I can’t leave anything alone so I’ve decided to kit out the GLK a bit since it’s my daily these days.

Picked up our white 2015 GLK350 4Matic about a year ago before moving to LA. Got a great deal, it’s a CPO car without a lot of options. It was also a heavy smokers car apparently, which was (sneakily) well-masked by the dealer. Once it sat in the sun for a week it reeked. The dealer gave us the runaround about eliminating it properly, so first thing to do was get an ozone generator and various sprays, new cabin air filter, etc to finally get rid of the smell (about 90% better now).

First mods were DEPO HID headlights, running boards, metal door pins and a single fin grill. Changed oil to Rotella T6 with a full dose of LiquiMoly Ceratec - love that combo it’s like magic. Also picked up a set of H&R springs but never installed as I was on the fence between making it an off-roader or a nice cruiser. Cruiser won.

If I was going to be driving this every day, the base sound system wasn’t going to cut it. So I got a set of Morel Tempo Ultras - 602 Integras (6.5” 2-ways) for the rear doors and 602s (6.5” and 1” separates) for the front doors and tweeters. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s hard to upgrade the speakers. These suckers have huge magnets. With a little bit of creativity, some Metra adapter-brackets from Crutchfield, a riveter and Dremel, they went in easy and sealed great. Really impressed with these speakers, however it doesn’t sound great yet. Will have to look into upgrading the amp and head unit next year.

Did plugs and intake manifold gaskets about a month ago, and my hands are just about healed from it. What a stupid design. Anyway while everything was apart I cleaned out the IM, dumped the collected oil out of the reservoir attached to the intake, cleaned the throttle body, and most importantly modified the air box with my Dremel to remove the entire interior side with the charcoal filter, also installing an aFe Prodry filter. Definitely a little more intake noise on acceleration, maybe it’s even a little snappier can’t really tell.

After this I finally decided to properly detail it. Paint wasn’t in the best shape in the first place, but since it’s white it hides everything. Surface was super rough though and just wouldn’t stay clean ever. So I clayed it, polished, then followed with a nice synthetic sealant and some Pinnacle wax. Everything just runs right off, it’s smooth as glass and stays clean. Also trying to remove all chrome so off came the lower door trims, and I’m going to Plastidip the DRL surrounds until I think of a better solution.

Car was just into MB for some warranty work on the transmission (shifter leak) and a recall for a steering column bolt. While there they noticed that my rear pads were almost done, so that’s kicked off the mod bug for real. My Eurocharged MyGenius with tune was delivered the day I got the car back. 30hp supposedly, I’m not expecting miracles but the extra power will be nice.

Great opportunity to get some new rotors while I’m doing pads. With 50k miles it’s about time anyway. Picked up StopTech cryo slotted rotors front and rear, Akebono ceramic pads, Goodrich stainless braided lines and Motul RBF 600 brake fluid. Plus MB caliper bolts from Pelican because I’m going to take those off and high-temp paint them red. Also got a lead on some 20” TSW Carthage rims, and I’ll tire those with Nitto NT420S in 255/40R20 square. Should totally change the car can’t wait.

Can’t stand the MB Tex that it came with. To an illogical degree. So I’ve got the super nice black Napa leather seats out of my C63 that I’m trying to fit. Aside from the seatbelt mounting it looks doable. Stay tuned.

Last thing, just put on a PanAm grill and really like how it has updated the look. The guys at MB were going crazy over it.

Will update the thread as I get going on the brakes and as I take better pics or add more stuff.

 

Welcome to the forum u picked up some really nice rotors and pads. I think stop tec rotors and akebonlo brake pads are the best combination for the glk, except if you gonna upgrade to bbk

And +1 for the ceratec product. I really like it as well

 

You're a handy lad eh? That grill does look good IMO, well done.

 

Thanks guys. Also with the grill, I modified the huge removable MB star. If you look at it closely you’ll see that the back is solid grey plastic with a crosshatch pattern on it. When it was all reassembled that plastic back there looked terrible with the all gloss black PanAm grill with its wide openings to the radiator. So I Dremeled off the rear plastic with a cutting wheel and fastened some extra matte black aluminum hex mesh I had lying around from a C63 project. Looks fantastic now, it’s a little detail that I notice and came out better than expected. I’ll post a pic a little later.

Any other mod suggestions appreciated. I think that the FCP Euro guys used a C350 for their race car, so I’m going to head over there now to see what they did for engine mods. I seem to recall maybe they took an intake manifold from an ML for better power delivery.

Might get the exhaust done next year. Haven’t seen anyone here do anything although I may have missed it?

If I can get this thing closer to 400hp I think it’ll be a ton of fun.

 

 

Rear brakes done last night

Super easy. OEM rotors were horribly grooved so glad I did this.





Front brakes done this morning. No glamour shots because I ran out of red paint. But they look great. Rotors weren’t as bad as the rears, but I’m glad I changed them out anyway as there were a bunch of frozen/rusted bolts to clean up and get rethreaded properly.

A little concern is that all my wheels were way overtorqued. Rears were around 130ftlbs and fronts were over 150ftlbs. Took me a good amount of kicking to get the front wheels off. Irritating.

 

So, the Akebono pads..... Mehhhhhhhh. They have no bite to them whatsoever compared to the Mercedes OEM ones. We’ll see if the decrease in dust is enough for me to like them, but right now I’d take the old pads over these.

Braking generally feels great though with the new rotors. Smooth.

Black emblems/badges on the way. Plastidipped the DRL surrounds, chromed rear diffuser type thing and front lip. Looks mean, pics to follow.

 

Hmmm, everyone always speaks so highly of those pads........guess OEM isn't so bad after all? I'd be up for trying them if they made some for the CLS cars.

 

BLKROKT always liked those GLK's and hoped MB would AMGise one..... never saw it though

always thought one would look good with wide tires and dropped.... gonna follow your thread for fun

 

Yeah, if I ever go truly crazy I’ll try to shoehorn an M156 under the hood. I imagine it wouldn’t be too difficult, however I do have a lot of dumb ideas so who knows.

 

I actually bought a shoehorn once.....made out of some exotic material I forget what kind...