Question for everyone. I have a 99 E55, has 180,000km (roughly 111,000 miles), runs great, etc but it seems to lack the power off the line..... I bought the car 3 years ago and I have not changed the spark plugs and I assume they are the originals.... Does everyone who owns a w210 e55, can you get the back end loose and smoke the tires off the line? I assume when I change the plugs and the wires next spring that will make a difference but wanted to check. Every review I've watched, or the old motoring reviews, all have the back end going squirlly from a stop. Not that I drive it hard at all, but it would be still nice knowing you have that power at your disposal. Thanks.

 

If your car has the OE plugs....it has had derelict owners. Including you.

 

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Not sure if the car has OE plugs. That being said you need to get a life, how big of a loser do you have to be to troll someone on a forum, behind a keyboard?
old man and his car as your name is, says it all.
GFY

 

With ESP engaged, only intermittent spinning of the rear tires (primarily the passenger-side rear). With ESP off, yes, you can reliably burn the passenger-side rear but for what purpose? It's a open differential. The W210 ESP is very rudimentary (first few times I experienced it I though something was wrong with the car) compared to new ESP versions. Having said that, with ESP disengaged, I did manage on one occasion to get the car sideways. Oops! My bad... I now leave it engaged.

As far as plugs go, pull one and take a look at it. If you change plugs and wires yourself, allocate two and a half hours and be sure to have the MB spark plug boot tool and the swivel spark plug socket. Use compressed air to blow out the spark plug wells to remove dirt and sand and use Bosch plugs from a reliable dealer. You'll need to swing the coil packs out of the way; be sure to check the connectors and wires for breaks in the insulation. No Ebay or Amazon plugs and no "special sales price" plugs! Counterfeit plugs get mixed with the OEM supplier plugs. I got caught by that one time; never again. I was pulling and replacing plugs after ~26,000 miles and the counterfeit plugs all opened up spark gap from the installed 0.039" to 0.060" or greater after only ~26,000 miles.

FWIW, my Canadian-spec '99 E55 has over 288,000 kilometers on it, still has impressive power, and is my "go-to" car for 500-mile road trips. Don't forget to check your air filters as well; that's another one that got me once. PITA to replace (who the f**k uses that many screws on a filter box instead of snap clips?) but filters are not that expensive.

Ignore the curmudgeons who bring no value-added to the conversation. The user named "Plutoe" is a curmudgeon but he brings decades of MB technician experience to the conversation so I make it a point to read any post which he makes.

 

Bbirdwell - lots of great info here, from dozens of members....that said "burn outs" can be had with a 99 WS6 more so than ANY Mercedes ever made let alone 99 E55 (if you are mad at your tires).

Not exactly a litmus test for engine issues....the good ol burn out....

 

Much appreciated! I will be doing the plugs, wires, coil packs over the winter up here in Calgary, Canada. Was just more curious because I know these 210 E55's are capable of really breaking the rear loose from a stop, and mine seems a tad sluggish, still runs strong, etc. I did change all the filters this year as well.
Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks again.

 

No need to replace coil packs. Buy one or two as spares.
Also, if the tires are slipping more than about 10-15 per cent, one is not accelerating optimally. So, burnouts expensive and not conducive to fast lap times...of course, too much grip busts axles, differential gears (done that), transmission (yep, done that), clutches (sigh ..yep), driveshafts (Le big sigh...yep. At 2:00 AM XMAS morning miles from home)...
I'll go finish my bottle of very nice red wine now...

 

I have not tried a "big smoky burnout" in quite a while. I agree that with ESP the car will do everything to try to stop wheel slip. If it is wet, the car will barely move with the brake application and throttle response. I changed plugs at 120k miles but they had been changed before at around 50k miles. Not much change in the way it ran. If the plugs are original then yeah, change them.
All of bbirdwell's comments are accurate. You might also take a close look at cam cover gasket leakage. I ended up replacing those after the plug change due to oil leakage on the passenger side rear.
A "reset" of the throttle adaptation might help with the throttle response and the feeling of power. Mine can feel pretty sedate until I drive it "peppy" for a while. Good luck.

 

The ESP on the E55's is borderline dangerous with its interference.

 

That specifically depends on the goals of the car. These are effectively "Hot" Family Sedans. They have system after system to protect you, from you. Unfortunately, as we go forward in the Nanny State cars are getting less and less fun, more and more dependent on gizmo's to get us from A to B (and creating generations of dangerous drivers).

While you are not a fan of the answer, the reality is that an E55 is not, never was a "Burn Out" car - certainly not with out some serious modifications to "dumb it down". Possibly there is a WS6 or old school Mustang that fits the bill? Not too long ago there was a killer El Camino on BAT.

The car is what it is....you need to accept that.

 

Wasn't talking about doing burnouts. Was talking about going around a curve and the cars ESP kicking in and almost slamming you into a wall or off the road. It work's fine in a straight line but does not work well with off axis correction and tends to do so swiftly and without warning thus creating a dangerous situation. About the only thing it does well is keeping it in a straight line from a straight line. The 210 E55's ESP is the worst I've experienced in any MB.

 

Yup. Remember, is was amazing in its day - and terrible! In my 2011 (bike car) it will every time try to swerve away from a set of mail boxes (FedEx, UPS and USPS) and alert that they are dangers...they are not near the car, have never moved...every time I go past those three the car hits the freaking breaks. No other mail boxes, just those....

My newer E63S and GLS do not seem to know they exist. Only recently with the W213 is the "Goof Mode" (to quote a video from YouTube) created to allow for real drifting. In the RWD E55 and E63 it tries to solve the problem you as a driver do not have. 2014 and newer (with 4matic) it is a moot point.

 

If you have a faulty MAF this could cause you problems and make car feel weak.
Only buy genuine stuff from Bosch.

 

The biggest let down to these cars for me is the lack of any locking diff...I'll never understand why mercedes/amg did not utilize one. Id love to auto X this car, but I don't see the point or fun in it, when you cant disable the traction control and have the open diff.