All,

I ran my S63 at the annual BMW Drive Under the Sun event at Heartland Park Topeka.

The fist run in the morning was great! They had made some adjustments to the track from last year (2.1 mile instead of 2.5) (and modified a set of combo turns requested by the SCCA guys that made one spot really tricky and dangerous). I could outrun and out corner anything in my group (911, M5, 5series, 3 series, M8, 944). There were only 4 Benzes since this was a BMW event. I was amazing how quick the S63 really is. A completely redesigned machine from my S55 (2001) that my brother purchased from me and ran in group 1.

The only disadvantage was the weight obviously. But stopping was not a problem. (I actually won the largest set of brake rotors and calipers award ((not a formal award but everyone definitely let me know that the brakes were the largest they have ever seen on car))).

My second run at 13:00 was pretty good. We found most of the lines and were starting to work on smoothness and apex consistency. Somewhere on the run the car had a minor stall and I dismissed it as a delayed shift from the adaptive transmission.

My third run (14:30ish) is where the trouble started. We made two laps and I had a major stall on the main straight away to Alpha Zero. It lasted for 400 feet then the car took off again. Again I dismissed this as I had just made a left hand turn and thought I may have hit the gear selector and put it in neutral.

My forth run (16:10was a disaster........... I made one lap and had a stall in a corner before the main straight. I ran through the straight to AZ and then stalled again in turn 5, 7, & 9. Now everyone I passed was on my 6 and I was losing ground quickly. We came into turn 14 and I gassed it........... NOTHING!!!!!! 5000RPM and nothing more............ we were puzzled. I grabbed a paddle and nothing. Hit the brake then gas - nothing. Tried to take it from Sport mode to Manual the selector would go to C the flash M for a split second and go back to S again.

We went ahead and let the pack pass us and went around for another pass but the same thing only worse. I pitted and turned the switch off the started again. The car then went into manual…

I have an appointment at my dealer on Monday to look at the car and hopefully figure it out.

I called Cory at KLEEMANN and he and I are starting to think that we have an overheating issue. The gauge never got close to red but I do remember the engine oil digital display getting to 235F (maybe higher but I did think much of it since the gauge was not near the read I assumed the threshold was higher anyway.

I am curious if any has had any similar issues. The tem at the track reached 97F by 3:00. I don’t know the humidity.

I will post any results if I get them (dealerships are hard to deal with regarding these issues if they can not duplicate).

 

do yo have any mods on the car or is it stock?

 

Wow , sorry for your mechanical problems.
I am amazed to hear an S63 owner is tracking his car!!! WOOOHOOOO major props to you sir.

My car was pushed real hard on many hot tracks and never stalled except when running out of fuel. I did notice a couple things that are amazing....

The 63 will start having real issues when running on low fuel level.
The 63 will cut power when the car is hot and it will not rev past 3k rpm
The engine goes into protection mode.

The car will return to normal after a cooling down.
The car also will shut down power when the wheels are spinning and the car is not running in dyno mode.

Sounds like you know how to drive and simply pushed too hard . I have no clue how many laps she could do but in that heat ? I ran my car 3 laps at a time in m mode (3.4) mile road course. She was ready to exit and was losing steam as the engine heated up but she never stalled or shut down. I think if you keep going this is a possibility. Hope this helps.

There have been a few times I thought I blew my engine, only to have her recover after cooling with ice and time.

 

Noxxin,

No mods yet. I shipped the car to Cory @ Kleeman last month so they could fabricate the downpipes for the S63 for mass production. I am dropping it off on the 4th of Sept for: Headers, Downpipes, HighFlow Cats, ECU & Rear differential mods.

I am starting to go with an overheating issue. Fuel level was at 50%. I am taking it in for a fluid change hopefully today (engine & trans). I have an exploratory service scheduled for Monday but hope they can plug in and pull the readings from the CPU to check vitals and maximun levels reached on the guages/sensors.

To give an idea of driving agressivness -- My front brake rotors are now permanately baked to a gold color. The badge plates are still silver and the pad retention frames are silver but the calipers definately got some heat

The Porsche club has a run at Heartland Park in Sept. I am going to run again with the mods from Kleemann and maybe a couple more coolers for Engine & Transmission Oil.

 

there has been a wiring harness issue with at least some 65's, and mb has not, to the best of my knowledge, fully acknowledged this, but handled it on a piecemeal basis. i had this happen with my 65 and it would suddenly lose most of its power, acting as if the engine had magically lost 10 cylinders. upon re-start it was back to normal. only solution in my case was to replace harness. my problem was not related to track driving but would appear when trying to accelerate strongly to interstates. if all else fails in your search, you may want to explore this.

 

zteb:

I would guess it is fuel related as well, from your description of the failure. If you can get trouble codes from the dealer, that would help figure out the cause.

 

hahhaa u definitely worked ur s63!!!!

u got any pix of the car on the track? would love to see some

 

We got an error code 0485 (= coolant high 116C)

I know what caused it..................

I think my brother took some pics of the car on the track and in need to find out if any of the club members had pictures of my. I will post em if I get em.

 

Thats 266F.

Something is not right. I have flogged numerous AMGS (C32s, E55s, CL65s) on the track at 110F and never had overheating problems. And these are forced induction cars that are a lot more susceptible to heat.

What does dealer say?

 

+1... That's the best and probably easiest way to address the issue.

-AS

 

241F

 

The red zone seems to start at 125 or 130 on the dash gauge -- certainly above 120. Why does 116 trigger a limp mode?

 

 

It's a whole different type of heat out here V... I've been in some of those West Coast summers and they don't even compare!!!

The heat is unreal and the humidty will smother you..

 

Dealer tested dash temp gauge with actual computer reading. Computer is reading 6 Degrees Celsius higher. They offered no fix. I am going to call mercedes AMG corporate for resolution. Hopefully just a computer variable limit adjustment. I will also have Cory at Kleemann check it on the 4th.

Ghostrider

Didn't see you at the dinner. I won the autocross saturday!

 

Good deal...

What place did I come in?? They said my best time was 34.84 seconds.

 

Joyce will have yours at the breakfast.

I ran a 32.82 (I had 32.69 but DNF out of the stop box )

 

I think I did pretty good for my first time....

Next test - Topeka!