Earlier this year, I purchased a 2004 E55 with 24k miles. That week I took the car to my local track in upstate NY and ran 12.5s with trap speeds between 108-110 mph and 60’ times between 1.85-1.95 seconds on stock Conti’s. Needless to say, I was disappointed with my times – especially my trap speed. Shortly thereafter, my car began to die out after a pull or two. After doing some research on-line and after speaking with Wayne (ChicagoX) at LET Motorsports, I learned that my car was like almost every other E55 – it had a weak IC pump which was on its way out. Given this fact, I figured it was time to replace my stock IC pump with a Johnson pump, install an LET heat exchanger and an ASP pulley. This is where the saga begins.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no companies within a few hours of my Albany, NY home that have any experience in installing these parts. Therefore, I contacted a local company that has substantial experience modifying domestic cars and provided them with tons of useful information I obtained from this website regarding the installation of my parts. I was very explicit about what I wanted (eg. how to wire the pump, how to bleed the system, etc) and they said they could handle it. Well, they couldn’t. After I picked up my car with the new parts installed, I was expecting some increase in performance; although I knew that I would need a custom tune to unleash the real power. What I was not expecting was a DECREASE in my car’s performance or for my supercharger to shutdown on my very first trip with the new parts. I decided it was time to call in the professionals.

Before I even made it home that night, I contacted Wayne at LET. Wayne not only talked me down from the ledge, but he also rearranged his busy schedule to travel to NY to troubleshoot and custom tune my car. That’s right -- he drove from Chicago, Illinois to upstate NY to work on my car. He brought with him tons of tools and equipment and other Mercedes-specific paraphernalia (eg. STAR/DAS system) to diagnose and repair my car’s ailing condition.

I met Wayne at a dyno shop where he spent a few hours performing a custom dyno-tune. Wayne, on his own volition, decided to stay in town to see how my car would run at the track the following day. After running the car, it was apparent that my ET/MPH was not consistent with my dyno numbers. Even though Wayne had no obligation to do so, he stayed in NY, rolled up his sleeves and worked on my car for the remainder of that Saturday. He, among other things, jacked up and dismantled the front end of my car, detected a shoddy IC pump install with shoddy wiring, rewired the IC pump, tracked down and replaced a blown pump fuse, bled air pockets from my cooling system and used his STAR/DAS to lower my fan engagement (-10c mod).

Keep in mind, Wayne did all of this work in my friend’s vacation home garage. There were no tools, no work lights, no lifts, etc. Wayne (who I now refer to as MacGyver) used the tools he brought with him and the parts we picked up at a nearby NAPA store to complete the remarkable transformation. The car now runs almost 10 mph faster at the track on stock Conti’s. Now if I can only get traction!

Words simply cannot express my appreciation and respect for Wayne and LET. They definitely went above and beyond my expectations and I would highly recommend them to anyone.

 

Ill be in contact with LET....

 

You won't be disappointed.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to PM me.

 

Bee jesus, I live in Chicago and don't get that kind of service, BUT then again, I didn't ask, so Wayne is forgiven, although he's going to be on the hook (and Jerry too) pretty soon for a new tune and some Code III stuff. You listening X ???

 

Thanks...will do!

 

Not surprised to hear this. Everyone is saying great things about Wayne and LET and I look forward to working with them as well.

Glad you got your car running to its potential.

 

I am patiently awaiting the "Jerry Tune" as I could not pass up the deal especially with free additional tunes as needed... I am hoping that enough people on Long Island jump on the Jerry Tune and we can line up a bunch of test and tune sessions w Wayne!

 

Thanks. Me too!

 

No to mention that our extra "self flashers" are on the way!

You can flash your own car, with no downtime!! We send the hardware to you.

 

NICE!!!!!!

 

Nice worth the wait!!! Jerry thanks for all your help! Joseph

 

ok...now i'm interested! can't wait to hear more info on this!

 

Now THAT is f'in cool!!!

This is me sitting up and noticing!!

 

LET did you get my 2nd PM?

 

I personally witnessed this transformation (it was in my garage), and it was nothing short of amazing!

Half the time, I looked like this

The other half, I looked like this

There is simply NO substitute for results and LET produces those, time and time again.

Talk about defining your namesake. This is "Leading Edge" Technology! Keep up the great work guys!! There are MANY of us out here who appreciate the extra mile - or 800

 

Guys...

I commend you for looking for new ways to approach problems and come up with solutions but on our cars this strategy won't work very well.

These Dimsport Genius consoles you guys are looking at using I have been down the road with already.

The big problem with our 55 cars is that you can't read the original file out of the ECU through the OBDII port. You have to desolder the ECU and put it on an EPROM reader to get the original file. Even though they say they have CAN support, our ECU chips are locked for read. They only allow writing through OBDII. It has to be done on a bench.

If you skip that step and dont read the original file and just write out an already prepped tune file and the revisions dont match it will cause other issues with the car (ie.. look at the secondary airpump recall fiasco that Kleemann went through). Kleemann had 4 or 5 revisions of their K2 programming and all they did was write out 1 of the 5 revisions onto a customer's ECU.. it was hit or miss.. some cars ran great with the first one, others had to go through 3 or 4 reflashes until they found the proper revision that worked well.

I have been looking for a way to make an economical handheld programmer for these cars for over a year... Those DimSport units at $3,000 are not a good answer.. If we could find a way to get a $500 handheld unit I am sure everyone would keep one around just to do ECU updates on their cars... Its sad that almost all the other car makes has this available but for us Merc guys there is nothing (right now).

Ultimately, the only way to really make this 100% foolproof for you and your customers is to have them send you their ECU the first time so you can desolder and read their original file. Then, from there on out, you can apply changes and send back the updates to the Genius Console so they can self-flash.

Just my $0.02 based on my experiences.

 

Thanks for your concern, but we don't have this problem. No de-soldering necessary.

No Airpump Recall issues either. My car went through the campaign, and runs fairly quick at the track.

And you're right....they DO cost almost $3000.00

 

1990 Euro to be exact

 

Also, there's no reason to buy one, when we will have several to send out on loan.

They are already in dealer hands as we speak.

 

Wayne/Jerry

 

I have been waiting for this...

send a unit to socal.. and a bunch of us can use it.

I don't care if I get the "default" settings.. just close my bypass valve!!!

Or send it to Brandon and I'm sure he can take care of things at the same time.

 

Im down for this.

 

Props to you Victor.

You definitely know your *****.

Keep it up bro!

 

You mean keep up polluting a competitor's thread with incorrect info?

I would prefer not. It was inappropriate that he post up in the first place, since he truly doesn't know what he's talking about WRT our tuning practices.

 

Ok, I want to clarify a few things.

1. LET has the ability to read the ECU without removing the chip.

2. LET has the ability to read the ECU without opening the cover.

3. Our Genius units have more than enough memory to keep stock versions of all 11 ECU revisions (different HW / SW numbers) for the E55 on tap. So, the only reason we would need to readout the customers ECU is if they had another vendors tune they wanted us to save so they could revert back to it if needed.

4. LET now has the ability to custom tune your car from anywhere in the world. We send you our self flasher with a secure laptop. You make the dyno appointment and verify internet connectivity. We remote control the laptop, making changes to your file as needed. The self flasher then syncs up with the laptop to obtain the latest tune. You then plug the self flasher into your car and the process starts over until your custom tune is complete.

Our tuning prices are fair, our equipment is top of the line, and our dyno numbers / track times speak for themselves.

We also offer a 100% money back guarantee.

Jerry