since i was having a weird feeling i drove the GLE super easy and just easing into the throttle. I was following a vehicle on an onramp about to merge onto the highway and felt hard "pop". The dash lit up like a christmas tree, went into limp mode, then had a nasty vibration. luckily i was able to pull off the highway with causing an accident. I immediately shut the GLE off and start looking around to see what the hell just happened. I couldnt see or smell anything. I started the GLE up and proceeded to the next exit to get off the shoulder of the highway. I parked, called OE (no answer), sent an email and they responded via email asking about fuel and spark. I responded and said the 93 octane tune is loaded, i just filled up with 93 octane, and just had brand new OEM spark plugs replaced / installed less than 1000 miles ago and also had the coils checked and tested. All came back satisfactory and good. I asked OE provide me a stock tune that had the O2 sensors shut off because of the downpipes. No response. Daryle called me back i filled him in and he said Jeremy would be the one to help. So i waited for his response. Unfortunately, no response came. I had to drive over to an Advance Auto to have them read the CEL since the mygenius cannot read diag faults. The next day, being yesterday I called them 6 times, sent a couple more emails reiterating my concerns and still as of now and as i type this no response. I told OE that i had to make a 4:30 drive back home and really wanted a safe tune to ensure i made it home without any issues. No one got back to me or responded. I left a voicemail yesterday and still nothing. Long story short, it happened again. I have no idea what kind of damage their tune may or may not have caused but i know what they sent me is not correct and they wont respond. Im going to have to take it over to my tech to run through it and see what kind of damage has been done. Im praying there isnt any but the pop that i experienced was pretty bad. The fault code that it threw is P061A “Internal Control Module Torque Performance”. Im hoping they make this right but this has been frustrating to say the least.

 

That's not a story anybody wants to tell.
Let's hope it's a simple fix.

 

This is horrible!
Sincerely hope you get this nightmare taken care of.
Sounds as if OE doesn't have very good customer service. - (Captain Obvious)

 

When I had my Renntech tuned CL600, something similar happened to me. Was on it hard and all of the sudden there was a loud pop. Had that massive pain in the wallet and thought "oh crap, I just blew something." Pulled over, shut the car down, and restarted. All was well. Turned out the transmission had an electronic nanny that would kick the tranny out of gear before the transmission grenaded due to the massive torque of the bi-turbo 12.

Not sure if this is your issue but I'm hoping it is something along those lines. Though I have never heard of it with the 7 speed transmission in the GLE.

 

I had the same exact thing happen in my '08 CL600 as well. Unfortunately for me... mine did grenade. That was a painful and expensive endeavor. I took it on the chin with that one. But I'm hoping you're right. OE did just send me a new / updated tune. Im hoping this new tune has whatever issue the previous tune had, worked out. Ill post an update once i get a chance to re-flash the GLE and drive it.

 

Unfortunately for me I've been there and done that, **** the T-shirt!
There is only one thing faster than a rat when turning on the barn light, a turner when the customer says "pop"...
Unfortunately, this forum is littered with the remnants of Eurocharged and OE customers engines and transmissions.

I see you've tuned before and know the risks; my only council would be: -

• If it's your first tune on a platform always start at 1.
• Also, there is no reputable tuner unless it Brabus or Renntech.

 

No t-shirt included.

 

As an update, OE has sent over a couple tune files trying to figure out what the problem is. I narrowed it down that the problem is happening during shifts. Not all shifts though. From a stoplight the dash shows it’s starting in 2nd gear. From 2-3 the shift seems smooth, from 3-4 it seems smooth but from 4-5 and 5-6 it feels weird. As In its not a smooth shift like the others, when it’s shifting it seems like there is big loss of power and it almost pulls your head forward if that makes sense. OE seems to think it's the transmission adaptation. So, I'm not sure what to think. Ill have my tech clear the adaptation when reloading and hopefully it should address the relearning process. In the mean time they sent a stock file with cat monitoring off until my tech can sort it out. We'll see what happens.

 

I had the same problem with the OE Tuning on my 2019 GLE 63s coupe. Literally the same thing. Went to accelerate hard after warming up and pop bang, limp home mode instantly. Went round and round with them for a month and finally threw in the towel. Had to fight with them about returning the unit. Finally I had my Credit card company step in and give me a full refund.

I went with Renntech R1 package, the same tuner I had with my 2013 E 63. Works great. Easy installation. Not a single issue on either car.

 

So, what was the end result? Don't keep us in suspense any more...

 

hey guys, unfortunately no update yet. I had a last minute work trip come up so the GLE is still sitting at home. I didn’t have a chance to drop it off before I flew out. I get back next week and plan to drop it off.

But, did it cause any damage on your GLE? Im
nervous as to what my tech will say.

 

wow that sucks hope you get your car fix :-(, they were quick to reply to my email about there Tuning Sale. now i think i will have to go elsewhere to get better customer service.

 

No apparent damage. The sudden bang and engine went immediately into limp home mode was rather aggressive in my opinion. After the second time with a supposed fix I was like, I'm not doing that again. Removed all the stuff and called Renntech. I've had the renntech R1 package on the car for about 10k miles with zero issues.

 

Done the install on mine. Didn’t even use ramps. Just aired the car up +25mm. One of the easier downpipe installs you will come across.

 

Well, the saga continues....

I finally picked my GLE up from our tech Tuesday night. This has been a mess, a serious pain in the ***, and expensive to say the least. My tech drove and confirmed that there is something definitely wrong with the Stage 2 tune that OE Tuning sent me. My tech said "in the beginning and once you upload a tune like this, you can expect the shifts to feel a little different or off because the transmission is having to re-learn and adapt to the new tune. But with this tune file, the issue's keep occurring no matter how many miles you put on it for adaptation. Each time you hear the pop followed by the violent jerk then going into limp mode, its putting your transmission through some serious abuse and will cause detrimental damage. This should not be happening". So, a couple days before our shop gave the GLE back, our tech reset the transmission adaptation again, uploaded a tune that OE Tuning sent to me that is essentially stock but with cat monitoring turned off, since I deleted the cats. My tech put 25 miles on the GLE to help with the re-adaptation / learning process of the transmission. Before I left the shop he suggested that I drive it a little more and to put another 75 miles on it or so before uploading the Stage 2 tune and trying again. Within about 24 hours of driving the GLE from Fort Lauderdale down to Miami and back I put about 75 more miles on it which is a good amount for adaptation. Making sure it wasn't highway miles so that the transmission can shift through the gears properly and without driving it hard. Now that the stock"ish" tune had about 100 miles on it after the adaptation reset, I took the plunge and uploaded the stage 2 file. The tune uploaded successfully and so I took it for a drive to see how it felt. Yet again, under light acceleration coming from a stop in a 40mph speed zone, there was a hard pop, then violent jerk that threw the GLE back into limp mode. This time I made it 8 miles before going into limp mode. Nowhere on the product description page on OE Tuning's website does it say that a TCU flash is recommended or required for a Stage 2 tune.

Also, OE Tunings response time's are AWFUL. I called OE at 1:31pm ET on Tuesday April 9th, no answer. I sent an email response to the long chain i have going with "OE Tuning" which tends to go to Daryle and Jeremy at 1:52pm ET, Tuesday April 9th. There was no response to the email but Daryle did call me back at 2:01pm ET and i filled him in that i was about to go and pick up the GLE and asked him if there was anything specific i should know before re-uploading the Stage 2 tune after having the adaptation reset and driven in for about 100 miles. He said he would talk to Jeremy and get right back with me as soon as he finishes up the tuning session he was in. Well, Tuesday came and went, no responses from anyone, yesterday (Wednesday, April 10th) came and went and still no response so i sent another email at 5:17pm ET. In that email i explained AGAIN what was happening and simply asked them to either provide a TCU flash to fix the problems or accept my return and issue a refund. As i write this at 9:45am ET on Thursday, April 11th..... No responses.

This situation sucks. It's hard to tell right now without pulling the transmission out, but I'm hoping that their tune has not caused any damage within my transmission from the abuse. If i would have known in the beginning that i needed to purchase a TCU flash to go with their Stage 2 tune, I would have went a different route.

I just want them to make it right, but it doesn't seem like they are taking this seriously.

I will post an update if or when that happens.

 

This sucks but it's not uncommon with the after-market tuners out there. Maybe get your money back and look at Racechip.us. Warrantied and refundable in the first 30 days.

 

Good luck. I had to use my credit card company to get my $ back.