WoodHeBe

Some thoughts on a year with an HPS supercharger kit: What a long, strange journey it has been! I bought the kit last August for my 2001 E55. The local Mercedes dealer installed it and everything looked good. The car ran well, though it was not quite as quick as I expected. Gas mileage was great - 22mpg on the highway driving hard. It took a lot of emails and telephone calls to get the complete kit, lots of parts were missing and some parts didn't go where the installation instructions said they would. The mechanic called Bill Kava at HPS several times and had to go to the auto parts for small stuff, mostly hoses and plumbing fittings. Still everything came together and seemed to work well.

Then came the problems. Coolant began to disappear from the intercooler tank. No leaks under the car. A lifter on cyl. 1 began to tick. I contacted HPS and they offered a free update consisting of new fuel injectors and a flash for the CPU. Bill mentioned in his email to contact him if coolant was missing from the intercooler tank, so I did. He asked me to pressure test the intercooler which proved to be leaking into the manifold. He supplied a new intercooler and gaskets at no charge. I pulled the supercharger module and took it apart. The intercooler had been cooked by EGR gas which discharged into the back of the intercooler. Really bad engineering. Here was hot gas being discharged into a cooler which was supposed to remove heat from the intake charge! Bad idea. I rerouted the EGR line away from the intercooler and cleaned out the crud from the coolant leak which had been deposited all over the inside of the intake manifold. I put it all back together with the new fuel injectors and updated computer software. The car ran much better and had great performance. I changed the oil and the lifter knock went away. As soon as the engine warmed up I had a misfire on cylinder no. 8. It seems all the EGR gas was going down that runner in the manifold. I blocked off the EGR line and began to enjoy the performance.

I still have a random stumble at idle. Sometimes when coming to a stop, the car just doesn't want to idle, it bucks and almost stalls. The same thing happens when turning a corner with the throttle almost closed. I have contacted HPS and they are going to talk to the tuner who wrote the software for the computer.

Was it worth it? I think so. HPS has supplied me with update and replacement parts at no cost. I realize that I am a prototype tester, not a customer. These problems should have all been resolved before I got the kit. My advice: don't do this to your only car, you can't afford the downtime. I have multiple cars, so this has just been a nuisance. I did this because I really like the old E55 body style and size. I have a custom interior in the car and didn't want to give that up. More to come!

vraa

I've lost all respect for HPS, why do you continue to deal with them?
Timster had a major issue.
There was that guy.. AMGSC I think whose car wasn't making any power.
Now you, oh and there was thericker I think as well.

OzE55

You should be congratulated on your persistance.
I'm glad your happy, now.
Please post some pictures of the SC setup and the car.......you deserve to show it off!

WoodHeBe

Thanks for the kind words... Here are some pictures of the leather color change and the supercharger installation.

OzE55

Very nice. The interior compliments a white car very well.
No more room under that hood!

Exterior views?

HLG600

Although HPS has the best looking supercharger of the bunch, IMHO, if it were to be on my only car, I would probably go with Kleemann for reliability purposes. Either that, or wait a while for HPS to work out all the kinks.

HLG

SLK55R

I don't know why I even bother wasting my time reading HPS stuff.

BTW I love what you did with your interior. Looks sharp!

gregc

HPS should do away with the Eaton roots and start over. I had the gen1 system and was not happy due to the bad sound. I engineered my own Powerdyne and have loved it from day one. HPS should just offer a Powerdyne setup like mine. It is a safe and easy setup with great numbers for the 02 CK55.

WoodHeBe

Here are some exterior shots. It's really stock on the outside. Adam at HPS wants the ECU back again to fix the bad idle problem. Once again, don't put an HPS kit on your only car. More as it happens!

aussie e55

hi
i have a 1999 e55 would your system suit am instrested in buying a kit
regards
george

OzE55

Nice a clean.
Maybe white out the grill and drop it.......sweet.

WoodHeBe

It took 23 days to get the ECU back from HPS. They use an independent tuner to flash their ECUs and no thought to check with the guy before they had me send it in. He was in the process of buying another company and wasn't working for two weeks. Somehow the ECU got shipped with a bogus FedEx number, so it sat at FedEx for two weeks before anyone thought to re-ship it. I called Adam every day and emailed, but he never really did anything about it. Finally I got the tuner's name from him and called him. Anyway, its back in the car. The idle problem is better though still a little rough at times. I will drive the car and give the ECU time to adjust. Why does everything with HPS seem to operate in the twilight zone? Remember: friends don't let friends HPS their only car!

1 BAD BURB

WoodHeBe: Im sorry to hear about all your troubles... i heard HPS was a craptastic compnay these days, used to be awesome..

Say, how much hp did your car dyno at with the HPS kit? What did it do stock? What kinda mileage you gettin with that blower!
and BTW, that interior looks amazing! Congrats, great job!!!
Aj

vraa

When was HPS fantastic? When they had the Gen 1 system and turned the W210 into sounding like a 15k$ Mustang?

Go search posts years ago by Timster, he went through hell with his HPS system and just got fed up and switched to Kleemann afterwards. I think now he's got a Vette, I don't remember the exact details.

WoodHeBe, I wish you good luck in resolving your issues. You might want to contact thericker as I believe he was pushing for legal action against HPS.

Fast55

You could spend a lot time reading about my HPS cars, an E430 and my W210 E55.

1 BAD BURB

If i recall correctly, and i could be wrong, but HPS was/is making pretty trick stuff for the Japanese import market. Im sorry, i forgot to mention Japanese market im my previous post. I had no idea they were doing MBs. But there are a ton of HPs Twin turbo Supras making amazing power. i dunno about the quality, as im not into that market. But i have no first hand experience, just sayin what i read/hear...

At any rate, i wish WoodHeBe the best...
Aj

vraa

1 Bad Burb, HPS or HKS?

NitrogenBalance

He must be thinking of HKS. I wish HKS would do MB stuff, bet it would be sick!!

....and hey. I love the way my GEN1 C43 sounds.

Aufretch55

Same here LOL

1 BAD BURB

oopss... Ricky, thanks for the correction, you were right, HKS!!! Ahh..im a moron.. can you tell i know imports well... im a domestic guy myself (see sig, that baby pumps out 650hp).
Thanks for settin me str8 bud!
Aj

BlownV8

How did you arrive at 650 hp from 500 RWHP?

vraa

No worries dude, we all make mistakes!

WoodHeBe

Adam from HPS emailed me and asked me to withdraw my post about my E55. I guess he reads this forum!

vader

Your posts have actually been pretty positive despite the problems you have had. Maybe he should invest in some R&D and customer service.

vraa

You know why HPS doesn't post on this forum right?
They got banned because they couldn't follow rules (or simple etiquette, you pick)