SL55/63/65/R230 AMG: Bad day at the drag strip?
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 121
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From: New York, NY
SL55, ML500, BMW 530xi
Bad day at the drag strip?
First time I took my car to the strip and was well, less than happy, I guess you can say with the SL55.
Good launch, good pull, 100 octane, 28R/36F, felt really good, better than my street races.
13.00
13.22
13.24
In that order. Slight slip with ESP off the last two times... very slight, but no reason for those times.
Am I wrong to have been expecting 12.5/12.6?
Good launch, good pull, 100 octane, 28R/36F, felt really good, better than my street races.
13.00
13.22
13.24
In that order. Slight slip with ESP off the last two times... very slight, but no reason for those times.
Am I wrong to have been expecting 12.5/12.6?
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 121
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From: New York, NY
SL55, ML500, BMW 530xi
1.) Yes, I do have a faulty intercooler pump just like all the other pre-06 SL's. I haven't gotten it switched out as yet but have been planning to. I assumed it only affected it on batch runs when the supercharger kicks in and you don't give it enough time to cool back down before slamming it again. That's the main times I experienced power loss. I didn't even really think about heat from the SC being an issue.
2.) I knew the engine was running hotter than it should have been. I opened up the hood for prerace inspection and the guy was like "Whoa, that's hot."... and he didn't mean the car. I said "S---, I knew I should have gotten that IC pump switched before I came down here."
I'll have to get the timeslips but I was at 13.00s and 108 mph on the first run. I thought I'd get a better time but it only got worse.
Are the IC pumps covered under warranty or are they recall items? If I'm going to pay for one then I might as well get RennTech to put theirs in. $3,500 for something that should be working already isn't my idea of a good investment though so I really don't want to HAVE to do that. How much are they running at MB + installation?
I don't want to get
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,704
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From: 20854
new balance
DAMNIT! I knew this.
1.) Yes, I do have a faulty intercooler pump just like all the other pre-06 SL's. I haven't gotten it switched out as yet but have been planning to. I assumed it only affected it on batch runs when the supercharger kicks in and you don't give it enough time to cool back down before slamming it again. That's the main times I experienced power loss. I didn't even really think about heat from the SC being an issue.
2.) I knew the engine was running hotter than it should have been. I opened up the hood for prerace inspection and the guy was like "Whoa, that's hot."... and he didn't mean the car. I said "S---, I knew I should have gotten that IC pump switched before I came down here."
I'll have to get the timeslips but I was at 13.00s and 108 mph on the first run. I thought I'd get a better time but it only got worse.
Are the IC pumps covered under warranty or are they recall items? If I'm going to pay for one then I might as well get RennTech to put theirs in. $3,500 for something that should be working already isn't my idea of a good investment though so I really don't want to HAVE to do that. How much are they running at MB + installation?
I don't want to get
1.) Yes, I do have a faulty intercooler pump just like all the other pre-06 SL's. I haven't gotten it switched out as yet but have been planning to. I assumed it only affected it on batch runs when the supercharger kicks in and you don't give it enough time to cool back down before slamming it again. That's the main times I experienced power loss. I didn't even really think about heat from the SC being an issue.
2.) I knew the engine was running hotter than it should have been. I opened up the hood for prerace inspection and the guy was like "Whoa, that's hot."... and he didn't mean the car. I said "S---, I knew I should have gotten that IC pump switched before I came down here."
I'll have to get the timeslips but I was at 13.00s and 108 mph on the first run. I thought I'd get a better time but it only got worse.
Are the IC pumps covered under warranty or are they recall items? If I'm going to pay for one then I might as well get RennTech to put theirs in. $3,500 for something that should be working already isn't my idea of a good investment though so I really don't want to HAVE to do that. How much are they running at MB + installation?
I don't want to get
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,653
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From: Ann Arbor
'03 SL55
First time I took my car to the strip and was well, less than happy, I guess you can say with the SL55.
Good launch, good pull, 100 octane, 28R/36F, felt really good, better than my street races.
13.00
13.22
13.24
In that order. Slight slip with ESP off the last two times... very slight, but no reason for those times.
Am I wrong to have been expecting 12.5/12.6?
Good launch, good pull, 100 octane, 28R/36F, felt really good, better than my street races.
13.00
13.22
13.24
In that order. Slight slip with ESP off the last two times... very slight, but no reason for those times.
Am I wrong to have been expecting 12.5/12.6?
Given that all your results are 13.00 or higher the odds are good something is not quite right with your engine.
With all the forum posts on intercooler pump failure that is certainly the first place to look. There is a Mercedes technical service bulletin for that problem. The number is P-B-09.41/22a. "If you receive customer reports in the above model vehicles of the check engine light being on and/or the engine has poor output, this may be due to the circulation pump for low temperature circuit (charge air cooler) being nonfunctional."
Good luck!
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Joined: Jul 2007
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From: milwaukee,wi
sl55
On my sl55 the dealership called it a secondary air pump, am i correct in assuming that the ic pump is the same thing?
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From: milwaukee,wi
sl55
If u have a bad ic pump will it give you a check engine light , or is just a feeling of a loss in power, because when i got over 100mph it seemed to stall
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From: Fremont, Ca
EVOTECH Mercedes AMG
No, a bad charge air pump will not trip a code. Most likely the charge air pump is faulty. The latest bosch charge air pump unit (built:January 07) from AMG is not bad.
Last edited by AdamG@NorCal; Aug 2, 2007 at 07:21 PM.
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 348
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13 flat in an SL55 does not neccessarily mean something is wrong with the car IMO. A lot of people are getting high 12's, low 13's with SL55's. Like others said, 12.5 is an absolutely best case scenario and I've never seen an SL55 run 12.5... fastest I've seen a Moroso was high 12's. It sounds like you should've bought an SL600 if you wanted a really fast drag strip car
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Joined: Dec 2003
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i drive an ///M6
that is "slow" for an sl55.... with my 645 i got 13.01 @109 (no mods, 
near sea level, 65 deg) with that being said, after all the reading i've done here on all the 55k engines, it definately sounds like the IC pump-- not a big issue at all, just an inconvenient pain in the @$$
near sea level, 65 deg) with that being said, after all the reading i've done here on all the 55k engines, it definately sounds like the IC pump-- not a big issue at all, just an inconvenient pain in the @$$
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From: Irvine, CA
Car Whore
I used to run 12.4's and 12.5's... so did a friend of mine in his own SL55... and this was in humid heat so you should definitely be running lower than 13.+ since you said you didn't have much wheel spin... maybe ESP bogged you down or maybe it is your pump.
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 784
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From: Atlanta
06 E55 Black
that is "slow" for an sl55.... with my 645 i got 13.01 @109 (no mods, near sea level, 65 deg) with that being said, after all the reading i've done here on all the 55k engines, it definately sounds like the IC pump-- not a big issue at all, just an inconvenient pain in the @$$
near sea level, 65 deg) with that being said, after all the reading i've done here on all the 55k engines, it definately sounds like the IC pump-- not a big issue at all, just an inconvenient pain in the @$$
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'14 ML BT
jeanmarc, notice how your times were increasing?
Bad IC pump and as mentioned, it won't throw a code.
If you can data log, you will be able to show your intake air temps going over 240F and then the pump shuts down.
I used an excel spreadsheet from data logging to convince my SA.
Bad IC pump and as mentioned, it won't throw a code.
If you can data log, you will be able to show your intake air temps going over 240F and then the pump shuts down.
I used an excel spreadsheet from data logging to convince my SA.
