WannaBeeAMG

The first post of this thread is simply an introduction.
Who am I? Why did I buy this car? Why am I here on MBworld?

I'm Benny... BennyBuick on TurboBuick.com

I sold my 87 Grand National for this MB AMG sweetheart and so far, no regrets. However, there are plenty of things to address, and This thread will serve as a LOG book for my new(to me)..
White '05 E55 AMG w/:
Panorama Sunroof, Keyless Go, Distronic, Parktronic, Comfort Package, Lighting Package, Navigation, Power Trunk, Rear & rear Side Shades, CD changer.. the works!
With gas guzzler tax and destination, sticker total was $94,480.. Throw in some new authentic MB rubber floor mats and I'm ready to go bro!

Feels great to own this car which, while once unattainable for my income, is now affordable.
I loved the turbo Buick nostalgia, after all, my father was a Buick dealer once upon a time, but it came to the point that my wife forced me to sell my Buick GN as a mediated solution to some of our fights. She requested me to get a "family" car. What's that mean? 4 door Sedan seemed to be the only criteria. So enter this Lil' White family express and now everyone's happy! I still get my power and fun, but now it's accompanied by comfort, refinement, and luxury. Although not as powerful, I'm perfectly pleased with our compromise. I'm not looking back right now, but I do want this E55 to be as fast as my GN was, and that will take some bolt ons for sure, if not more.

I took delivery of my AMG April 1, 2017, so I've had it almost a month as of this post.
I wanted to share my thoughts, concerns, and review of the car for everyone here hoping to get the experienced MB owner's to weigh in.

Bought the car in FL and drove it 1400 miles home to central IL. I'm a first time MB owner and overall I absolutely love the car. It's had a few owners, but the car came complete with many pages of service records, mostly from MB dealers. After this month of driving, it has 99,700 miles. Car is very well taken car of, and it's in excellent shape other than a few gripes that I have, which will be followed up on in the next post.
The dealer I bought it from knew what he had (he does specialize in the E55 AMGs and sells many every year) and informed me how rare this color and options combo is. Therefore, I wasn't able to get it at a super savvy price, I paid $17,500, as compared to what some of these E55s can be bought for right now, but I feel I got what I paid for. Distronic is a feature I really wanted and was willing to pay for, plus I really wanted white!

The dealer I bought the car from put brand new pads and rotors on the front, so that's a bonus. He also put 4 brand new tires on the car when he found out My plans to fly Into FL and drive it home 1400 miles to IL. He said he thought he put a new intercooler pump and transmission mounts on the car too, but couldn't remember if it was this car or another E55 he just sold. The intercooler pump seems to be bad, as I can only do 2 or 3 WOT pulls before it's heat soaked and cuts most of the power, so I think he was mistaken in that. He bought the car from another dealer in Nevada, and there it received new front air suspension, a new driver side headlight assembly, and a few other "consumables".
Car runs fantastic and is very clean inside and out. It even still kind of smells new. It is 100% bone stock and unmolested. I will be its first molester. Ooh how I love virgins!
I plan to own this car for a long, long time and will choose it as my daily driver. I've always just driven my beat up work truck everywhere as my Daily driver because it's actually low mileage and I keep it maintained well. I really don't drive too much anyhow, maybe 6500 miles a year or so, so the crappy fuel economy isn't much of a concern to me. My Buick was always just a summer fun car, but this AMG will see much more use and I plan on keeping it in tip top shape. I want to spare no expense to keep it at its best! Sounds like a tall order though for everything I've read about this car, as it seems maintenance costs can add up quickly. I am prepared for that.

Anytime I had issues with my Buick, I found the turbobuick.com forum community to be an absolutely vital resource. The knowledge and information gained in reading the forums proved to be a useful tool in so many ways, including diagnosing some of my own issues. I also met some great people on there and felt a genuine connection to many in the community. It was a fun part of the car ownership, and of course, that's what brings me to MBworld.org. Hoping this will provide a similar experience, and in many ways, it already has. I've already read a tremendous amount of valuable forum threads, and hopefully the experience here can help me work the rest of my E55s issues out until I am OCD satisfied.. that may never happen, but a guy has to have goals right? I've already used MBworld to find contacts to order parts from so going great so far!

Great to be here. I look forward to getting to know many of you better.

WannaBeeAMG

As I said, I love the car, it's the one for me, but All is not perfect though. I've had to replace the bearing in the stock SC pulley as it already failed within 2 weeks of ownership. I used the hose clamp method. Froze the bearing in freezer and it pressed right in by hand. The first of many repairs I'm sure. The following is a list of "gripes" I have with the car. I will attempt to deal with them as time and attention permits. In no particular order of importance:

1. Pano roof squeaks and makes an unacceptable level of noise with chassis torsion flex as you go over uneven roads and driveway entrances. Drives me nuts. I expect this on cheaper, older cars, but not on this MB AMG.. Is there a guide anywhere as to how to go about resolving these pano squeaks? I've read that this is a common complaint with the pano roof optioned cars. Anyone else done any personal made that have helped?

2. Service Brake Visit Workshop message shows at times on dash. This only seems to pop up after I get done really pushing the car and requiring harder than normal braking. Maybe this is just the rear brakes needing replaced as they have lots of wear. Or maybe it's the $15 pedal switch sensor I've read about. Not sure, but I hope it's nothing serious. So far it has had zero impact on the car's stopping ability. Front discs squeal at times when slowly coming to a stop. Hope this goes away as the new rotors "wear in"

3. Driver door Keyless Go handle lock button doesn’t work, and now as of 3 days ago won't open with key in pocket like all 3 other doors do. I'm assuming the handle itself needs replaced as it's near the end of its service life. Where can I get one in alabaster white? I saw someone posted instructions somewhere on here how to do the replacement process, but the pictures didn't load. Any advice?

4. Both Seats' lumbar adjustments, dynamic function, & pulse do not work. I do not hear any pump kick on that tries to fill the bags inside when pressing the buttons. The dealer said the bags usually need to be replaced inside the seats and can be very expensive to do since it requires a skilled upholsterer. Does this sound right? Would these bags leak so much that none of them work at under 100,000 miles? Is the pump possibly bad? Where is it located and how can I test it? Is the pumps only function to work the bags in the seats or is it serve other function is the car as well?

5. All 4 wheels have minor rash scrapes and gouges. Some more noticeable than others. I will be looking for an alternate set, possibly just another set of stock AMG wheels. Found some chrome CLS AMG wheels on eBay that I like real well and are almost identical to the stock ones on the E55. 18" x 8.5" 25mm offset for the fronts and 18" x 9.5" 28mm offset for rear. Will these fit fine without worrying about rub? What's the biggest widest tires I can have mounted without worrying about rub?

6. 3 interior wood trim pieces have long stress cracks in finish which is noticeable (I'm assuming from FL and NV sun and heat). I don't presume there's much that can be done here, but thought I'd mention it in case there's a solution I'm not seeing. Driver door panel, ashtray lid, and CD changer button panel are the trim pieces that have the stress cracks in the wood finish.

7. 3 ding scrapes in passenger door that were crudely touched up with the wrong color white. Also few rock chips in front. Maybe they just used nail polish. ���� I need to purchase some authentic MB alabaster white touch up paint. Any suggestions on the best place to acquire this?

8. Steering wheel is off center alignment by 1-2 degrees when going straight down the road. It tracks straight as an arrow and alignment is fine, but A new alignment is required to fix this OCD issue I'm sure. Crap!

9. Intercooler pump needs replaced, and heat soak issue resolved. I've purchased a Pierburg CWA 50 pump to replace the stock one and will hopefully outperform the original. It's a used pump taken off of a BMW I bought for $100 shipped on eBay. It includes the electrical plug to do a clean conversion. Will be attempting install soon. There seem to be conflicting stories on wether or not it's necessary to bleed the system when replacing this. Since I've also purchased a PLM heat exchanger, I should just do it all at once and do a proper bleed. I'd like to get a stencil and paint the HX with a black AMG so it shows thru the lower air dam grill, or something like that. Anyone have a link to where I can buy the right coolant for this install? I'm assuming MB has their own coolant and probably don't wanna use an O'Reillys special..

10. Nasty vibration coming from center channel speaker at certain frequencies. It kills enjoyment of music at most volumes in the car. I've purchased a replacement speaker, and installed it. As long as you leave the grill cover off, it's fine. When the grill is reseated, the noise persists. I think it's the metal grill vibrating very finely against where it's secured to the grill frame. I have some ideas how to fix this. Anyone have this same issue? The Harmon Kardon system is otherwise good enough for me and I don't see a need for an upgrade there.

11. Rear suspension sags after a few days of the car not being started. I'm assuming this is the air bags starting to leak and will need replacing soon. The fronts are brand new and were just replaced at the MB dealer. Would it be safe to say that the rears are just this close behind in the ready to fail time table. If the fronts just went, the rears couldn't be far behind in their service life... right? What's the most suitable replacement bags, and where should I buy them? Are there any other points of failure to consider other than the bags themselves at this point of the cars life cycle? I'm assuming everyone will tell me replace with Arnott and be done with it. I'm not at all interested in a coil over conversion.

12. Is there a way to get modern phones to work with the antiquated hands free feature of the stock radio? Man I hope so! The car has the aux in located in the glove box. It does not have the stuff for the phone dock in the arm rest console that I've been told about, so I know the updated Bluetooth "Puck" is probably out of the question. Are there aftermarket solutions to consider? I don't want to replace the stock radio or alter the way the dash is. I just want to know if there is a way to tap into the existing steering wheel phone controls and the built in mic for the stock hands free system. Has anyone found a cost effective way to implement this feature with modern smartphones? I don't care about bluetooth, a wired solution would be fine by me. I think I'm most likely S.O.L here, but I had to ask.

13. 469 HP, while impressive in stock form, just isn't enough ��! I've purchased a few goodies to get started with in order to give this ole stock girl a kick. I want to do my best to keep it classy though, ie. no gaudy intakes that alter the stock engine look and don't add power anyhow. Kleeman headers, K&Ns, 77mm clutched SC pulley from Shardul with his BWK and all replacement idler and tensioner pulleys are sitting in my garage now waiting to be installed along with EC ecu and tcu tunes. Getting antsy for this, but I want to make sure everything checks out well first and I will do a compression test before install. I purchased new motor mounts as well just in case it needs it. It seemed to me that when the headers are off of the car it would be the perfect opportunity to do the mounts.

So, hopefully I can get some direction with these issues.

I have also purchased a Star diagnostic computer from Shardul as well. It's on it's way but not here yet. I figure this will be money well spend over the course of ownership. My mechanic has the snap on OBD diagnostic tool with the euro add ons, so I'm sure this purchase wasn't necessary, but it seemed like a good thing to blow money on anyhow. Are there any functions the snap on won't be able to perform that this star system will? My mechanic is always there for me, as he's a friend that owns his own shop. Access to quality tools is no problem, and if I get out of my element, supervision is available as well. I'm an avid DIYer with average skills, and I'll attempt as much as I can on my own, but I'm admittedly not the mechanic of the family. That would be my brother, but he's 6 hours away in NE WIsconsin, so I don't rely on him. The very nice thing about my local mechanic friend is he has his own mustang dyno and is an experienced tuner. They work on drag cars often and that's what they love to do. I plan to use the EC tune to get it close enough for a solid base line and refine the tune from there in our spare time when the dyno isn't being billed out. Any other performance mods wouldn't be considered for quite some time, but would possibly include the 82mm TB, LSD, and possibly meth. I had an ALKY control unit on my Buick Grand National and it was an absolute necessity for that particular application. But that was also way more boost (20-25psi) and a very aggressive tune that was completely reliant on the Meth. I need to do more research, but at this point it's irrelevant because that would be way down the road in the future if at all.

bbirdwell

PM me your email address.

#3, broken microswitch, might be replaceable by a hobbyist but the dealer will sell you only the entire assembly. I just use my key fob for the driver's door.

#4, the pneumatic pump is in the driver side rear of the trunk adjacent to the tail light assembly.

#8, easy fix, turn one tie-rod end 1/4 to 1/3 turn, turn other tie-rod end the same amount. They will both be turned the same direction (this "pulls" one wheel in and "pushes" the other wheel out). That direction depends upon which way the steering wheel is offset. I do my own alignments which, on an E55, means I get to adjust the toe. For the rear toe, I highly recommend buying one of Shardul's UPD toe kits. You'll still have to drop the exhaust to adjust toe but his UPD kit makes it a 10-15 minute job versus what seems to be an interminable duration with the stock setup's hysteresis.

#9, I'll email you info on how to bleed the system.

#11, Arnott.

#13, install scattershield. You may have noticed you have oil lines next to the supercharger clutch. Spring breaks and will buzzsaw clean through the bolt securing the oil line. Ugly.
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ull-speed.html
PM latemodel21 for one of his scattershields.

atoms

#5 Consider having the wheels refinished. Not cheap, but likely cheaper than new wheels. You might be surprised what can be corrected, correctly.

WannaBeeAMG

I have full intentions of refinishing my stock wheels. I would like to keep 2 sets of wheels.. one with all season tires, one with summer tires. Id Like to buy a set also so that I can drive the car while my stockers get refinished. We'll see what comes along

BoostedAero

Sadly a pump is not going to get it on this one

"I can only do 2 or 3 WOT pulls before it's heat soaked and cuts most of the power"

You are looking at meth injection, split cooling, CWA-50 pump and upgraded heat exchanger for WOT 2-3-4 to redline

Or how were your WOTs done? 1-2-3rd gear or what range 3rd and 4th will heat soak a stock car pretty good in 1 or 2 pulls

Get an android tablet/phone and an elm bluetooth connector run Torque and look at RPM/IAT only you will be able to tell real quick if you have a dead pump or whats going on when...

Its a pretty good cheap way to check/clear codes as well prior to buying a STAR/SDS (highly recommended)

WannaBeeAMG

I've been running torque to do just that. that lil $19 bluetooth OBD II connector has been great. I can get the IAT temps up to and over 200*F pretty quick after a few WOT pulls. WOT pull 1,2,3rd gear and roll on WOT pulls from say 40-100. It doesn't take much to heat soak this thing and then recovery time is aweful once it hits 200*. I have that PLM heat exchanger and a pierburg CWA50 to install. I'm hoping that will rectify a lot of this. I wouldn't think a stock unmodified car should heat soak like this in just a couple pulls to the point where it cuts over 50% of the power.

Elhonaz

It wont. Unless your in saudiarabia doing 15 minute wot pulls

Or your ic pump is not working. <--- this is your problem

FunkTron

What he said

I noticed the heat getting up pretty high on pulls with my stock pump using the basic torque / OBD2 connector. I ordered up / swapped out the pump and saw the difference the next run.

Get on it.

MACEDON

You can use torque to monitor heat? What exactly do you choose in the gauges?

BoostedAero

I choose gauges RPM/Boost/IATs in torque

I log RPM/Timing in torque

ZT2 logs the rest to a car dedicated PC which runs STAR/SDS also (IAT/Boost/AFR)

WannaBeeAMG

yes, IAT is pretty much torques sole purpose for me. The lag is terrible in the refresh rate tho. Makes a crappy boost gauge.


Aero,

If I buy the full version of torque, is that how you are doing logs of the timing? Does the paid version give any better refresh rate or is it an intrinsic flaw of these cheap bluetooth adaptors?

MACEDON

I didn't even think about that. I have a cheap ebay bluetooth.... wouldn't mind getting a better one IF it does make a difference

I'll buy the full version of the app anyway because I'm so tired of the ads.

WannaBeeAMG

#3 I saw on here there are instructions how to remove the handle, but the pics don't show up to illustrate where the hidden screw is to remove it. I'd like to look into a fix for this as it is bothering me. I may even just buy a whole new painted KGo handle and replace if I can find a reasonably priced one. What is the microswitch you are referring to? I'm an excellent solderer and have some experience with fine electronics repair.

#4 Any ideas on how to go about testing the pump to see if its bad.. Is there a common place taht the hose wears at? Or is the general concensus that the bags are what is going to turn out to be bad?

#11 Where should I purchase the Arnott Rears?

87geeinn

I got the AMG and kept the Buick. Best of both worlds.

WannaBeeAMG

This pic gives me a raging, throbbing, uncontrollable erection!

87geeinn

You forgot to say "no homo."

e34nication

What's the latest Wanabee? Get the go fast bits on the car yet?

Strigoi

Is it bad that I'd rather own the Buick?

WannaBeeAMG

Ok, so Update...
No go fast parts installed yet. Still acquiring parts. Also, waiting for my friendly neighborhood tuner to finish his epoxy floor in the dyno stall. He took on another project so...have to wait. I will do a base dyno run in bone stock form before I go about installing anything. I also want to do a compression test on the car first as well as a leakdown test just to feel warm and fuzzy before I jump in. I will consider doing the pump and heat exchanger first though if I have time this weekend. This won't affect the base dyno run at all anyhow.

Which brings me to a new question...
Should I buy OEM coolant or Zerex G-05 for the flush when I do the pump and new heat exchanger? I've heard that OEM is merely repackaged ZEREX G-05. Can anyone confirm?

Also, the other day, my multi contour/ drive dynamic seats just started working! The bags in the seats seem to hold air just fine, well the drivers anyhow, which is the only one I tested. The drive dynamic worked flawlessly for the first time, and I must say it was an impressive feature to use. Very cool. I have no idea why it decided to start working, I changed nothing!


No, not bad, but I will say, I don't miss it much at all. I absolutely love my E55 and it does everything quite well. 100 times the vehicle, obviously, as my ole '87, but the Benz doesn't turn heads like my old GN.. that's for sure. But I'm getting more enjoyment out of my Benz just because I drive it much more frequently.

Umm.. no homo!? I guess? I'm no homophobe so... but I am "married with children".. Cue the sinatra intro music

WannaBeeAMG

More updates

I purchased my Arnott rears on Amazon for $730 with a promotional $40 discount. I think I will do this work myself as it doesn't seem to be a terribly difficult job.

I also have some pretty deep and wide channel grooves in my rear rotors, so I've decided to replace those as well. I want OEM so I purchased them from genuinemercedesparts.com for $77 each. I also purchased the wear indicators here as well as some misc screws for the brake job and Arnott job to be able to replace the warn stuff I'm sure to find with fresh replacements. Total bill $231. Has anyone used this site before that can comment on it? Wondering what your experiences have been ordering parts.

I contacted my local MB dealership, and I see why you all call it the "stealership" now. Holy cow they are out of their freaking minds. Everything was 2-3 times as expensive as anything I found on genuinemercedesparts.com. The rotors were quoted at $138.60 each. And that was the smallest difference in price of all the parts I got quoted.

The front discs and pads on the car are brand new from the seller, but the pads produce so much brake dust its insane. I can't keep the wheels even remotely clean for 1/2 tank of gas the way I drive. So I purchased a set of Akebono EUR983 & EUR984 Euro Ultra Premium Ceramic Pads for the front and rear. Cost: $203 shipped. Hopefully this rectifies the brake dust issue.

Also, I've replaced the bearing in the stock supercharger pulley. This wasn't too difficult, but it was necessary for me to get it on the road again and to be able to do the base dyno run. Ever since I replaced it, it rubs a bit on the bell housing and doesn't spin freely enough, and maybe it didn't before I did the job. It isn't shimmed right and I just checked it with some feeler gauges and its a tight fit with the .3 mm. I've read that .35-.45 is ideal and that any less will get some abrupt supercharger engagement. This may be the case but I have nothing to compare it to so I'm a bit in the dark. What does concern me is am I wearing out the "clutch plates" if you could call them that, since there is a bit of friction there. It won't spin freely, there's enough friction that it makes a noise when you spin it. Should I be concerned with this and stop driving it immediately until I get it properly shimmed to prohibit any more wear on the bell housing plate?

BoostedAero

Get to cooling that monster first, actually it will assist you make more power on the dyno as anything over 95* F and the ECU will pull timing

You are just going to cushion getting a "real best case scenario" dyno pull with cooling mods in place

Regarding the coolant, its summer now... I would more than likely just refill with distilled water in order to take advantage of the cooling properties water has over ethylene glycol. I saw a drop of about 10*C on my engine temp dash reading when I converted to a 90% distilled / 10% coolant mix when I did my radiator upgrade

Hope this helps with your quest for fun in four doors

Glad to hear your seats are working again!

WannaBeeAMG

So, here's the running total of my investment so far:

$17,500 2005 E55 AMG (98k miles, color & optioned exactly how I wanted)
$1300 TTL
$125 MB rubber floor mats

$850 DAS Star diagnostic system
$400 Belt wrap kit
$220 dbl idler pulleys
$280 idler & tensioner pulleys
$490 77mm clutched SC pulley
$60 OEM supercharger pulley bearing
$120 K&N air filters
$220 Motor mounts
$100 pierburg CWA 50 IC pump
$700 Kleeman headers
$300 PLM heat exchanger
$700 eurocharged ECU & TCU tuning software
$0 RennTech ELM V2 used (it was a bonus but seller not sure if it works)
$203 Akebono EUR983 & EUR984 Ultra Premium Ceramic brake pads
$231 OEM rear rotors, wear indicators, misc bolts for brake and air bag job
$730 Rear Arnott A-2725 Air Spring Bags
$108 16x NGK Iridium IX spark plugs LFR7AIX #2309
$19 qt. Mobil Jet Oil II

Gotta have the authentic MB rubber floor mats. Not only are they functional and look bad ***, they add at least 20 whp. Those hexagons in the mat design make the car more aerodynamic too, therefore increasing efficiency!

Service D is coming up, hence the plugs. Because of the performance upgrades to be installed soon, I went with one step colder plugs as per the recommendations of almost everyone on this site! I'm assuming at 100k miles, it would be a good idea to replace the plug wires as well. I have not purchased those yet, still doing my homework... OEM or Magnecore? Magnecore wires are about $180. Where can I even buy OEM wires at a decent price? Do I even really need new plug wires? whats the life span expectancy on the original wires?

I'd also like to do a transmission fluid flush as long as I'm going to be diving into the performance stuff at my tuner's shop. Where should I buy the trans fluid and any additional parts I'd need for this service?

Does anyone have a recommendation for brake fluid flush interval? Anyone have a comment as to why or why not this is an important and often overlooked maintenance?

Supercharger oil is going to get changed soon, hence the Jet Oil II that i found at my local airport for $19 incl. tax.

Oil change isn't coming too soon, but what are you all running for oil? The guy who sold me the car, owner of a MB tuner shop that is a dealer for RennTech, Weistec, & others, swears by MOTUL and says its the best oil made. I've never ran it myself. My car has Motul 15W50 in it now from his oil change before i took delivery. The sticker that says MB and AMG recommend Mobil 1 is staring at me everytime I open the hood. The nice thing is I can get that at Wal Mart. I don't even know where to buy MOTUL. The dash recently told me to add 1 qt of oil next fuel up. Does everybody's E55 use a little oil? Since the car's still quite new to me, I've been pretty hard on it with fairly frequent WOT, should it use a qt of oil in 3000 miles? I mean, that Seems reasonable, but what are your experiences? It certainly doesn't leak any oil, which is a nice change of pace from my 87 grand national.

Any other maintenance costs I should be expecting that I haven't thought of yet? What all should I take care of before I cancel out the Service D message?

Thanks all so much for your input! I appreciate all your help and guidance. Someday maybe I can pay it forward. And when I can, I certainly will!

WannaBeeAMG

Anything over 95*?!? Holy $H1Tballs! I never, EVER, see my car run that cool! 120-130 is normal when I'm just cruising!

As far as coolant, I don't want to do that. I'm really not interested in having to mess with coolant again after I do the flush, pump, and HX, so I want what it needs in it for the cold central IL winter months too. I want to do it once and be able to forget about it. But we'll see!

My quest for fun in 4 doors is a journey I'm ready to embark on! Can't wait to get this car all sorted out.

Any idea why my seats would all of a sudden start working out of no where? I'm baffled. But what a nice surprise!

WannaBeeAMG

Almost forgot, I still need Header gaskets for those Kleeman headers too. What to buy and where?