Well, it's been a long five months dealing with Kleemann on trying to get my 2006 CLS55 K4 up to the HP level that it should be at. For those of you that don't know what has happened so far, check out this tread for a little overview.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c219/151261-need-little-help-understanding-my-k4-dyno.html

Since I have had the new pulley put on and had a little increase in power across the midrange, Kleemann has done nothing at all to try and get me any more power. My car is still making 457rwhp and 520lbtq since the fisrt time I have dynoed it. I have done EVERYTHING that they have ever asked me to do. Even when Brandon from Kleemann flew out to check the car out he said that it was low on HP. Now they are saying that I just have a low HP car compared to everyone else. This is what really pisses me off. I feel like I have been totally ripped off! I have spent $16450 on getting the best package that Kleemann offers, there new K4 with cams and throttle body, but I have only received the power of a K2 car. I could have just went with a K2 package and saved $8000 if that was the power level that I wanted to be at.
I went to the track last night just to see what the car would do. Kleemann told me to expect some trap speeds of about 120mph. The car only hit 116mph!! Now I feel like I am definitely not making even close to what I should be making. I actually convinced myself that the car was making more power then what the dyno was showing, but now I know it's not. I made 4 runs all right in this range, but this was the best a 12.1@116mph. Does this seems slow to you for a K4 car?



Does anybody have any suggestions on what I should do to try and make more power? What I am looking for is the advertised HP the Kleemann stats. Does this seem fair to you? Has anybody else ever had this problem? I feel like I am being screwed and I can't seem to get anymore answers from anybody on what to do. I feel bad for anyone else out there that has to go through this. I also hope that people understand that going to a reputable place like Kleemann is not going to guarantee that you won't have problems that they won't fix.
CP

 

I have no idea what the weather or altitude were where you are last night. With that being said, your car is slower than it should be. Your 60ft time ain't bad at all on stock rubber. With K2 and without DR's I ran 12.2 at around 116 mph.

Did you dyno the car before Kleemann? If not, you've allowed them the out that you have a "low hp car." Get some DR's and you'll be in the 11's but doubtful it will get you to 11.6's where K2 cars are. Sorry man, this is the first substantive complaint I've heard about Kleemann.

 

Did you baseline the car on a dyno before your mods?

 

I had all of the Kleemann stuff put on before I had 100 miles on the car. I was going to go get it dynoed before anything was installed, but Brandon told me over the phone that it was not necessary. That along with all of the positive feedback on Kleemann from the forums, I wasn't even a little bit worried. That was by far my biggest mistake. Even so they are claiming that I am short about 60rwhp, and I guess that I have the only car that has ever done that.
The track was prepped very well last night. It was in the upper 70's and at about 735ft. above sea level. I know that it should have been quicker, but the car just would not do it!

 

How many miles do you have on your car? I have read experiences from other members of how there car became faster with mods after driving it for a while. Maybe there is something to this..

 

something is definitely not right.... we've seen stock cars pull 116MPH traps and your car is supposed to have an extra 100HP?

of course conditions are different everywhere, but based on your dyno results and track times, they need to come up with something here...

could this be related to the new ECU updates from MB, maybe the CLS already has these updates applied? maybe the ECU is limiting power? are there other CLS cars with the same/similar package that are running more power and better times? It looks like you short about 40-45HP, which I don't belive is explainable by saying you have a weak car....

I know it would be a huge PIA, but I would consider removing everything, putting it back to stock, and running it on the dyno, if that shows that you didn't pick up the advertised HP from Kleeman, then they need to give you your money back....

According to what the CLS makes stock, let's be REALLY conservative here... say 400 RWHP, with 19% driveline loss your at 476HP from MB...

to get to their 640HP K4 claim, you would need 536 RWHP...

you should have picked up 136 HP...... and it looks like you only picked up 50HP...... that's BS....

 

Someone in the thread mentioned Torque converter slippage....did anyone look further into that ?

 

The car has over 4200 miles on it right now. Acorrding to Kleemann the car should go from 469hp to 640hp. This is a gain of 171hp at the crank. With a 19% loss and the numbers that I am at, this means that the car owuld have made 319rwhp stock. That was once Kleemann adds the K4 package, I would be at my 457rwhp that I'm at right now. The whole thing seems like a bunch of BS to me, but I'm being told "Sorry you car is must have been short on power."

 

I assume you also did not visit the track before you had these modifications completed? Also has the ECU been updated with the latest software?

Are you saying that Kleemann has said, "this is the best we can do for you"...........I hope not.

Wish I could help you, I hope it gets worked out.

 

Post your dyno graph... Was it pig rich at the top end?

Get a shop to drill & tap a 1/8 NPT fitting into 1 of your intake manifolds and hook up a boost gauge. Check and make sure your car is making the 13psi it should be. If it isnt you either have a boost leak (could be a torn hose).. If it is a torn hose, I would take the clamps off at both ends of the intake manifolds and the supercharger outlet and inspect the hoses to make sure there are no tears.

If there is no leak, check to make sure the supercharger belt isnt slipping.. I am going through some belt issues right now and can tell you it is an easy problem to have.

The boost gauge will give you a good indication if either of these 2 issues are plaguing your car.

Second thing is to check your IAT with a datalogger.. If you are having cooling problems the car will pull timing and it will feel like a slug.

Third thing is.. I hope to god you didnt get the recall done...

My car is a pig right now (after the recall) even though I had the ECU reprogrammed.. I've lost alot of power and am trying to figure out where the hell it all went...

Good luck!

 

"You got a low hp car" .....

I would guess that MBenz engineering has some pretty darn good standards that the rear HP would likely only deviate by 1% -- 1 standard deviation being +/- 5 rwhp.

Meaning if ALL e55's were dynoed on the same dyno, on the same day, same weather, stock, 0.3% (1 in 370) of them would be < 15 rwhp (3 standard deviations) compared to the baseline. Technical BS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation


Of course I am assuming 2 things -- normal distribtuion and 5rwhp standard deviation but I am not assuming you have a low HP car....have them prove it for free....pull mods off for baseline pulls.

I was told the same thing once with a BPU Supra (350 rwhp vs. avg of about 410 rwhp) but I found out that for some reason after only 45 K miles my compression was 12% low (out of manafactures tolerance)...found out via a leak down test.

Good luck, these kind of problems really suck and make you not want to even own your car.

 

What boost gauge are you guys running? Where did you install it? Any pics?

 

I'll post tonight....actually going to Bestbuy now to get a new digital camera. It is hidden from sight in the arm rest...bottom part of it....I can pull it out to use for monitoring though.

 

i have a stage 3 kleemann installed and i am making only 470rwhp its depressing cause the second run made 430rwhp but a guy came over to bahrain and checked the car he said its normal its cause of the weather here it reaches up to 45 deg C... i hope what he said is true.. anyway please tell me if u figuerd out something it might help me too.

 

Wow! Brandon flew out from Colorado to personally look at your car...That says alot about their customer service.. I would think that maybe you should ship your car to Colarado and ask them to solve the problem. Seriously....

 

If you're going to spend 16K+ on the K4 package why would you not have sent it out to Colorado to begin with? I shipped my C55 for the Stage 7 package and when I go K4 I will be shipping it to Colorado as well. I will only let Brandon and Cory touch my beast.

 

My car is there right now for the 2nd round of custom upgrades. If you are going for a K4 (which i believe is the highest stage they offer for the W211 55) do it once and do it right. Just send it to Kleemann. No regrets after. Just my 2 cents.

 

When Brandon was out here I offered to ship the car back to him so he could work on it at his shop. He said that it won't help anything. I have not had a recall done on the car as of yet. I have dyno sheets posted in the link on my original thread if anbody wants to check them out. I just hope that Kleemann will step up and fix the problem, or refund me some money for everythying that I have had to go through so far for such little gains per $.

 

You did all the upgrades with 100 miles on the car? Not sure if I would have done that. First, you never really knew what your car was like. I know "butt dyno" doesn't mean much, but I think it would have helped to have a better sense of your car for a little while.

The other thing, and I guess this depends on how mod friendly your dealer is. God forbid you had any major problems with the car out of the gate, your dealer could have given you a very tough time.

 

I had talked to Kleemann prior to doing anything and I was told that they do cars that are brand new for dealers (less than 10 miles). They said just break the car in the same way and you won't have to worry about anything.
My MB dealer is also a Kleemann dealer and they did the entire install. They are trying to stay on my side of things but Kleemann is just saying that "There is nothing else we can do, it's just a low HP car." My dealer has been the one going back and forth with them because I got tired of having to relay all of Kleemanns messages to my dealer. I hope somebody can come up with something because Kleemann is giving up on trying to make more power for me.

 

................I mentioned this in your other thread. Very sorry about the problems you are having, but my suggestion is to take all the crap out, including removing the k4 program from your ECU, then DYNO YOUR STOCK CAR. Without doing this you will never know what to do.

.........after you dyno your car then re-dyno the car after each Kleemann component is added.

........the problem with having an MB dealer who is also a Kleemann installer is that the dealership is not a performance shop and most typically don't have a dyno machine, so you, the dealer and Kleemann are all going at it blindly until the final product.

Ted

 

That is the only true way to get an answer.Start from the beginning.

 

Glad your dealer is supportive. You'd be screwed with some dealers. Personally, I would still get some miles on the car to see what I had before doing any mods. I agree with others - you need to remove everything then dyno it stock.

 

yeah its a ***** but take all of it out and run it stock. then put everything back 1 by 1 and dyno it to prove the results. Your 60 ft time is not bad so your car is really down on power. It is running stock times! I would be pissed if I spent that much to have the said power and it isnt making it. So the question is will Kleemans killer service to whatd right or will it let it go? I would kindly demand them to remove everything and start over.

 

Stiff1 - when did u take delivery of your CLS55? What build month was it?

I suspect it has the revised MB ECU software...